New Storytelling Performance Explores Five Generations of Women’s Wisdom
Edinburgh based storyteller Jenna Baer brings Appalachian folklore and folk medicine to the stage in debut solo show.
Storyteller and multidisciplinary artist Jenna Baer presents The Spider Witches of Appalachia, a new solo performance weaving together five generations of women’s stories, folklore, and folk healing traditions.
The show makes its debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2026 as part of PBH’s Free Fringe.
Like a spider’s web, inheritance doesn’t move in straight lines
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Like a spider’s web, inheritance doesn’t move in straight lines •
Drawing on her own Appalachian lineage, Jenna embodies the voices of ‘granny women’: healers, midwives, and herbalists who were essential to their communities yet often marginalised and whispered about as witches for their knowledge.
Through oral storytelling blended with theatrical performance, she traces how women’s wisdom has been passed down across a century, from the 1920s to today.
Knowledge skips generations, spirals back, tangles and repairs itself
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Knowledge skips generations, spirals back, tangles and repairs itself •
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The Spider Witches of Appalachia: New Storytelling Performance Explores Five Generations of Women’s Wisdom
Edinburgh based storyteller Jenna Baer brings Appalachian folklore and folk medicine to the stage in debut solo show
Edinburgh, UK - Storyteller and multidisciplinary artist Jenna Baer presents The Spider Witches of Appalachia, a new solo performance weaving together five generations of women’s stories, folklore, and folk healing traditions. The show makes its debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2026 as part of PBH’s Free Fringe.
Drawing on her own Appalachian lineage, Baer embodies the voices of ‘granny women’: healers, midwives, and herbalists who were essential to their communities yet often marginalised and whispered about as witches for their knowledge. Through oral storytelling blended with theatrical performance, she traces how women’s wisdom has been passed down across a century, from the 1920s to today.
‘Like a spider’s web, inheritance doesn’t move in straight lines,’ says Baer. ‘Knowledge skips generations, spirals back, tangles and repairs itself. This piece asks: what do we inherit from the women who came before us? And what must we break to set ourselves free?’
Currently a storytelling apprentice with the Scottish Storytelling Centre, Baer brings over 10 years experience storytelling and a background in theatre, teaching, and communication to this work. She explores the edges where human and non-human worlds meet, creating experiences that invite audiences to listen differently.
The Spider Witches of Appalachia runs 50 minutes for adult audiences (16+), exploring themes of inheritance, reclaimed power, folk healing, and intergenerational knowledge.
PERFORMANCE DETAILS:
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026
Performance Time: 15:45
Dates: August 8-9, 11-16, 18-23, 25-30
Venue: The Outhouse Bar (The Loft)
Fringe Venue Number: 99
Duration: 50 minutes
Age: 16+ (guideline)
Admission: Free Non-ticketed (donations welcome)
ABOUT JENNA BAER: Jenna Baer is an Edinburgh based American storyteller, writer, and
multidisciplinary artist. With over 10 years of experience, she is currently a storytelling apprentice
with the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Her work explores embodied connection with place, the
sacred in everyday, and the living intelligence of the natural world through spoken word, myth,
and ritual.
MEDIA CONTACT: Jenna Baer, hello@jennabaer.com