About: JeffGereamazing
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Jeff Gere
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Jeff Gere is a master storyteller. He blends talents as painter, puppeteer, mime, teacher, and director into a performance style which has electrified audiences of every age throughout Hawaii and the mainland for two decades. Jeff's physical energy, wide range of voices, morphing elastic face and clear characterizations make his performances unforgettable events. Jeff Gere becomes his stories! Mr. Gere has a BA in Painting and Art History (junior year in Florence, Italy) and an MA in Inter-Relating Arts (multi-disciplinary program requiring four to six original shows a week for two years). Jeff Gere returned to Italy (1980-82) as caretaker for a 600-year-old villa. He created, directed, and enacted Dream Theatre, which explored social issues with puppet, mask and mime (toured all of Italy and to 13 German cities in June, 1982 Mr. Gere came to Hawaii shortly thereafter to study Asian Mask Theater. He’s become one of the islands’ most popular storytellers and puppeteers. Jeff's taught and performed in literally every venue conceivable: all Hawaii’s museums, most private and public schools; all ages, audience sizes, and income levels; bars, prisons, homeless shelters, conferences, conventions, beaches, graveyards, retreat and community centers, and many state-wide solo and group tours, many of which he produced. Mr. Gere became the Drama Specialist, Parks Department, City and County of Honolulu, in 1987. In 1989, he created the annual Talk Story Festival (www.honoluluparks.com), Hawaii's largest storytelling event. It attracts 3,000 listeners to its broad, diverse offering of local talent and receives excellent publicity. He created a non-profit for corporate sponsors (Bank of Hawaii, Aloha Airlines, LavaNet). Jeff hosts and produces Talk Story Radio (August, 2005 on Hawaii Public Radio and 2 other stations) with tales of Hawaii and Pacific Rim for Parks Dept. (www.talkstoryradio.com and podcasts, and over 10,000 listeners a week) Jeff Gere's original programs, which were often commissioned, include "The Arabian Nights" which included two musicians and a professional belly dancer. Mr. Gere performed ten tales in 18 months from 2003-04 and in Hong Kong in June, 2005. He then performed "Yo Pharaoh" with two musicians and a dancer, and then "Van Gogh’s Ghost". Jeff Gere has also performed at overseas storytelling events, such as: Vancouver’s Story Fest in November, 2004; Turkey, at the Karagoz Shadow Puppet Fest in November, 2004; and Thailand, at Story-In-English Camps in April, 2003. He’s taught at three National Story-telling Conferences in 2004, 1999, and 1993. Jeff has also told at the Arizona Aloha Fest (2006), the Boulder City Folk Fest (2002 and 2003), the Flying Leap Story Fest (California, 1999), and National Invitational Storytelling Championship (Idaho, 1997). In 1992 he toured American Samoa, Guam and Saipan and represented Hawaii at the Universal Expo in Sevilla, Spain. He toured the West Coast annually from 1993 to 2002. He created, directed, and performed "Art Off The Wall", a collaborative inter-disciplinary series interpreting Honolulu's Contemporary Museum exhibits from 1997 to 2000, supported by a Hawaii Community Foundation Grant and performed at many museums since and Teacher Trainings. Mr. Gere devised and taught a "Tell Well" Storytelling System at the University of Hawaii, from 1990 to 1997. Jeff has produced five CDs: "Haunted Hawaii, volumes 1, 2, and 3", a retelling true supernatural tales; "Rank Devil Mountain" comprising three fire folk tales performed along with three musicians; and "Silly ‘N Spooky", tales of kids in Hawaii. Jeff’s recordings played on Hawaiian Airlines in-flight audio shows from autumn, 2004 through summer, 2006. His video, "Silly 'N Spooky", won Honors from the National Parent's Choice Awards in 1996. "Chicken Soup for the Soul of Hawaii" (2003) has two tales from Jeff Gere. He's in "Storytellers: a Biographical Directory of 120 English-Speaking Tellers Worldwide" (1998). New York Cablevision used five spooky tales in 1998. Jeff Gere co-produced and performed in "The Storytellers" series (KITV 4, ABC, 1995-97). He's in "Mystery Hunters" (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 2006), "Places of Mystery Series" (Travel Channel, 2000) and "Haunted History Series" (History Channel, 2000). He tells "Christobelle" (15 X 15 min. series, airs 2007). Jeff was awarded Outstanding TV Performance Arts Series in 2000 for his work at Olelo Community Access TV, where he's aired monthly programming since 1990.
