Storytelling
I'm just dropping in for a few (ha!) minutes...
This past Saturday, I had a storytelling performance at the UU church here in Las Vegas. It was my donation towards their annual Service Auction, a fundraising event where members and friends of the congregation (regular non-members) donate skills or items for auction and the price goes to the church. Last year I donated a storytelling and Saturday was the date for it.
I had posted the event as meant for all ages but better for adults and children over 10. Because this was a performance, rather than usual win-something auction, this was simply a by-the-ticket event. Originally, 12 people had paid for tickets, though 5 never showed and with two week's worth of announcements, I wasn't going to go any further out of my way to remind folks that they had purchased seats at the event. There were, as best as I can recall faces, 19 people there, though, so it wasn't all bad. I was anticipating quite a bit fewer and really had posted the event as up to 30 seats. So, not a bad turnout just the same.
So the event was scheduled as an hour long performance starting at 7. I waited until 7:15 just to give those few who had expressed a desire to come to arrive and then began.
First, I gave some explanation of iconography and how icons are inspired not created and how my style of storytelling was like that, inspired and not completely mine. Then, I launched into my first story - the retrieval of Tyrfing by Hervor, told from her point of view. I've told this story a couple of times already and am still struggling with it. I think I just lack a deep connection to the Norse lore and it hinders my ability to connect and express the characters in the events.
Next, I told a tale about Nuada's lost hand and Miach's replacement and subsequent death at his father's hand. This I told from Airmid's point of view. Again, this is a tale I've told before at least once, probably a couple of times, from various points of view. And, while I like the story, it feels somewhat empty. I can get the emotions of the characters, but the event never feels quite fleshed out. Perhaps I'm concentrating too much on keeping the facts of the lore in line and not enough on the impact or actual scenes. Even now I can see a better way to deliver that particular story forming in my head - maybe next time it'll be better.
After these, I switched gears and began my third story with a snippet of song. From there, I launched into a telling of the marriage of Aphrodite to Hephaestus in exchange from Hera's release. And it was told all from Ares' point of view. This is a story I really enjoyed telling, even when I had to do the singing part (which is always a bit more stressful for me). I could feel Ares' aggravation, frustration and to some extent his impotent rage as his girlfriend was married off to his brother. Unfortunately - though no one would know except me - I couldn't remember the rest of the little song I'd started the story with, so it ended with the same lamenting snippet. Ah well, it seemed to go over pretty well.
But, here's where things got tricky. I was scheduled for an hour an, in my few past performances, I have barely managed to get three stories done in an hour and now here I was at barely 37 minutes with 3 stories done! Yoinks. So, I described a bit of the trouble of finding well preserved Russian mythology and described the setting for the creation and relation of fairy tales, which lead to the telling of one. Unlike the other stories, though, fairy tales really don't lend themselves so much to first person telling. So I had to do it the traditional way. Thankfully, Russian fairy tales are very formulaic and easy to create on the fly without much preparation.
And then I was done... and there was still 15 minuets left... and I was out of (semi-)prepared stories. I suppose I coulda whipped out a bit of the Welsh Mabinogion, but I hadn't given any thought to them and had none ready in my head (though I really do know most of at least the first two branches). I just couldn't feel the settle of another story. So, I opened up the floor to questions, a bit of conversation between a storyteller and the audience.
The kids wanted to know why Zeus didn't just blast the chair out from under Hera, or why Ares didn't bust the bindings. One of the older children has been reading some of the myths ever since finishing the Percy Jackson series and wanted to confirm that Ares still got together with Aphrodite after the marriage. From the adults, I had more technical questions, like how long I had been performing stories. And, later, after I had ended the event and thanked everyone, two different adults asked about how many stories I knew.
That one was tough to answer. How many stories do I know? Tons I suppose, though I can't always summon them when I need them. And there are plenty of times when I make up something completely on the spot - those are pretty impossible to enumerate. And, you might consider that the stories I tell often constitute a tiny fraction of the tale from which it's drawn and there are several more short bits I could tell from the same source. So I was unfortunately unable to give a firm number for that, which seemed to be a bit dissatisfying to the adults and that response reminds me of the assessment The Little Prince regarding the needs of grown-ups.
Ah well.
In all it went rather well and I look forward to a chance to talk to one of the ladies who was in my tiny audience as she's a professional storyteller with a degree in storytelling even. in the meanwhile, now I need to figure out how to make my stories longer! I've spent the last year incorporating tales into our rituals and, to do so, worked hard to trim them down so that folks aren't freezing (or melting) as they experience a tale related to the ritual and deity of the occasion. My first storytelling back in 05 was of Pwyll's time in the Otherworld and it took something like 26 minutes for that one tale, and now, five years later, I've got four stories in forty-five minutes! Eesh.
My next lesson, then, I guess, shall be to work on stories that can work together. Perhaps, rather than several different tales from different cultures, a series of stories told by the same narrator that work together to constitute a whole tale or tapestry. Hmm.... But I still need to be able to whip up short stand-alone tales for our rituals and Hermes is just two weeks away....
Now I'm trying to remember if Kirk posted a request for presenters for Eight Winds yet. I'll have to check.
