As I build upon the repertoire of stories that I tell, I constantly step back to watch how they evolve.
The first part of telling a story is finding the one that you want to tell. In some instances it’s a story that has been picked years ago with the foreknowledge that someday I will tell it. In others it is one that I hear that just grabs me the right way and I want to research and tell it as soon as I can. There are times when because of a storytelling job I’ve been hired to do, based on a certain theme or audience, I actively search out stories of that type to fit the audience I will be performing for. In this case the story, doesn’t fall in my lap as do the first two types.
Regardless of how I come upon the story, the time comes when it is time to learn the story and watch it grow. There are different ways that I use to learn stories, some of which I might write about in future entries, but for now let’s assume that whatever technique I use, I’ve effectively learned the words and spirit of the story. During my practice session at home I try out a variety of voices and actions to see how they work. What I don’t have is an audience to react to me, so most of the actions I use, make assumptions about what will happen. When I have practiced it by myself enough, it’s ready to take on the road. The road being a place where others will hear it, but not necessarily the audience I will be paid to perform it for.
I’ve been a paid performer by two local schools enough times that I feel comfortable calling upon teachers in these schools and volunteering to tell stories that I’m working on to their classes. Here’s where I get to see whether or not my assumptions have been correct.
Let’s follow the path of the latest story that I have learned, The Piney Woods Peddler, by George Shannon. This was a story that I found years ago with the intent to learn how to tell someday. Being hired to tell stories in a primary school that had only kindergarten and first grades, gave me the audience I needed to inspire me to learn the story.
I worked at home for a number of weeks learning the words and getting a feel for how the story should be shared. One of the problems with this story in particular was a section of the story where the main character sings a song. The song is written in words only, with no tune to go with it. It was up to me to come up with the melody. That took the longest time, for it was hard for me to make up a tune that satisfied me. Having things you like are crucial to storytelling. If you don’t like what you are doing, it comes across in the telling. Between my own tries, and consultation with my wife, son and a music teacher colleague, I finally came up with the tune I liked that completed my learning of the story. It was time to find an audience.
The difficulty with finding an audience on this occasion, was that the school that was hiring me, was the school that I used to practice my stories. I needed another venue. That venue came to me as I was working in another district as an Educational Technology Consultant. I was working in a Primary school and offered to a first grade teacher, that I was consulting, the opportunity to have a professional storyteller in her classroom at no cost. She agreed, and I got to practice my telling. It went pretty well. The audience, though receptive, was not as involved as I wanted or expected them to be. It did give me enough of an idea of what I needed to edit and revise in my telling, an important process in the evolution of a tale to be told.
In the past I’ve practiced the stories that I was going to tell a number of times prior to my actual performance. In this instance I did not get that opportunity. The school that I was performing in had me do 7 successive performances of about 20 minutes each. This did allow me to see the story change each time I told it.
At first I eliminated some of the refrain of the song, which made the story work within the time frame better. It also allowed me to maintain the audience’s focus better, being 5 and 6 year olds.
The more I told the story the more I got the different audiences to participate with the story. Certain parts of the refrain I left out myself, allowing the audience to complete them. Though my movements were similar in the story, my voices began to change for different characters.
Having completed those performances, I am now at a point that I like the way the story has changed itself to fit me. That is not to say that it won’t continue to evolve. I just need to continue telling it, which I plan on doing as I continue my career.
The evolution of story is an important process in the development of a storyteller. Similar to any learning opportunity, to remain fixed in how one does something can lead to stagnation and burnout. Neither of which is a direction I plan on taking.
