Acting - completely different or, is it?

Acting - completely different from storytelling - or, is it? Storytellers have no fourth wall. We do not create illusion, we create images together WITH the aduience, not FOR the audience. we can connect directly with audience as ourselves and can go in and out of character - if we have the skill - without ruining the performance. With this as my background I was excited to take an acting course. I fell into storytelling nearly 20 years ago, when the acting course I wanted was closed and the only course available as a possible elective, was Storytelling. I was in my mid thirties and wanted to study acting - I had been way too shy when I was in high school to do anything like perform in front of people. Art school (where I completed undergraduate work as a painter ) had no acting except for the extensive posturing of "artistes" but that is another story...

So Robert and I took an amazing acting course this fall - It was called - Fun With Shakespeare. It was many things but "fun"? Seems so trite. It was challenging, provocative, stimulating and supportive. It was also fun, but that was secondary. First of all we each learned two monologues and one scene. The language was dense and we had only 8 weeks - 2.5 hours a week of class time to do all this work. Luckily we had an amazing class - every student was serious and committed yet, none were annoyingly dour or critical. We all worked really hard.

Our instructor, director D.Adriane Spunt, was a fearless leader. She kept standards high while keeping anxiety low - this is a masterful skill for a director. Some of us had acted, some had just a wee bit of experience and long ago and others had never done anything like acting, ever. Adriane made us all at home in our experience and we worked together very well. My experience as a story teller probably helped me some, but I am very new to acting classes. When telling a story, I usually imagine myself to be the person of every voice I speak - BUT memorizing other people's words? Eeeek. I eventually got the hang of Portia's speech and decided I really liked having someone to talk to while I ranted and raved. And the beauty of the words was a treat.



The scene from Richard the III was challenging. I could not make head nor tails of Lady Anne at first. It made perfect sense that she would attack, even if it seemed suicidal, the creep who killed her husband. In her belief system, she could not escape her situation through direct suicide, so perhaps she was provoking Richard III to kill her? Yet, a few pages later, she takes his ring and we learn that she marries him. The story was really getting in my way of saying the words as written.



Having eyes outside of me and someone direct me and another actor to work with on all this was extremely enjoyable. As a storyteller, I tend to go into a story trance and allow the story to come through me.I do not think about or analyze much of what I do. Instead I perform by speaking the voices in my head and then checking in with the same voices about what I am doing. Kinda lonely. Kinda too mentally ill.

While acting, I felt more conscious and aware of the process and actually made choices about how I moved or spoke. It is a different process but one that would help me with my work. A story buddy ? *sigh* I have long hoped for one.

BTW - Here is Robert in Henry V...




Wonderful class !

True or False, what's the dif ?

Why do people like reality TV, memoirs and personal narrative? My thought? Because they are real. And people yearn for real connection through story. Why do people feel ripped off by fiction or fictionalization in this area? Because it is lying. And when we discover that the connection we developed with the teller while listening is based on a false pretext, we feel violated in some way. Yet, good stories need some added imagination to become stories, don't they? Hellz yah!


Find more music like this on MASSMOUTH The Power of Story


We listen to "living" stories with awe and wonder because the person telling it also lived it. Or so we think. When what we hear and see in the performance does not add up we are confused. When the equation does not balance, we ponder and wonder. We will adjust our understanding of human possibility based on what we hear. So if what we are told is a lie, we feel cheated. Even angry.

Look at the the flap caused a few years ago by James Frey's book, A Million Little Pieces,: Jocelyn Noveck Associated Press wrote: "Does the author of a memoir have an unspoken contract with readers to be true to the facts? Even if those facts are intensely personal? Many have been asking that question since James Frey was accused this week of embellishing important parts of his best-selling (and Oprah-endorsed) memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," a searing account of his battle with substance abuse." Others, Mark Hvidsten, took this stance "His [Frey's] greater truth can't be measured by facts."

