The line for the show snaked all the way into the street when the word was passed back. Thirty minutes before curtain up, ISC’s theater was at capacity.
One hundred lucky people had been seated for Adam Booth’s performance of his new genre-bending story, “The Heron’s Journey,” at the National Storytelling Festival. Everyone else would have to find another way to spend the hour.
Storytelling audiences in Jonesborough are, famously, enthusiastic and dedicated fans of the form. (Storyteller Mo Reynolds once said that the town is the only place in the world where she feels like Taylor Swift.) But the level of excitement around Booth’s performance of “The Heron’s Journey” at the Festival was surprising even by that standard.
The crowd was curious, and rightfully so—Booth’s piece is ambitious and unusual, incorporating art forms like quilting and sculpture into the story.
“The Heron’s Journey” is a culmination in Booth’s career-long interest in playing with genre and pushing the possibilities of the form. It features material art from several craftspeople, as well as movement choregraphed by Toneta Akers-Toler, the artistic director of the West Virginia Dance Company.
That partnership was a natural step for Booth, who had been previously commissioned by the dance company to write stories for their stage. “Collaboration and new ventures were always part of my artistic process,” he says. Booth is a trained composer with an academic background in musicology and film studies, so he brings a cinematic sensibility to his craft. He thinks in terms of images as much as words when he develops a story, creating a multisensory experience.
At the same time, Booth’s work is steeped in tradition, particularly the old stories of his home state, West Virginia. He teaches graduate and undergraduate students at the Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities at Shepherd University. His research has led him to compile a robust archive of storytelling recordings, with a special focus on ghost stories.
Booth’s preservation work comes with a sense of urgency and responsibility to make sure storytelling history isn’t lost. But he’s equally propelled by the idea of “stepping forward” so that storytelling remains relevant to people in today’s world. “I really feel like I stand on the shoulders of giants in the storytelling world,” he says. “A lot has been passed along to me and taught to me, but it hasn’t been given to me as what I have to do.” By allowing himself the creative freedom to reinterpret old material alongside his original work, Booth has found artistic balance and established his singular voice.
The world has taken notice. 2025 has been a breakout year for Booth, who had new doors open to him after “The Heron’s Journey” earned him a place on the Mid Atlantic Arts’ touring roster. (The organization, which was recently defunded by the federal government, helped pay for a select group of performing artists to appear in communities across the region.) After his tour of duty, Booth learned that he was the first storyteller to ever be featured on the roster, which normally showcases musicians, actors, and dancers. “Overwhelmingly, the feedback from the different venues that produced my show was that it brought new crowds of people who weren’t coming to other programs,” Booth says. “They felt it opened the doors at their venues to produce more storytelling events.”
In other ways, too, Booth serves as an ambassador of industry. He is the artistic director and a founding member of the Speak Story Series, a nonprofit that produces storytelling shows, commissions new stories, and performs community outreach around West Virginia. He is also currently serving his first term on ISC’s Board of Directors. This year, he was the keynote speaker at the Sydney International Storytelling Conference, in Australia, a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to experience a relatively isolated culture of storytelling on the other side of the world.
In all these roles, Booth has taken great satisfaction in forging new ways to connect with storytelling audiences. “I want the story to reach them in the way that they need to experience it in that moment,” he says. “That really guides my practice.”
This article is the first in a series of storyteller profiles for the newsletter of the International Storytelling Center.