Thoughts About Story for 2018

We made it to 2018.

More shows, more writing, more teaching.

I found myself in two conversations this week about the nature of storytelling. I thought I'd share some of the observations.

Q: What is the difference between being a storyteller and being a comedian?

My Answer:

Comedy is about laughing at the absurdity of life in common things. You can also take the common, and make it really absurd. It is also about holding up something or someone for mockery or ridicule. A comic is likely to attack an audience member if they make a comment, or do some self-deprecation to get by an awkward moment. The audience is in on the joke, but they are standing outside of the ridiculous, and laughing at it with the comic.

Storytelling is about creating community. It can be funny, absurd, deadly serious, exaggerated, or understated, but it is always about bringing us out of whatever reality we call home int a shared place where go through an experience together. Storytelling is a comment on the life we humans live, and it asks us to find ourselves and those around us in the words. Only when we understand how similar we are will we be able to break down the barriers that separate us and cause so much dissent. To know my story is to see yourself.

Q: What is the secret to being a good storyteller?

It is the same secret to being any kind of artist....practice. If someone is a virtuoso violinist, it s because you can actually feel them in the music. A brilliant painter takes you into the picture itself. A brilliant sculptor can make a static object look animate. A brilliant singer can make your soul leap right through your chest. What about a storyteller? Well, if you are good at what you do in our industry, you, as the storyteller, disappear. You fade into the tale, and the audience isn't looking at you so much as they are watching a story. The more present you are, the more you get in the way of the tale.

Q: What is it about storytelling that resonates with people?

Human beings evolved to be social creatures. We are meant to look at and respond to the verbal and physical cues of others. We have replaced much of our human interaction with screens. Kids today, and adults, spend far more time staring at screens than they do working out how to communicate with their fellow human beings. We crave this kind of interaction even when we aren't aware of it. (As an introvert, I assure you we don't always want to be alone!)

I was performing at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC a few days ago, and the education director said she'd never seen a group of kids so engaged in a show. I explained that as a minimalist, the kids have nothing to look at except me. They are not distracted by costumes, sets, lights or sound. Their focus isn't drawn all over the stage but in one place. Storytelling is as old as language. We are drawn to it. It is how we express our daily lives and share what we know with others.

I have no doubt you answer those questions in different ways.

As you go into 2018 ask yourself...

Where do I find joy in my work?

Am I doing something I find fulfilling at some point during the day?

What do I do that feeds my inner self?

What could I add or subtract that would make my time more fulfilling?

Have a happy, healthy 2018!

Happy Telling - 

In Residence at Stoneviille Elementary School: You Want Me To Work With What Age?

Stoneville, NC

This week I am in residence in Stoneville, NC. This means that I am teaching all week at Stoneville Elementary school.

This means I have four classes a day. In some residencies, I get a core class, or I work with a single grade level.

I've got some fun residencies in my toolkit for grades three through twelve

 I have one about humans needing to leave the earth because it is dying. The residency is designed to get students to study the solar system, consider alternative energy, visualize technologies that do not exist, work together in small groups, research current technologies that are being considered for space exploration, as well as lots of arts and creative drama work.

I went into the classroom, explained who I was and what I was doing there. When I started the creative drama element of the residency by telling the group of fourth graders they were the last, best defense against the destruction of the world, about three quarters of the kids thought I was undercover from NASA. Some of them were pretty freaked out about it. The next day I had to explain once more that it was a creative drama experience. Despite realizing I really was not sent from NASA, the kids took the activity very seriously. All of the classes had a great time.



Basically, each class was divided into small groups, and each group came up with plans to evacuate the earth. I was cool with any plan they could concoct, and we would create the technology to make it work no matter how far fetched.

The students spent three days planning our escape. I came in on the fourth day, told them that there was bad news. Time was shorter than we knew. Not everyone could get off of the planet. A representative from each group came up and drew a slip of paper out of a bag. The slips with nothing on them meant the group got to leave, but the ones with red lines across them had to stay on the planet. We didn't have the resources to evacuate them. The groups that were going to be left behind were extremely bummed. There were some tears. We bucked up, however, and began to consider how to proceed.

Four days into a five day residency,  one or two groups in each room had to scrap all of their plans and begin to see if they could figure out a way to stay on the planet, and survive. On the fifth day, we spent most of our time in the evacuation stage, except for the abandoned groups...they threw themselves into saving our planet with such energy and fervor, that their ideas were extremely cool. The students participated in guided visualizations, drew pictures, and described the systems they designed.

