Rubright, Lynn 1936–

Personal

Born 1936; children: Dan, Ted.

Addresses

Home—St. Louis, MO. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Lee & Low, 95 Madison Ave., Ste. 1205, New York, NY 10016. E-mail—lynntells@aol.com.

Career

Writer, educator, and professional storyteller. Webster University, St. Louis, MO, teacher, 1971–. Visiting professor of drama at Northwestern University, Drake University, Des Moines University, and University of Alaska. Metro Theatre Circus (now Metro Theater Company), co-founder, 1973; St. Louis Storytelling Festival, co-founder, 1975. Performer of one-woman show Oh Freedom, after a While. Former board member, National Storytelling Association. speaker and presenter at conferences; has appeared as host or performer on local television and radio programs in St. Louis, MO.

Awards, Honors

Missouri Arts Council creative artist's grant; Circle of Excellence Award for Exceptional Commitment and Exemplary Contribution to the Art of Storytelling, National Storytelling Association, 1996.

Writings

(With Louise Ulmer and Ruthild Kronberg) For the Bible Tells Me So: Bible Story-Plays with Puppets, illustrated by Art Kirchhoff, Concordia (St. Louis, MO), 1979.

Storytelling Teaching Tape (sound recording), Lynn Rubright and Associates (Kirkwood, MO), 1984.

Lynn Rubright Tells Tall Tales (sound recording), Lynn Rubright and Associates (St. Louis, MO), 1987.

Rabbit's Tale, and Other Native American Myths and Legends, Lynn Rubright and Associates (St. Louis, MO), 1987.

Beyond the Beanstalk: Interdisciplinary Learning through Storytelling, Heinemann (Portmouth, NH), 1996.

Mama's Window (picture book), illustrated by Duane Smith, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Author of Oh Freedom, after a While (one-woman show); creator of Little Red the Folktale Hen (children's opera), produced at Northwestern University.

Adaptations

The film Oh Freedom, after a While: The Missouri Sharecroppers Strike of 1939, adapted from Rubright's one-woman show of the same name, was produced c. 2003.

Sidelights

A master educator and award-winning storyteller, Lynn Rubright is also the author of the chapter book Mama's Window. Discovering her passion for storytelling while raising her two sons, Rubright has also worked as a teacher and since 1971 has hosted one of the longest-running education classes in the United States, "Storytelling across the Curriculum," at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. She is also the co-founder of the Metro Theatre Circus (now the Metro Theatre Company), a performing group that received the Winifred Ward Award for best new children's theatre.

Mama's Window is loosely based on the life of African-American sharecropper Owen H. Whitfield, a preacher and Arkansas union organizer during the 1930s. In the story, James Earle "Sugar" Martin hopes to honor the memory of his late mother by fulfilling one of the woman's last wishes: installing a beautiful stained-glass window in the new church being built in the family's small and somewhat impoverished town. Times are hard, though, and the church fathers want to use the money Sugar's mother had saved up to purchase the window for much-needed bricks instead. After some reflection and introspection, as well as through Sugar's efforts, church members decide to uphold the wishes of the woman who contributed so much. Mama's Window was praised as a "touching tale of a boy's commitment to his mother," according to Mary N. Oluonye in School Library Journal, while a Kirkus Reviews critic stated that "a strong sense of time and place are evident in both the lovely imagery of the narration and in the cadence and syntax of the characters' speech."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July, 2005, Gillian Engberg, review of Mama's Window, p. 1926.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2005, review of Mama's Window, p. 743.

Library Media Connection, January, 2006, Maggie Elliott, review of Mama's Window, p. 69.

School Library Journal, August, 2005, Mary N. Oluonye, review of Mama's Window, p. 134.

ONLINE

Arkansas Literary Festival Web site, http://www.arkansasliteraryfestival.org/ (May 5, 2006), "Lynn Rubright."

Lee & Low Books Web site, http://www.leeandlow.com/ (May 5, 2006), "Book Talk with Lynn Rubright."

Lynn Rubright Home Page, http://www.lynnrubright.com (May 5, 2006).