a tale of audiences

As a storyteller I get to experience a number of different types of audiences from very young children to adults. As such, I get to see many different types of reactions and behaviors attached to those different audiences.

Spending time recently as a substitute teacher has allowed me to practice my storytelling craft with captive audiences that are just kids. I’ve been telling to Kindergarten and first graders as well as 4th, 5th and 6th graders. I’ve discovered that as I tell stories to these groups with no adults around, that I generally get full attention as the students get involved in my tales. I even get applause when I complete a tale. Students are excited when they see that I am going to be their teacher. I’m sure the storytelling piece is part of it.

When I perform in front of an adult audience I get similar responses; active listening and recognition from the audience when a tale ends.

The more difficult audiences are those that combine both children and adults. Unless the venue has structured the event carefully audiences don’t necessarily know how to react. A number of those family events when parents and kids come to fall into the category of a misunderstanding of what storytelling is and a misunderstanding of who’s in control of the kids. Many adults see storytelling as story reading that only is done for very young children. You see this at an event when though it is advertised for school aged children or ages 12 and up, parents come with their pre-schoolers expecting a lively read along, puppet show, costumed act or some other theater program. As some children who have not been prepared for this event attend, they can be antsy and active (putting it politely) with the parent’s assumption that the organizer or the performer doesn’t mind their children distracting the others with their cute antics. I’ve actually had a parent come stand up next to me while I was performing a song and take a picture of their child who was having a social conversation with someone right in front of me. This was right after the organizer had asked the parents to help show their children the correct way to act. I’m always unsure how to react in those situations. If the distraction is not that bad, I just keep telling or singing. I might move in the direction of the offender and make eye contact with them, to signal that their behavior needs to change. In rare cases I will stop what I’m doing to either ask the child to be less distracting or ask someone in the audience (a parent or teacher) to take care of that child. Though I don’t feel it is my role to do that, the teacher in me takes over.

When organizers of events such as these ask me how I want the audience arranged, I’ll usually state that I would like the adults to sit with their children. I point out that children need good role models for attending a performance; I encourage the adults to be such models. The worst case scenario is when the adults stand in the back talking to each other while the kids are sitting in the front attempting to listen and participate. I’m not sure who said this but, “If you are not modeling what you are teaching, you are teaching something else.” is very apt in this case.

I’m not sure if it is that there are adults and kids in the room and both groups expect the other groups to lead the way or if both groups are just not familiar with audience protocol when attending a storytelling concert. I find that though I may get applause and recognition for the first tale I tell; subsequent tales end in a sort of limbo where neither child nor adult knows quite what to do. “I’ve applauded the first story, do I need to do that every story and song?” “Maybe I should save my applause for the conclusion of the whole program?” “This performance is for the kids, so shouldn’t they be the ones that applaud?” “I don’t want to be the only one applauding and my parents aren’t clapping, so maybe it isn’t the right thing to do?” I’m only speculating here you get the idea. For some reason when I sing a song, they all know to react at its conclusion. Maybe its that playing the last chord of a song signals a definitive ending, whereas stories end in so many different ways.

I want to know how do we as storytellers change the perception of what storytelling can be? It can be for adults as well as kids. Adult storytelling doesn’t only have to follow “The Moth” format of competition through personal tales. It can be literary tales, folktales, historical pieces as well as personal tales. Storytelling doesn’t only have to be for one generation or another. There are many successful storytellers out there that tell to a wide variety of audiences and get a good number of people to attend. That is not the case here on Long Island. At least I haven’t found it so yet.

I also would like to know how we change or teach our audiences to appreciate the storytelling that we are offering.

Those two questions are definitely inter-related. The answers to which will certainly improve the growth of storytelling in our lives.