The teachers had pulled books about the solar system earlier in the year, but nobody looked at them twice. That week, the books made the rounds in the rooms as student groups tried to pick a planet on which to live, and create life support systems to deal with the various drawbacks of their orbits, atmospheres, and proximity to the sun. The kids had a blast, and if it encouraged even one of them to think seriously about physics, the universe, science of any kind or alternative fuel sources...then it was worth it. If not, then it was still a blast and we got all sorts of arts impact out of it.

Ellis Island

I also run an involved five day residency about Ellis Island. A version of that residency can be found in the wonderful book by Sherry Norfolk and Jane Stenson entitled Storytelling in the Social Studies Classroom.

I have one residency on the start of the revolutionary war. I also teach a variety of writing residencies that are designed to help students with descriptive writing, and I've taught fantasy writing residencies as well.

Still and all, it is not my favorite way to spend a week.

Stoneville Elementary

This week I am in residence in Stoneville, NC.  No matter how long I do this job, there is always something new!

I have never quite done a residency like this. I am visiting every single class in the school once, and then I have a show at the end of the week. I am not seeing any class more than once! How can you build anything? You can't. You just offer up a sampling. It is not very satisfying, but I get why they want to do it this way. It allows for more arts exposure for every kid in the school.

This means I have to work with Kindergarten and First Grade. There are few things that can make my heart stop beating as quickly as knowing I have to spend an hour in a Kindergarten or first grade class.

I have no idea what you are supposed to do with little bitty kids in a classroom! I can tell stories to them all day long, but teaching them?  Just kill me now.

I don't know what people did about this sort of conundrum before the internet, luckily, I don't have that challenge. I had some ideas about what I might try that seemed a bit out there, so I reached out to our storytelling community online and asked, "what do I do?"

Our very supportive storytelling community was happy to offer up some ideas and encouragement. I finished my final classes with K and 1 today, and they were great.

What did I do?

Well, I told a version of goldilocks where she is a really naughty person. We played it in drama space, acting out the story, and then we talked about story structure.



Luckily, this school has done a great deal of work helping students with story structure. This means they already know the beginning, middle, end organization of a tale. We looked at what images or ideas go in each part of the story. The part of the story they had the most trouble with was Resolution, but they got the hang of it.

With the Kindergarteners, I also played the Button Factory. This is how I learned it.

Hi! My name is Joe!
(The children repeat this line.)
And I work in a Button Factory!
(Repeat)
I have a house!
(Repeat)
And a dog!
(Repeat)
And a family!
(Repeat)
One Day, my boss came up to me.
(Repeat)
He said, "Joe are ya busy?"
(Repeat)
I said, "No."
(Repeat)
So he said, "Work with your right hand."

What happens here is I start making big circles with my right hand.

source

We go through the chorus again, and after Joe says 'no', the boss says, "Work With Your Left Hand"

The rest of the instructions are added onto the hand movements
Work with your right leg (Bring that leg up and down)
Work with your left leg (March)
Work with your bottom (wiggle while you march and move your hands)
Work with your nose! (Move your head back and forth or all around while you do the other movements)

At the end of this last chorus when the boss says, "Joe, are ya busy?" you say 'YES!"

Afterwards, we went through the button factory using our story structure chart, and focused on how that story broke down into characters, setting, a problem that vaults the character into action and then the resolution of the action.

The Monarch Butterfly

Two of my  kindergartens and one of my first grades were immersion classes, and so I broke out La Mariposa (the butterfly), a story I learned from Carrie Sue Ayvar.

Bilingual storytelling is fun! The kids who spoke Spanish enjoyed knowing what was happening a half step before their English speaking peers. All in all, it was a great time.

Tomorrow I am seeing all of the second graders at the same time, and then I have a show.

I'm in residence in Stoneville, NC. I'm learning so much about being in the classroom, managing kids, and gauging how they are doing.

I am recalling why I would be a terrible classroom teacher.

I am enjoying playing with the kids. I'm enjoying watching the kids focus on improving their concentration and visualization skills. I'm enjoying the teachers as they watch the process and make notes about follow up after I'm done.

It is good to do this every now and then as I write and think about brain function, but as much fun as I am having....I'm looking forward to being done tomorrow!


Happy Tell/Teaching!

Currituck County: Traveling, Parenting, Performing, Oh My!

The Foreman House in Elizabeth City, NC

This week I am in Currituck County, NC.  It is much colder than normal due to the lovely Polar Vortex that has decided to descend on the United States.  If you are in Buffalo, NY, you have my warm thoughts and good wishes.  If I could send all of you hot chocolate, I would.