Frey's bio from wikipedia has this take on the story:

"The Minneapolis Star Tribune had questioned Frey's claims as early as 2003. Frey responded by saying, "I've never denied I've altered small details." In a May 2003 interview, Frey claimed that his publisher had fact-checked his first book. He stated, "The only things I changed were aspects of people that might reveal their identity. Otherwise, it's all true."

On January 11, 2006, Frey appeared with his mother on Larry King Live on CNN. He defended his work while claiming that all memoirs alter minor details for literary effect. Frey consistently referred to the reality of his addiction, which he said was the principal point of his work. Oprah Winfrey called in at the end of the show defending the essence of Frey's book and the inspiration it provided to her viewers, but said she relied on the publisher to assess the book's authenticity. Winfrey removed the references to Frey's work on the main page of her website, but left references in the Oprah's Book Club section earlier in the week.

On January 13, 2006, it was reported that all subsequent printings of A Million Little Pieces would include an author's note addressing concerns about the content.

Live confrontation with Oprah

As more accusations against the book continued to surface, Winfrey invited Frey on her show. She wanted to hear from him directly whether he had lied to her (and viewers) or "simply" embellished minor details, as he had told Larry King. Frey admitted to several of the allegations against him. He acknowledged that The Smoking Gun had been accurate when the website reported that Frey had only spent a few hours in jail rather than the 87 days Frey claimed in his memoirs.

Winfrey then brought out Frey's publisher Nan Talese to defend her decision to classify the book as a memoir. Talese admitted that she had done nothing to check the book's veracity, despite the fact that her representatives had assured Winfrey's staff that the book was indeed non-fiction and described it as "brutally honest" in a press release.

The media feasted over the televised showdown....Maureen Dowd wrote, "It was a huge relief, ...to see the Empress of Empathy icily hold someone accountable for lying," and the Washington Post's Richard Cohen was so impressed by the confrontation that he crowned Winfrey "Mensch of the Year."

On January 27, 2006, Random House issued a statement regarding the controversy. It noted that future editions of the book would contain notes from both the publisher and Frey on the text, as well as prominent notations on the cover and on their website about the additions. It also noted that future printings of the book would be delayed until these changes were made, and these additions were also being sent out promptly to booksellers for inclusion in previously shipped copies of the book."

from the May 9, 2008 edition of the Christian Science Monitor:
Memoirs: whose truth – and does it matter?
Two years after the James Frey scandal, a still-roiled genre thrives.
By Matthew Shaer and Teresa Méndez | Staff writers of The Christian Science Monitor

"When it hits bookshelves early next month, author David Sedaris's new book, "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" will carry a short preface, labeling the contents "real-ish."

Buoyed by the success of a few flagship titles – including "Eat, Pray, Love," by Elizabeth Gilbert, and "Beautiful Boy," by David Sheff – the memoir category continues to be a source of strength for a publishing industry that has watched sales of literary fiction slip in recent years.

Mr. Sheff's book, a tale of his son's addiction to methamphetamines, hit the top slot on The New York Times bestseller list two weeks ago, and a movie deal is reportedly in the works. (It has since dropped to No. 4, behind a memoir by Julie Andrews.) "Eat, Pray, Love" is listed as No. 2 on the paperback list; the quasimystical account of self-discovery became a favorite of Oprah Winfrey, who endorsed the book exuberantly.

But memoir has also suffered a string of high-profile scandals, beginning in 2006 when the website The Smoking Gun found "wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details" in James Frey's memoir, "A Million Little Pieces." This year, author Misha Defonseca admitted that her widely read "Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years," was a fake: Ms. Defonseca lived in Brussels during World War II, is not Jewish, and was not raised by wolves. Then in March, Margaret Seltzer said she had manufactured "Love and Consequences," a crit­ically acclaimed tale of gang life in South Central Los Angeles.

"Fiction has lost its allure because of this primitive belief that memoir is more worthy, more authentic," says Todd Gitlin, a professor of sociology and journalism at Columbia University, and author of the memoir "The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage." At the same time, he says, "The bubble of a wholly reliable reminiscence has burst."