Anyways...
This past Saturday, I had a storytelling performance at the UU church here in Las Vegas. It was my donation towards their annual Service Auction, a fundraising event where members and friends of the congregation (regular non-members) donate skills or items for auction and the price goes to the church. Last year I donated a storytelling and Saturday was the date for it.
I had posted the event as meant for all ages but better for adults and children over 10. Because this was a performance, rather than usual win-something auction, this was simply a by-the-ticket event. Originally, 12 people had paid for tickets, though 5 never showed and with two week's worth of announcements, I wasn't going to go any further out of my way to remind folks that they had purchased seats at the event. There were, as best as I can recall faces, 19 people there, though, so it wasn't all bad. I was anticipating quite a bit fewer and really had posted the event as up to 30 seats. So, not a bad turnout just the same.
So the event was scheduled as an hour long performance starting at 7. I waited until 7:15 just to give those few who had expressed a desire to come to arrive and then began.
First, I gave some explanation of iconography and how icons are inspired not created and how my style of storytelling was like that, inspired and not completely mine. Then, I launched into my first story - the retrieval of Tyrfing by Hervor, told from her point of view. I've told this story a couple of times already and am still struggling with it. I think I just lack a deep connection to the Norse lore and it hinders my ability to connect and express the characters in the events.
Next, I told a tale about Nuada's lost hand and Miach's replacement and subsequent death at his father's hand. This I told from Airmid's point of view. Again, this is a tale I've told before at least once, probably a couple of times, from various points of view. And, while I like the story, it feels somewhat empty. I can get the emotions of the characters, but the event never feels quite fleshed out. Perhaps I'm concentrating too much on keeping the facts of the lore in line and not enough on the impact or actual scenes. Even now I can see a better way to deliver that particular story forming in my head - maybe next time it'll be better.
After these, I switched gears and began my third story with a snippet of song. From there, I launched into a telling of the marriage of Aphrodite to Hephaestus in exchange from Hera's release. And it was told all from Ares' point of view. This is a story I really enjoyed telling, even when I had to do the singing part (which is always a bit more stressful for me). I could feel Ares' aggravation, frustration and to some extent his impotent rage as his girlfriend was married off to his brother. Unfortunately - though no one would know except me - I couldn't remember the rest of the little song I'd started the story with, so it ended with the same lamenting snippet. Ah well, it seemed to go over pretty well.
But, here's where things got tricky. I was scheduled for an hour an, in my few past performances, I have barely managed to get three stories done in an hour and now here I was at barely 37 minutes with 3 stories done! Yoinks. So, I described a bit of the trouble of finding well preserved Russian mythology and described the setting for the creation and relation of fairy tales, which lead to the telling of one. Unlike the other stories, though, fairy tales really don't lend themselves so much to first person telling. So I had to do it the traditional way. Thankfully, Russian fairy tales are very formulaic and easy to create on the fly without much preparation.
And then I was done... and there was still 15 minuets left... and I was out of (semi-)prepared stories. I suppose I coulda whipped out a bit of the Welsh Mabinogion, but I hadn't given any thought to them and had none ready in my head (though I really do know most of at least the first two branches). I just couldn't feel the settle of another story. So, I opened up the floor to questions, a bit of conversation between a storyteller and the audience.
The kids wanted to know why Zeus didn't just blast the chair out from under Hera, or why Ares didn't bust the bindings. One of the older children has been reading some of the myths ever since finishing the Percy Jackson series and wanted to confirm that Ares still got together with Aphrodite after the marriage. From the adults, I had more technical questions, like how long I had been performing stories. And, later, after I had ended the event and thanked everyone, two different adults asked about how many stories I knew.
That one was tough to answer. How many stories do I know? Tons I suppose, though I can't always summon them when I need them. And there are plenty of times when I make up something completely on the spot - those are pretty impossible to enumerate. And, you might consider that the stories I tell often constitute a tiny fraction of the tale from which it's drawn and there are several more short bits I could tell from the same source. So I was unfortunately unable to give a firm number for that, which seemed to be a bit dissatisfying to the adults and that response reminds me of the assessment The Little Prince regarding the needs of grown-ups.
Ah well.
In all it went rather well and I look forward to a chance to talk to one of the ladies who was in my tiny audience as she's a professional storyteller with a degree in storytelling even. in the meanwhile, now I need to figure out how to make my stories longer! I've spent the last year incorporating tales into our rituals and, to do so, worked hard to trim them down so that folks aren't freezing (or melting) as they experience a tale related to the ritual and deity of the occasion. My first storytelling back in 05 was of Pwyll's time in the Otherworld and it took something like 26 minutes for that one tale, and now, five years later, I've got four stories in forty-five minutes! Eesh.
My next lesson, then, I guess, shall be to work on stories that can work together. Perhaps, rather than several different tales from different cultures, a series of stories told by the same narrator that work together to constitute a whole tale or tapestry. Hmm.... But I still need to be able to whip up short stand-alone tales for our rituals and Hermes is just two weeks away....
Now I'm trying to remember if Kirk posted a request for presenters for Eight Winds yet. I'll have to check.
Anyways...