Milbre Burch and her family ready to attend the GRAMMY Awards Celebration in Los Angeles, February 10, 2008. From left: Daughters Katy Blake and Elizabeth, husband Berkley, Milbre, and Milbre’s mother Milbre C.

Milbre Burch celebrated a milestone in her 28-year career as a storyteller when "Making the Heart Whole Again: Stories for a Wounded World," received a 2007 GRAMMY nomination for Best Spoken World Album for Children. Burch recorded this live album, her 13th solo recording, when she was Teller in Residence at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, TN in 2006. [Read More]

"In the field of recordings," Burch says, "a GRAMMY nomination is like an invitation to the Olympics. I'm delighted, amazed and humbled to have my work recognized in this way."

Milbre Burch: Theatre of the Spoken Word

Drawing on a background of dance and movement theatre, Milbre Burch shapes and colors her stories with an artful language of gesture & movement enhancing the theatrical experience.

An internationally acclaimed teacher of storytelling, she has led workshops in preschools and prisons, kindergartens and colleges, elementary schools and elder hostels, theatres and think tanks, castles and conference centers.

An experienced touring and resident artist, she has taught or toured for local and state arts councils in Missouri, North and South Carolina, Rhode Island, Georgia, Utah, and California, and the Lincoln Center Institute in New York; the Music Center, the Performing Tree, and the National Endowment for the Humanities in Los Angeles; and Edition Neues Marchen in Austria.

With her Theatre of the Spoken Word productions, storytelling moves from folk art to fine art. Current repertoire includes a number of fully realized theatrical productions designed for the proscenium stage. These mainstage events for adult or family audiences include: "In the Family Way," "Saints and Other Sinners," "The World is the Storyteller's Village," "The Ready Heart," "Mom's the Word," and "The Mary Stories."

Two of her mainstage pieces weave traditional stories within a personal story framework, putting a contemporary spin on traditional wisdom.

For galleries and other small or alternative spaces, she can offer high-powered, low-tech storytelling chamber concerts. She can add the crowning touch to a museum opening, a language arts conference, or a festival of performance art.

A published poet and author, her presentations are adaptable to university writing, communications, speech, drama and English classes, teacher institutes and conferences, and book fairs and arts festivals at schools and in the community.

With her 13 audio-recordings, she has garnered not only a GRAMMY nomination but also Parents' Choice Classic, Gold and Approved Awards, a NAPPA Gold Award, a Storytelling World Winner, two Storytelling World Honors, and was twice a finalist for an INDIE award from the Association For Independent Music. Burch is a sought-after consultant for and judge of spoken word recordings.

As an experienced presenter of an adult storytelling series on two coasts, Milbre Burch has a clear understanding of the presenting process, the presenter's needs, and the work it takes to build audiences for the performing arts. She can assist you in identifying and reaching storytelling fans, and then help you find ways to attract audiences unfamiliar with this art form. Ask for a copy of her pamphlet, Storytelling: It's Not Just Kids' Stuff.