I am staying at the Foreman House Bed and Breakfast, and it is the highlight of my trip.  Mel and Andy who run the B&B are wonderful.  Breakfast is plentiful and delicious - yeah, I'm looking at you apple pancakes - and the rooms are gorgeous and spacious.  If you find yourself in Elizabeth City, NC, you could do much much worse than staying here overnight.  I highly recommend it, and am already planning to bring the mister back here for a long, romantic weekend this coming summer.

First night I was here, Mel and Andy had a cocktail party with 'light' refreshments that were a whole dinner.  I normally have one glass of wine every few months, I had four in the last two days.

My daughter was in the Diary of Anne Frank last weekend as Anne Frank.  I missed the last show since I had to drive out here.

My son was in the Diary of Anne Frank last weekend as Mr. Kraler.  Did I mention I missed the last show?

My in-laws were at my house until Wednesday this week hanging out with my family, going to dinner, museums, and wandering around Durham.  They left on Wednesday morning, I left on Sunday afternoon.  They all seemed to have had a good time.  Wish I could have been there.

Antonio Rocha, a friend of mine I always enjoy seeing, is at my house for the entire week.  Apparently, he made dinner for my family last night...good thing, since I'm not there.  I left Sunday afternoon, he arrived Sunday evening.  He's leaving on Friday morning.  I'm returning on Friday evening.  

My son is putting together his first art portfolio for a big meeting with universities who are looking for visual arts students.  It is going to be attended by universities from all over the country.  He needs to get plastic protectors, a binder, labels for his work and who knows what else.  I asked my husband, "Does he have that stuff?"  My husband's response?  "I don't know."  

I'm three and a half hours from being able to deal with this any other way than on the phone or Skype.  Have I seen any of these pics?  No.  Have I seen the way the portfolio is laid out?  No.  Do I know if he's labeled anything?  No.  Am I going to know any of this?  No.  He leaves Friday morning for Washington DC, I don't get back until Friday afternoon.  

I kind of feel like driving the three hours home to put my hands on a few things, and then driving back here tomorrow morning for an 8:45 show, which means I'd have to be on the road at about 4:45am to be certain I'd make it to the first show on time.  Yeah, not happening.

Where, you might ask, is Currituck County?  Up by the border between Virginia and North Carolina.

What, you might ask, am I doing in Currituck County when all of those things are going on at my house?  I'll tell you.  Telling stories.  What else?

I have been doing three to four sets a day.  I've worked with Kindergarten through second grade where the administrators were shocked the kids sat so well, and still had so much fun.

I told with a ninth grade group who was fascinated by the idea that I was storyteller, and was much more comfortable with the idea that I was an author.  They loved the stories.

I told with a group of eleventh graders who lamented they couldn't follow me around the rest of the time  I was in the area, and hear all of the stories.  When I asked if they had questions they asked the exact same question that the little kids perpetually ask.  "Can we hear another story?"

I told with groups of sixth graders, fifth, fourth and third and in every set I had wonderful chances to engage with kids as we laughed, played, and taught each other.  

I bought great Christmas gifts at the Jenkins Art Gallery located in the Arts Center in downtown Elizabeth City.  

The Arts Center in Elizabeth City, NC

I stopped into a small, local pharmacy right next to the Arts Center, where the two elderly ladies who run the place greeted every single person who came in by name, and discussed the 'business of the area'.

"Hello, Charles, honey.  How you been?"
"Fine, just fine."
"Did they steal very much, whoever t'was who broke into the church?"
"Well, tell you the truth, we haven't noticed there was much missing."
"Well, I spect they just broke in there to get warm."
"Probably."

They launched into a great conversation about the local food bank, and how they really needed to get them more turkeys for Thanksgiving.

I wanted to get a chair and sit in the back of that store all afternoon and just listen!

I am having wonderful performances!  I am exhausted at the end of each day.  I have adventures as I wander about and  listen in on people's conversations.  I still want to manage what's going on in my home. 

Oh, and in the midst of this I have several non-fiction kind of important writing activities I have to attend to...my neglected blog is one of those!

Being a traveling storyteller is very cool.  Being a traveling storyteller is very hard.  Being a traveling storyteller is very rewarding.  Being a traveling storyteller is a privilege.  Being a traveling storyteller sucks when you can't do everything you want to do.  I'm not superwoman.

Whenever I start thinking I'm going to rip my dreads out by the roots, I try to remember that what I do is important.  

It helps when I get letters like the one I received last week from the drama teacher at Baker Demonstration School in Evanston, Il.

Balancing the traveling, exhaustion, writing, telling, parenting by phone, and maintaining a marriage is important if you are going to do this work.  Don't let anybody tell you it is either easy or completely glamorous.  

Make no mistake.  Being a professional storyteller is hard work!

Happy Surviving!