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Steamboat Magazine

Boat People

07/01/2010 01:00AM ● By Anonymous

Summer-Fall 2010:

Boat People

Mark Green and the Silver ScreenBy Bo Hall Reeling & dealing: At the movies with Wildhorse Stadium Cinemas' Mark Green. Photo Corey KopischkeMark Green knows what it’s like to run the shofrom behind the scenes. First as manager of the Chief Plaza and noWild Horse Stadium Cinemas, he has been in charge of the Yampa Valley’s movie theater operations for more than 20 years. In that time, Green -- who many knoas the baritone voice rattling off Steamboat’s cinema selections – has seen it all, from couples going on first dates to those same couples, noparents, watching Madagascar with their kids. “You see things at the shothat you just don’t see anywhere else,” he says, glancing out his office’s tiny windooverlooking the theater lobby. “Someday I’m going to write a screenplay about all the crazy stuff that goes on here.”  It’s fitting that a movie buff like Green would dream of writing a screenplay instead of a memoir. His heartwarming tale of ski-bum-turned-family-man would definitely keep things PG-13.  “This is very family-oriented town,” he says. “Harry Potter and Avatar played extremely well here.” Green is proud to claim that his kids are his best friends, and he always keeps family his number-one priority – a big reason family flicks make the rounds in Routt County. He imparts a lesson he learned from his favorite movie, The Godfather Part 2: “We get to understand the Don as a simpler man who simply does what is needed to provide for his family.”And Green doesn’t feel the grass is always greener; he considers himself fortunate to be right where he is. He loves it when friends and neighbors walk through the doors filled with excitement. “I feel so lucky to have found my niche in such a stellar community,” says Green, who moved here from Syracuse, N.Y., in 1985. “What more could I have asked for?” The question is rhetorical, but the point is well made. Community, family and keeping things simple are un-Hollywood values that keep Green well-grounded. “I would love to meet my favorite actor, Robert Duvall,” he says. “But what is this, Aspen?”

Steamboat SpellbindersBehind the scenes wth storyteller Sarah KostinBy Jennie Lay

Children's librarian Sarah Kostin reading to her dog, Taz. Photo Corey KopischkeTraditionally, a beaver, a duck and a goose star in “My Pond is Too Noisy” when Sarah Kostin tells the folktale to her admiring, pre-adolescent audiences. But that version didn’t fly quite right in Australia. While storytelling Down Under during a Rotary International exchange last winter, Kostin’s lineup of locally unfamiliar animals provoked minor consternation. So she did what oral storytellers have done for thousands of years as folktales: She gave it a contextual remodel, replacing the beaver and the duck with a platypus and a kookaburra. The Aussie kids got a story of their own and a tale that transcended borders.Kostin, 30, is the Bud Werner Memorial Library children’s librarian. She says she was always interested in storytelling, but had no experience. She did, however, have the influence of a great storytelling grandfather and the experience of being the youngest of five siblings where she “was forced to be the entertainer. Jokes... songs...I was like their toy,” she says.When she finally took a storytelling class in graduate school she was hooked.Noshe is co-director of Steamboat Springs’ Spellbinders, part of a national organization that aims to revitalize American folktale traditions. The local group started with six members two years ago. No26 locally trained Spellbinders are looking to grothe ranks this fall.“Everyone is a storyteller,” Kostin says. “It’s about waking the storyteller within you.” Training is intense and interactive, and Spellbinders commit to telling a half-dozen stories a year. The next training is in August.Kostin says the key to being a good storyteller is to read voraciously. “Then wait for a story that speaks to you for a million different reasons,” she says. “You have to want to tell it.” Kostin practices in the shower and the car, “and I never go back and look at the original. You’re internalizing the story to make it your own.”Recently, Kostin’s newly adopted dog, Taz, became one of her avid listeners. Much like the children participating in the Read to Dogs program Kostin started at the library this summer, her dog is a “loving, slobbering, completely unbiased audience that never corrects your pronunciation or speed.”“The Gunni Wolf” is her personal favorite story – mostly for its crowd-pleasing interactive elements, singing and adventure. She figures she’s told it at least 50 times, evolving all the while.Spellbinders’ emphasis is on a casual, heart-to-heart telling. “Not too performancy -- this is not theater,” Kostin says. “It’s about that sense of your grandma telling you stories. That’s what we’re losing in our culture.” Spellbinders always cite their source, even if it’s a far reach.The library’s folktale resources are plentiful. She jaunts over to a growing collection of international folktales. They’re grouped by region – Africa, Asia, North America – including stories of famous characters: the Anansi spider from Ghana, the Native American coyote and silly Juan Bobo from Puerto Rico.“I love buying for the folktale collection, especially multicultural stories,” Kostin says. “It’s a great way to expose kids without being to pedantic or preachy. You learn so much from doing this, as do the kids. I need a lifetime to read all these.”--Want to be a Spellbinder? Email [email protected] more info.