About Arita Trahan

Arita Trahan loves being a storyteller.

Both of Arita’s daughters were early readers as a result of their shared passion for books. Arita has vivid memories of sitting on the floor in the hallway between their bedrooms, reading to them at bedtime well into high school. A Wrinkle in Time and all the books from The Chronicles of Narnia were shared from that hallway. She even read aloud for her parents when they were together. Always eager to be the reader, with any audience, Arita has enjoyed putting voice to written stories.

When her children were little, Arita volunteered at their elementary school, reading every Wednesday, all day, for classes from K4 to fourth grade. At first she was shy about using character voices when the teachers were in the room, but her youthful audience so inspired her that she forgot her fears and became more and more dramatic in the telling. As she would read, the younger children would scoot closer and closer, so that by the end of the story time they were peering over her shoulder and hanging on her arms. Sometimes when the story was sad, there was one or two who required holding in some way, along with the book. She wished for more arms. She even got fan mail from her young audience and one fourth-grader asked her to meet him after school for a soda.

Arita’s passion for climbing inside the stories increased with time. In her 30s, she decided to explore the idea of acting, trusting herself to be sufficiently past the shyness of her younger years and hoping that her fan mail from these schoolroom audiences was evidence of her budding skills.

She studied method acting for stage at the local theater center in Nashville, where she lived at the time, and volunteered as an usher there so she could see every touring show that came to town. But the technique Arita was taught for the craft puzzled her. What good would it do to recall an angry confrontation or a grief-filled moment if it was not the same story as the one in which she was currently imagining herself? She was amused that her fellow actors would often come to class, relate an upsetting situation and then proclaim, “I’m going to remember that and use it!” They never seemed interested in remembering or using the kinder interactions.

Arita eventually learned that her skill at climbing into the story was all it took to have a genuine experience of the imagined scenario. Every acting role was another opportunity to tell a story from the inside. She was in her bliss and quickly became a card-carrying professional, performing for television, film, and commercials, and working on local stages. Later, she was surprised and delighted when she was sought out as a private acting coach, which became her full time occupation for 14 years. During this time, non-actors also began to utilize her skills as a personal communication coach. Musicians, ministers, lawyers, politicians, nurses, farmers, business owners, and college students all became better communicators, better tellers of their own stories, by studying with Arita Trahan.

In 2007, Arita was approached by a Los Angeles filmmaker who had become aware of her acting work through film festivals. She was asked to come to L.A. to play the lead in a short film. Arita fell in love with L.A. and stayed for a while . . . and then a while longer. She was joined by her husband and has remained in Los Angeles, where Arita continues her work as an actor.

The Santa Story Revisited was birthed when Arita told her coauthor Norma how she introduced her daughter to Santa. Norma, excited about the “new Santa story,” encouraged Arita to write about it.

The Santa Story for children was written first; then The Santa Story Revisited. Arita is currently writing songs with her musician husband, Mark Horwitz, for the first Santa Story album and has already outlined a second story for the yearly series in The Santa Story Collection.