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Biography: Storyteller , Author , and Theatre Artist

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Diane Edgecomb is a winner of a Year's Best Performance Award from the Boston Herald

Diane's life-long interest in Image-based performance, mythology and nature has led her to participate in and create a variety of unusual performance projects.

Storytelling: Alongside her work in experimental venues, Ms. Edgecomb has become widely known and respected as a master storyteller in the revivalist performance form of storytelling. Publisher's Weekly stated: "A storyteller in the grand tradition, Edgecomb is a virtuoso of the spoken word." More recently she was featured in McFarland's press' "120 English speaking storytellers worldwide" Diane has created over 20 storytelling performances many in collaboration with Celtic harper Margot Chamberlain. These innovative events delve into the original nature mythology associated with place and with seasonal events. She has often been commissioned to write original pieces, one of which, her children's story "Pattysaurus ", received an Honors Award from Storytelling World Magazine when it was published in audiocassette form. Edgecomb has published a number of articles and stories in various magazines and story collections including pieces on the myths surrounding the Winter Solstice. Her expertise in the area of nature mythology has won her recognition nationally as a leader in integrating storytelling and the natural world.

Traditional Theatre: At area regional theatres, Diane has played a variety of roles. These have included Joan in St. Joan at Worcester Foothills Theatre; Nora in Plough in the Stars at Lyric Stage, Boston; Philia in As You Like It at New Rep Theatre and Susannah in Bedroom Farce at Tufts Arena Theatre for which she won a Year's Best Performance Award from the Boston Herald.

Experimental Theatre: She has also worked with some of this areas most innovative experimental theatre companies; Stage One Theatre Lab, Boston (1975-78), and Double Edge Theatre (1989-92). With Double Edge Theatre she performed the role of Bruno Schultz in their acclaimed production "Song of Absence". The company received numerous awards for this piece including "Best of Boston" in the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, the Boston Phoenix and the New England Monthly. The company also received 'Critics Choice' in The Boston Globe and the Allston-Brighton Journal. In her experimental theatre work, she has been greatly influenced by the approach of Jerzy Grotowski, and more significantly by the work of Zbigniew Cynkutis a leading member of the Grotowski laboratory theatre. After studying with Cynkutis in 1984 she continued to look for ways to integrate this work either into solo explorations ("Untitled 1" and "Untitled 2" at Mobius Arts Group 1985 & 1986; "RESTRAINTS": 2002) or into her explorations in other performance mediums.

Living Myth- a synthesis: In keeping with her working interest in bringing mythology into stronger focus, in 1997, Diane began The Living Myth Project . This is a series of interactive performance events, workshops and publications dedicated to bringing the revitalizing power of mythology into our daily lives and to rekindling our deep connections with the natural world. The first major performance project, Millennium LabyrinTh , was a collaboration with Mari Novotny-Jones. Later, they were joined by mulit-media artist Ean White for their First Night Events. This project broke new ground when it received permission from Boston's mass transit system to hold roving- interactive performances throughout the entire subway 'maze'. During the months of December in 1999 and 2000 twin Ariadne's (large masked and costumed figures) appeared in the metro as goddess guides helping commuters to find their way out of the maze of modern life and safely into the New Millennium. These interactions culminated in a Minotaur event at Back Bay Station on New Year's Eve.

Ms. Edgecomb has led workshops for students, teachers, storytellers, parents, children, and theatre artists on storytelling technique and on her approach, inspired by the work of Zbigniew Cynkutis, to integrating voice-image-movement into a living whole