In the beginning…
I had never acted before in a play. I do remember one time, when I was a teenager, I joined some community theater program and was cast as a bit player for the play, “Rebel without a Cause”. The only thing I remember about that play was that it never made it to the stage. So my record stood, through my high school and college years, and the first quarter of my teaching career that I was never in a play. The only acting that I did, post-college, was in my classroom, where I pretended that I was a teacher. I must have done pretty well at that since I kept that role for 33 years and have played stand-in roles now for the last 6 years.
Things changed for me in 1980 when the Middle School that I had worked in, put on the play, “Hans Christian Andersen” and decided I would be the perfect candidate to play the lead role. This was the musical version that Danny Kaye played in the movies. Up until that time I had never told a story without a book in hand, though I did sing in class with my students.
I was enthralled by the part. It amazed me how all the student actors focussed on my storytelling and singing role. Of course, they were being told to by the director, but it was still inspiring. Add to that the performances that we did for the community and I was in another world.
Here are 2 songs I performed in the play:
“I’m Hans Christian Andersen”:
“Thumbelina”:
This storytelling thing was something that held a lot of power, I needed to learn more about it.
I researched storytelling through books, remember this was the 80’s before the Internet. I discovered there was an organization called NAAPS (the National Association for the Advancement and Preservation of Storytelling) which I joined it had an annual festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, called the National Storytelling Festival. It was always held during the first weekend of October. I convinced my school district to send me to this festival, two years in a row.
Between the inspiration I got from the festival and all the readings I had done, I realized that I had found something powerful to teach with. My storytelling career was born.
I’ve been telling stories now for over 35 years and have never looked back. It was as I suspected an incredibly powerful learning tool. And the neat thing about storytelling is that anyone can do it. In fact, most of us do.
Once upon a time, there was a classroom teacher who was known to wander the halls of teacherdom searching for a way to reach the people he taught. Happily, he found the path that led him to his successful ever after. And therein lies the tale.