And

"I thought, OK, that's a good word. It's 'real-ish,' " Mr. Sedaris explains. "I guess I've always thought that if 97 percent of the story is true, then that's an acceptable formula. Put it on a scale. Is it 97 percent pure?"

'GBH cancels Folk and Blues music?

Forwarded to my email [thanks Marcia!] -

I wanted to forward to you a recent email sent by Richard Walton, the 'face' and host of Stone Soup coffeehouse for 25 years. His email is in response to WGBH cancelling their folk radio show as of December.
Hi, I urge every member of the Stone Soup board to write to 'GBH protesting the ending of folk music. Folk music venues all over New England have depended on that program which has, for years, been the pre-eminent folk show on radio in all of New England. Its departure will hurt folk music in New England and thus in the entire U.S. because N.E. is the very heart of American folk music and no radio station in the region nourished folk music the way 'GBH did for decades. You can go to www.wgbh.org and go to Contact Us at the bottom of the home page. I've already done that and I hope many others will do the same. Thank you. Peace. Richard.

This is from WGBH:
WGBH is devoted to bringing you new experiences, taking you to new worlds, and giving you the very best in educational content. We’re here for you — and it all happens thanks to your interest and generous support!" contact them here.


As many of you know, WGBH will cancel its Saturday afternoon program, "Folk On WGBH" on December 1. This ends a historic commitment to American folk music on WGBH, that goes back to to the early 1970s. I want to urge you to contact WGBH, spread the word at your venues about this decision, and urge your audiences to contact them, too. WGBH needs to hear how much non-profit venues like yours depend on Folk on WGBH; how important folk radio is to the cultural life of this area; and how much it has meant that WGBH has always supported folk music. People can contact Audience Services/ WGBH/ One Guest Street/ Boston, MA 02135, or e-mail WGBH through its website, WGBH.org. This is a time to make our voices heard. Scott Alarik

Hugh M. Hill; weaved stories as Brother Blue - The Boston Globe

Hugh M. Hill; weaved stories as Brother Blue - The Boston Globe

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More on Cooking up a Story...

JOURNALING: SHOPPING as
COOKING: WRITING

We spend a lot of time helping students find rich details to add to their writing. Over and over we emphasize how the five sense can be used to draw the reader in to the world and experience of the writer or storyteller. Rarely does it happen that a young elementary student has too much detail. But it does occur in upper grades and in the story world too. In these cases an exercise that sought to encourage richness is embarrassed by gluttony. The "riches" of an overly detailed sensory experience can crush a plot and settings or characters too larded over in detail can cause the story to be lost.

When this happens I realize I need to mention that brainstorming and free writing in our journals are like shopping is to cooking. Not everything we bring home from the market or in from the garden will go into a meal. While the poisonous green leaves of a tomato are necessary to create a red luscious fruit, we will not add in any of the green plant of the tomato to our finished dish.

So it is with stories. There are many supporting details that connect and are essential to the best details for your story. As essential as these supporting details are, they must be left out for the story to be edible or listenable.

Somedays I fervently wish fellow storytellers would pay attention to this. Brevity is the soul of wit. And it takes time and attention. Or, as Blaise Pascal once said, "I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter."
French mathematician, Blaise Pascal, "Lettres provinciales", 1657

OurDailySonnet.com Norah Dooley and Sonnet 77

A fun project, like massmouth, Adam Tessier, is doing Shakespeare in the street. His project is called ourdailysonnet.com Adam caught me after telling as Mary Read, pirate this Sunday, and I still have a bit of my makeup - a spot of soul patch "beard" on my chin. Husband, Robert listens in background. On this lovely Sunday afternoon we sat outside Toscanini's in Central Square, Cambridge.

yes! First Boston story slam sells out room !

story slam kicked butt. Nice job everyone!
The room was packed, non-storytellers were there and told, the house was rocking!
Congratulations to massmouth and everyone who attended!
Laura P

What a night! Let's keep the momentum - onward to NOV 23rd ! Sleep beckons. More later!