Detroit Cantastoria Festival

Detroit Cantastoria Fest is an annual festival featuring local artists and activists who collaborate on a group of short shows in the “cantastoria” and “crankie” traditions. Cantastoria and crankie shows are a wonderful medium for storytelling. These art forms are thousands of years old and still alive today in Detroit!

“Cantastoria” is the Italian word for an ancient form of street theater involving a narrator singing or telling a story while gesturing to elaborate painted banners or scrolls. “Cranky” shows are a similar form using a painted scroll which is displayed using a “crank.”

The Detroit Cantastoria Fest comes to life through a series of free workshops hosted by members of Flying Cardboard Theatre. Workshops are for participants who want to learn about this ancient art form and participate in making or performing cantastoria and crankie shows. After working together to build shows, we create a beautiful, raucous and thought provoking weekend of performances featuring a diverse group of new and classic cantastoria and crankie pieces. Flying Cardboard Theater and other artists from the Cantastoria Festival perform work throughout the year.