Specialty: Historical, Chautauqua, & Traditional Tales
From “A Storyteller’s Tour of the Louvre” in Paris to a campfire in the mountains of North Carolina, from the Historic Sandwich Illinois Opera House to an International Conference on Wetlands Conservation in Washington D.C., Brian “Fox” Ellis has been regaling audiences for more than 35 years. Since 1980 Fox has been touring the world as a performer and educator. Through stories and song, myth and poetry, Fox brings the world to your school, library, festival or conference. He is a dynamic teller who, in a warmly entertaining manner, captures what is most life-affirming and beautiful in the human experience.
In a well-researched, interactive performance Fox portrays the movers and shakers of history, literature, art, and science:
SCIENCE:
Explore the world of molecules and wooly mammoths, go birding with Audubon, sail the globe with Darwin or gaze deep within the genetic code of the pea that changed the world.
Adventures with John James Audubon
Charles Darwin and his Revolutionary Idea
A Conversation with Gregor Mendel
Meriwether Lewis’ Scientific Discoveries
Prince Maximilian & Karl Bodmer: Touring the Wilderness of North America
POETRY AND LITERATURE:
Celebrate the power of the word to change the world!
Walt Whitman: A Song of Myself
Steamboatin’ Down the River with Mark Twain
HISTORY:
THREE FRIENDS OF LINCOLN:
Fox portrays three different friends of Abraham Lincoln to give you a more intimate view of our favorite president:
Lincoln Tales Tall and True with Austin Guliher
Lincoln the Lawyer with Billie Herndon
CIVIL WAR STORIES:
To commemorate The Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, Fox offers diverse programs that explore different aspects of the war from several points of view:
Black Jack Logan – Civil War General
Captain Henry Detweiller on the Roll of Steamboatin’ in the Union Victory
A Soldier’s Tale: The Civil War From the Front Lines
A NATIVE AMERICAN’S PERSPECTIVE:
So often native people are left out of our history books. Fox illuminates these important stories highlighting Native Voices.
Black Hawk’s View of American History
Indian Legends with Henry Rowe Schoolcraft
Tribal Tales From the River’s Edge
Two Faces of Illinois History: A Dialogue with Ninian Edwards and Chief Gomo
Prince Maximilian and Karl Bodmer: Touring the Wilderness of North America
EARLY EXPLORERS:
Travel new trails with the men who blazed them:
Canoe Song: A French Explorer’s Journal 1673- 1690
The Comic Mis-Adventures of Meriwether Lewis
Prince Maximilian & Karl Bodmer: Touring the Wilderness of North America
Exploring the wilderness of the Soul:
Walking in the Footsteps of a Saint: The Miracles and Poetry of Saint Francis of Assi