The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival begins tonight and runs through Saturday, and performing alongside the professional storytellers are many youth storytellers, several from our area; one such performer is second grader Mason Watts from Highland Elementary School.

Mason has been telling stories with his family since preschool. Then he entered the festival on his own right the next two years. The slot he holds now he earned as a first grader.

The story he will tell on Saturday night, "A Pirate Adventure," is based on a true experience which he and his family reworked into an appropriate story.

When Mason was 2 years old he got out of the yard and his family couldn't find him anywhere. The police were called and he was finally found over half a mile away. When his mother asked him where he had gone his response was, "I was on a pirate adventure!"

The story has now become more of a tall tale about what happened on that adventure, but the idea of it being an adventure that Mason went on makes it more fun.

"It's more fun to tell stories from real life," said Nanette Watts, Mason's mom and a long time storyteller.

For Mason, the best part of storytelling is, "Everything!" but he especially enjoys the laughter during a performance so that he knows people are enjoying the story.

An audience enjoying the performance is also the favorite part for Mason's older brother Caden, and freshman at Mountain Ridge Junior High School who will also be performing at this year's festival.

The entire Watts family has been involved in storytelling for a number of years and Aubrey, and eighth grader at Mountain Ridge Junior High, will also be storytelling at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival this year.

Mt. Ridge doesn't participate in the district storytelling festival, so Caden and Aubrey auditioned for the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival at the open auditions. They each told two to three minutes of a story for the judges. The judges then picked the youth storytellers that would make call backs, and those finalists returned to tell their entire story. Participants were selected from those finalists.

The three Watts kids have spent the summer rehearsing their stories and have attended rehearsals in front of the judges. At those rehearsals youth are coached on things such as eye contact, expression, enunciation and gesturing so that they are fully prepared for the large audiences they will be in front of at the festival.

While similar to acting, there are some striking differences. "In acting you want a fourth wall between you and the audience," explained Caden. "In storytelling you include the audience. You want them involved."

Storytelling also involves less body movement than acting does. "You don't want to be acting the story you want to tell it," said Aubrey. Because of this, the space used is generally more restricted in storytelling. "You stay within a box," said Caden. This means not bending down too far or running across the stage.

The focus and energy that this kind of performance requires helps to build many skills in the youth. While Caden and Aubrey don't plan on pursuing professional storytelling careers, they appreciate that the skills they are developing. None of these youth is afraid of public speaking, for instance, and they are developing leadership skills as well as confidence speaking to adults and broadening vocabulary.

Aubrey also said she feels that because storytelling requires so much focus, "focusing in school comes naturally."

Whatever they choose to do for their adult lives, storytelling can "carry into the next phase," said Nanette. Whether it's the boardroom or doctors office, the skills will be used for the rest of their lives.

Several other youth in our area will participate in the Storytelling Festival: Addie Payne and Nate Robinson from Alpine Elementary, Hunter Wilson from Timberline Middle School and Lauren Richey from Cedar Ridge Elementary.

A complete schedule of when these youth are performing is available at www.timpfest.org.