From Business Executives To Kindergartners, Storyteller Will Hornyak Can "Captivate, Suprise, Intrigue And Touch All Ages."

Later that evening Hornyak will captivate, with almost equally wide-eyed attention, an audience of trial lawyers as a keynote speaker at their annual conference.

A story of an Irish peddler and a Coyote myth from North America will serve as a bit of entertainment and meat for discussion about how real change happens to people and societies. He will introduce the evening with the true story of the Brother's Grimm. Both men were law students, Hornyak explains, and both were interested in folktales as a means of familiarizing themselves with the "internal moral code" by which the people they would one day serve already lived.

But for now Hornyak is happily engaged with kindergartners.

"What can we make smaller than a button?" he asks."A nose-warmer for a caterpillar," one girl shouts out loudly. Everyone laughs and the storyteller again leads the children through a round of cutting and sowing and speaking aloud in this adaptation of a Jewish folktale. For nearly an hour the kindergartners are captivated by fables and legends, fairytales and participation stories. Hornyak then says goodbye, peels a couple kindergartners away still clinging to his side, and moves on to a sixth grade classroom down the hallway.

"Sixth, seventh and eighth graders can be your best allies or your worst enemies as a storyteller" says Hornyak, only half-jokingly."If you don't connect with them at their level of intelligence and emotional maturity, they'll hang you out to dry. But if you're respectful of their taste and individuality, you have the best creative collaborators in the world."

Hornyak's attention to his audiences, plus a repertoire of dozens of myths, fables and folktales, has helped him find his way to the hearth of many communities over the years.

In the course of a couple months he may tell stories and offer workshops for inmates at the Oregon State Penitentiary, to the Homeschooling Association, the National Storytelling Network,the American Cancer Society, a business roundtable group and a number of schools, libraries and churches. A former history and journalism major at Marquette University, Hornyak enjoys finding "old ideas" from his collection of stories that speak to contemporary societies and current issues.

"He is a storyteller of immense power and presence," said Marilyn Sewall, Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Church in Portland., where Hornyak has regularly offered storytelling presentations to compliment church services."I hold him in the highest regard as a storyteller and teacher."

Hornyak's "Stories of Grief and Healing" at the First Unitarian Church in Portland, included stories as well as a grief ritual for the community.

Now however, back in the hallway of an elementary school, Hornyak enters the sixth grade classroom. Markedly absent is the welcoming exuberance of the kindergarten classroom. Within fifteen minutes, he seems to have found the sixth grader's "collaborative" side. A half dozen of them are relishing their parts in the Russian Fairytale Vassalisa and the Firebird.One of the students, playing the Horse of Power, is especially animated in his part.He risks a Russian accent and succeeds brilliantly. He stamps his iron hoof with authority and his fellow students cheer. Later, teachers will tell Hornyak that they haven't been able to "get a word" from that student in months.

Hornyak says it is not an uncommon experience and one that always "makes me feel like I'm doing my job."

"I like to share the stage, to involve the audience. We all have a voice, a style, a unique genius for expression.But unless that genius is inspired and welcomed into the limelight it won't be noticed. I want students to leave encouraged and inspired to tell stories not awed by a performer."

Hornyak is an awesome performer according to many of his peers and colleagues.

"Listening to Will spin a tale helps a fellow discover life again," said long-time television journalist Ray Summers who interviewed Hornyak for a news-feature on the then budding storyteller. "He peels back the skepticism, makes a person feel the awe and wonder of being a child again," said Summers."And his stories stay with you."

The Oregonian newpaper has called Hornyak "storyteller par excellence with boundless wit, endless imagination and an ability to transport children and adults into an amazing imaginary world."

Hornyak admits that he loves to perform and has always been a "natural" in front of people. But his perception of storytelling and his reasons for doing it have changed, or at least developed. He especially likes the "community making" aspect of storytelling.

"We are usually all strangers at the beginning of a storytelling experience, but after an hour we have met all these weird and wonderful characters together.We laughed a little, maybe even learned a few things.And we did it ourselves!We made the images with the unaided power of our miraculous maginations. That is empowering."

Hornyak is also a well-respected teacher of storytelling. From grade schoolers and university students to professionals and other storytellers as well, he has passed on his skills and passion for the craft since turning a serious avocation into his full-time career in l994.

"He has impacted the lives of many of our Masters in Business Administration students," said Scott Dawson, Dean of the Portland State University School of Business Administration where Hornyak teaches a storytelling class regularly. According to Dawson, students come away with "an appreciation for the power of story and an ability to incorporate that power into their personal and professional lives."

"Will is one of the finest storytellers and teachers of storytelling in the region," said Jan Marie Fortier, director of Schoen Libary at Marylhurst Universtiy where he has taught for the past seven years.