Antonio Rocha: “Once Upon a Hill in Maine: The Pedro Tovookan Parris Story”

Award-winning storyteller Antonio Rocha presents Once Upon a Hill in Maine: The Pedro Tovookan Parris Story, an evocative performance that traces one boy’s extraordinary journey from enslavement to freedom. Born in East Africa around 1833, Pedro Tovookan Parris was trafficked aboard a Maine-built brig to Brazil before finding refuge and community in Paris Hill, Maine. Through movement, voice, and song, Rocha brings Pedro’s story to life—illuminating Maine’s connections to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and celebrating resilience, creativity, and the power of testimony.

Downeast Storytellers is a collaborative venture among the Eastport Arts Center, the Sipayik Museum at Pleasant Point, and The Quoddy Tides. 

No one turned away due to lack of funds.

About the Presenter

Antonio Rocha (pronounced haw-sha), originally from Brazil, began his career in the performing arts in 1985. In 1988 he received a Partners of the Americas grant to come to the USA to perform and deepen his mime skills with Mime Master Tony Montanaro. Since then he has earned a Summa Cum Laude Theater BA from USM (University of Southern Maine) and studied with Master Marcel Marceau. Mr. Rocha’s unique and award winning solo fusion of mime and storytelling with mesmerizing voices and sound effects has been performed from Singapore to South Africa and many places in between, including 22 countries on 6 continents as well as in 44 US states. Some of the venues include The Singapore Festival of the Arts, Wolf Trap, The National Storytelling Festival, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institution, The National Geographic, The Tales of Graz in Austria, Dunya Festival, The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, Cave Run Storytelling Festival as well as thousands of school performances. Antonio Rocha also loves to teach his craft and often facilitates workshops, not only for performers, but for those who want to incorporate storytelling into their business presentations and classroom.

A two time TEDx speaker, Mr. Rocha is a proud recipient of the coveted Circle of Excellence Award by the National Storytelling Network, and most recently the 2024 Maine Arts Commission Fellowship for the Performing Arts.