Artist Spotlight -Tanya Roy
HarmoNNY is pleased to announce our second Artist Spotlight, Tanya Roy who specializes in spoken word art, storytelling, poetry, writing, and children’s theater.
Tayna has “been telling stories since [she] learned to talk.” Both her Dad and Grandfather were great storytellers and would sit around hunting camps in the Adirondacks sharing stories, which is where Tanya’s love for storytelling began. Tanya was first exposed to storytelling in school when storytellers came to share Native American tales. Art has always been a hobby for Tanya, but she took public speaking and storytelling classes in college and now participates in a number of storytelling events in Northern New York, winning numerous awards.
Tanya works as a Literacy Coach and Academic Intervention Specialist at South Lewis Central School District, which allows her the opportunity to talk to people all the time and think about language and word choice, which is a large part of storytelling. Tanya shared that reading has always been extremely important to her and she loves being able to teach her students the joy that reading can bring.
“Stories come from memories and then they become memories.” Tanya specializes in narrative storytelling, which are short true to life stories. The first story Tanya told won her a spot on the Grand Slam for North Country Public Radio and Adirondack Center for Writing’s Howl Story Slam event. These ‘Story Slam’ events are short five minute stories that recall a true event related to a specific theme that happened to the storyteller in the first person, without the use of notes. Tanya shared that the scariest part for her with storytelling is when the judges tell her there is only one minute left. She notes that “the moment you get to share your story makes it all worthwhile.”
Tanya assists with a number of local community organizations that promote the arts for students in our area including the Lyme Summer Theater Institute and the Clayton Youth Theater Week. Each program is a week-long camp for students 5-18 years old that allow students the opportunity to perform in a show, work backstage, and/or learn technical and sound support. Tanya typically helps behind the scenes in these programs and says she enjoys helping and creating the pieces behind spoken word and the music.
Ms. Roy also performs with The Butler Did it Players in Watertown, which is a small theater troupe created from a love of storytelling that specializes in interactive theater. They currently have a virtual interactive murder mystery evening planned on March 13th with tickets available by clicking the link below. From our interview, it’s easy to see why The Butler Did it Players refer to Tanya as “the boss lady.”
Tanya believes that “all art is cathartic, you don’t have to be good at it...There is definitely something healing and something emotional about being able to engage in art.” Tanya reminds us that “everyone is nervous to start out with, but you just have to go with it, jumping in with both feet.”
Check out some of the initiatives and programs that Tanya is involved in here:
The Butler Did It Players’ Website
