Jonathan Kruk

Jonathan Kruk is a storyteller known for solo performances of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in New York's Hudson Valley. He gives arts in education programs at schools, featuring Finger Fables, Fairy Tales, Medieval times, mythology, saint stories, the American Revolution, and Hudson River Lore.

Early life and education The son of an army officer LTC, John S. Kruk and a school teacher, Alicia (Nowicki) Kruk, Jonathan was born in El Paso, Texas. Raised in Westchester County, New York, he's a lifetime resident of the Hudson Valley. A graduate of John Jay High School in Cross River, NY, Kruk received a degree in English from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1977. He earned a master's degree in educational theater from New York University in 1982. Creating a career in educational storytelling, Jonathan formed an interior office plant care company with ESPN, Fujitsu and Henry Kissinger Associates as clients. He often states honing skills as a storyteller while performing at one thousand children's parties.

In the lead-up to Halloween, Kruk regularly performs an adaptation of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at Washington Irving's Homestead, Sunnyside. and from 2010-2021 at the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow. Annually, he performs the this solo show more than fifty times.

In the weeks before Christmas, he performs a solo show of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol at the Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow. He has also performed at local schools and other locations such as the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame in Goshen, New York, the Greenwich Library, Connecticut, the Easton Congregational Church, the UCPAC Hamilton Stage, Rahway, NJ, and the Music Theater of Connecticut.

In 2020 Historic Hudson Valley produced with Guido Jiménez-Cruz, a short film "The Misadventures of Ichabod Crane" featuring Kruk as a "narrator... pleasant, shabby, gentlemanly..." returning to the Old Dutch Church to retell the Yankee Schoolmaster's lovelorn story.

Since 2021, he has served as the storyteller-in-residence for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

Published works

Legends and Lore of Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson Valley (2011) Legends and Lore of the Hudson Highlands (2018) The Magical, Wonderful Bul Bul Bird (2025)

In media Kruk appeared on CBS Sunday Morning in 2012. on The Today Show, the Travel Channel as well as the BBC and NPR.

Personal life Kruk has a collection of bricks from various spots in the Hudson Valley.