Storytelling: Woolgathering1.4 - Play With it!

Storytelling: Woolgathering 1.4 - Play With it!

When you listen to a storyteller, you are helping create the story while you listen. After you hear a story it is yours. To play with…to learn from…to imagine with. Here are a few ideas that I share with the students who listen and create stories with me at Read Boston.

Playing is a powerful way to learn. And it is now scientifically proven to be important to our health and well being. From the TEDx site "Dr. Stuart Brown came to research play through research on murderers -- unlikely as that seems -- after he found a stunning common thread in killers' stories: lack of play in childhood. Since then, he's interviewed thousands of people to catalog their relationships with play, noting a strong correlation between success and playful activity. His book  Play  describes the positive impact play can have on one's life." Dr. Brown says that play and story are closely related. "Three dimensional play lights up the cerebellum"

So when your are having fun with your own version of a story you heard, you are creating and bein as you mix up what you heard with your own rich imagination. 

Exercises: Woolgathering 1.4 - Play With it!

1. Imagine a new ending.
A story with a completely or even slightly new ending is, a different story. It is fun to think of different ways the same things could end or different things the same events could lead to. It is like yoga for the mind. It stretches your thinking and strengthens your problem solving ability.

2. Draw some pictures.
What’s is your picture of the main characters in the story ? Make masks of your favorite characters. Or each one can draw a favorite part of the story. Put these all together and arrange in order, from beginning to end. Add any parts that were missing. Show these as a story line or tape drawings together to make a kind of story “quilt .

3. Tell the story through action.
Instead of telling the story with words see if you can tell it with your gesture, your posture and your facial expressions. 

4. Pretend.
Pick a character from the story that interests you.  Then speak, act, walk and breathe like that character for the rest of the day.

5. Post your idea in the comments below:

Storytelling: Woolgathering 1.1 - Listen first

Storytelling: Woolgathering 

by Norah Dooley
Theory and Practice for Storytelling as a 21st Century Skill

Think&Do 1.1 Listen first

Storytelling is as common as rain and often almost as invisible. It is not like reading or film or theater or song yet all these art forms require story and can  tell stories. For our study, storytelling is a live performance of a narrative by one or more performers who work without scripts, illusions, costume, makeup or props. There is no “fourth wall”. The storyteller and the listeners create images and emotions, together. The audience is a active participant and without the audience – the story is not alive. The adoption of radio, television, and video almost eclipsed storytelling BUT people yearn for more personal contact, and realizing that television and other media cannot take the place of a storyteller sharing a story in person.

Listening to our friends experiences as they create stories, informally or otherwise is a gift to them and to you as a listener. A great blog post on Active Listening here says we retain about 25% -50% of what we hear. Listening is about awareness and feeds our wells.

Exercise: Think&Do 1.1  Active listening  

1. Listen to a story - live is best but recorded is fine - just listen however you can. Remember (in silence) how you pictured an image or several images. Verbally share images with one or more listening partners. You may also wish to write about the image after telling.

2. Listen in the dark or with your eyes closed. Make up images an story to make sense of the sounds.Verbally share the sounds and images with one or more listening partners. You may also wish to write about the image after telling.

"what to say "- coaching dilemmas

Just a nice picture, not a weak performance at Royalston Shakespeare Co.

Just another day online, at the office. The research errand I was on was serious - time sensitive tax information for our nonprofit corporation. Not exactly my fave topic. And somehow I had wandered into the ArtsEdge site. Delightful. Not what I needed to be doing but what a rich resource for arts educators. Warning: DO NOT go there if you are in a hurry.

So after spending an hour online browsing at the excellent  Kennedy Center for the Arts blog, I had to move on. Before I left,  I skimmed an article about "what to say" when directing students in theater.   I started thinking about how to adapt these ideas for use in my storytelling coaching.  I copied and pasted the list into an email and sent it to myself.  Sometimes the material presented by a performer is astoundingly bad. Did I just say that? Phew, no. I just wrote that. We all know that we think that sometimes. But that is not what we want to say.  We know the work or performance is just unformed, not ready, in process, etc, etc... The writer/educator at ArtsEdge and I think it good to have a few set phrases you can rely on while you gather thoughts about how to be helpful. Below is my first stab at riffing on that list to help story coaches say positive things to help move into a conversation and critique.  Do you you have any favorites? Add yours in the comments below.

Things for a teacher/coach to say after a flawed performance or weak story:

1. “You are really improving.  What would happen if you tried... ( give a specific exercise or direction for student to try.)

 2. “Good"  Or "Thank you.  How can we help you make your story stronger...”  ( if obvious to you what might help, name it, if not just say "stronger").

This was "bad", even the other actors thought so.

3. “Project your voice as if the whole audience was outside, down the hall and in the restroom”

 4. “Good. Keep what you are doing. Please try or see how you feel about adding…”  ( when someone is really tentative - then give some specific exercise or direction to try)

 5. “Interesting. Help us help you by telling us what you care about most in this story...( when you don't even know where to begin - or some specific questions from what is given to tease out where the story is)

 6. “Good. Now what are some ways you want to challenge yourself ?” ( for someone who is almost there but kind of missing the mark)

 7. “Stories happen people to people, or people and animals, people and environment - Show us one thing ( each) so we can "hear" "see" what you see? Show us verbally - or   Show us non verbally ( facial, sound effect,movement etc.)

 8. “What is most important to you? What do you really want us to take away from your story?”

 9. “Breathe. "Anxiety is excitement without breath, " said my first storytelling teacher and great storyteller,  Jennifer Justice (now the Artistic Director of Durham Family Theater). Don’t rush - find at least two places to pause for a full 3 count.”

 10. “What felt good to you in this story? How can you build on that ?”


Ah - finally found the the original article and you may read it here: What Do I Say?   Ten ways a drama teacher can respond constructively and sensitively to student work