Last night 2 classmates and I got together to perform stories for our friends and families. It was lots of fun, and I think it went really well.
We each preformed 3 tales, all of mine have been posted on this blog before, but I think it's really nice to hear it again with a different audience, in a different atmosphere than a library storytime. Let me know what you think about them, too!
If you're only going to listen to one I would suggest The Very Hungry Caterpillar, because for the first time it is performed in front of a live audience (who was very familiar with the story, and I thought would tell the whole thing for me. It was really neat).
Here also are Rabbit's Snow Dance and Popcorn, which are neat to hear again because the audience is different, and it's in a different location (and I've practiced a lot more).
Rabbit's Snow dance:
Popcorn:
Enjoy!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Assignment 3: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
For assignment 3 we are supposed to adapt a picture book to the storytelling format.
Inspired by Pete Seeger's Abiyoyo I decided to put mine to music. Unfortunately I don’t play the banjo (yet), but one of my co-workers, knowing my interest in the ukulele loaned me his for a couple of weeks. I quickly mastered 3 cords.
The theme of this Saturday’s storytime will be “Days of the Week” and so I broke out the Very Hungry Caterpillar flannel set from BCL, and made up a song for you to enjoy. Click here to view my 4 minute story in Internet Explorer. Click here to view my story in Fire Fox.
You may have to adjust the volume on your computer.
Let me know what you think!
Inspired by Pete Seeger's Abiyoyo I decided to put mine to music. Unfortunately I don’t play the banjo (yet), but one of my co-workers, knowing my interest in the ukulele loaned me his for a couple of weeks. I quickly mastered 3 cords.
The theme of this Saturday’s storytime will be “Days of the Week” and so I broke out the Very Hungry Caterpillar flannel set from BCL, and made up a song for you to enjoy. Click here to view my 4 minute story in Internet Explorer. Click here to view my story in Fire Fox.
You may have to adjust the volume on your computer.
Let me know what you think!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Reading Up on Performance
As a break from preparing my stories I decided to so some reading last night. The first chapter I read was on Presentation from “Storytelling Art &Technique” by Augusta Baker and Ellin Green, 1987.(It caught my attention because same name as the course—I figured it may be relevant.)
This chapter is fairly practical for an amateur storyteller presenting to a class. It give a diagram for setting up chairs so that no child (yes, this story hour is aimed for children) will be directly behind another. What I found most interesting was the need to create an atmosphere around storytelling. I don’t think one needs a dark room with candle light, as they suggest (fire codes in my library won’t allow that), but the idea of creating a special place either in the building, or taking some moments to pause and get yourself and the audience into the storytelling (and story receiving) mood. (Man, I am all about the parenthesis today).
One section of the chapter answers the question “What is the best way to handle disruptions” that we have been discussion in class. These authors suggest first involving the children in the story, then telling the story directly to the disrupters. Not until the third disruption do they suggest stopping the story (and apologizing to the other listener), and upon the 4th disruption asking them to leave.
This the mode is fairly set for the classroom storytelling set up, rather than the family and age ranges of the storytimes I lead a the library, or adults (although it may work for adults as well). But I thought it was an interesting approach.
A book I’m working though now, that I really enjoy is Tell Me A Tale by Joseph Bruchac (1997). The same Bruchac that I used for my first story performance “Rabbit’s Snow Dance” and who has cropped up in many different places. This book is written for both adults and children (ok—maybe it’s written for children, but I still like it). Chapter 4, “Sharing” has some good tips such as using silence, involving the audience, and other things that have come up on the discussion board, but are presented here in different wording, just to help it sink in a bit. This is a quick and easy read, and I would recommend it to our class.
Today’s Books:
Baker, Augusta. (1987.). Storytelling : art and technique. New York : Bowker. (photo above is of the 3rd edition).
Bruchac, Joseph (1997.). Tell me a tale : a book about storytelling. San Diego, Calif. : Harcourt Brace.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Popcorn Storytime: Story 3
Today I did another family storytime at BCL. It had a lot more people then the last two times (about 20 people total!), and there were some really good participants. My sister also stopped by to take photos and watch me at work.
Because I’m trying to have a storytelling at each of these storytimes, I need to find some that fit the theme given to me. It was a bit difficult to come up with a story about popcorn. While doing a desperate Google Search I found this website. it is a neat little story so I decided to adapt that. In the style of Brian “Fox” Ellis (one of the storytellers I viewed for my storyteller’s critique, if you didn’t slog through the last post) I decided to add a little education and some audience participation, too. Here's the story:
The children have name tags so I picked a couple of the names to use for the children in the story. The brother, Alex and Cody were sitting in the back so were very pleased that they could be part of the story (Mom and Dad were really happy about that, too). I am really proud of that touch.
For this storytime I ran short on time so only read 2 books, sang 2 popcorn songs, and told my story, before we made our craft of popcorn clouds. The craft was a big hit (even through I told them not to eat the popcorn). Because they got to use liquid glue instead of our usual glue sticks. Exciting times.
Next week stay tuned for my evening of storytelling with members of our class, and "Days of the Week" at the library's family storytime.
Today’s Reading Rainbow Books Are:
Low, Alice. (c1993.). The popcorn shop. New York : Scholastic.
Oppenheim, Joanne. (1997, c1989.). "Not now!" said the cow. Milwaukee : Gareth Stevens Pub.
The story “Popcorn snow” is adapted from the story by A. R Scheinerman, http://scheinerman.net/judaism/popcorn/index.html
with help from:
De Paola, Tomie. (c1978.). The popcorn book. New York : Holiday House.
And
Kudlinski, Kathleen V. (1998.). Popcorn plants. Minneapolis, Minn. : Lerner Publications Company
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Storyteller's Critique
Here's my Storyteller's Critique, it's Assignment 2 for this course.
Enjoy!
The performances I viewed were so unlike each other in audience and performance that I had three very different experiences. The first I saw was an evening performance of Eth-Noh-Tec, the team of two storytellers from San Francisco preformed five short folk tales from all over Asia. Despite it being part of the same festival and one of the same performers, the next story telling performance was as different as can be: Nancy Wang told just a portion of the story of her family’s immigration from China and acceptance (or lack there of) in the United States five generations ago. This performance was on a Saturday morning, and the audience was significantly older than the Friday night audience for Eth-Noh-Tec. The third performance I observed was video recording of Brian “Fox” Ellis performing a single story aimed at children ages 5-12. The live audience in the film was a class of second grade students, which required a different sort of storytelling than the audience of adults.
I bring up the audience first because, as Nancy Wang stated—in theater the 4th wall separate the audience from the performance, where in storytelling the 4th wall extends behind the audience, to include them in the excitement, and makes them part of the performance. The different ways the storytellers included their audience was intriguing to observe and participate in. For example the storytellers preformed age appropriate jokes, for the adult audience of Eth-Noh-Tec a passing remark on current events roused a chuckle, where Brain “Fox” Ellis lengthen out a moment in his story about what happens when water molecules leave the bladder for his second grade audience, and they went wild with delight.
Part of the excitement in the stories that I appreciated the most was the voices and characters that the storytellers gave life to. The folktales of Eth-Noh-Tec had a host of stock characters that were very distinct from each other with voice in pitch, speed, and timbre when these characters talked to each other (in the two person performance) it was instantly clear to see what sort of character we were dealing with. On her own, Nancy Wang used more subtle character voice, each character was still unique, but rather than calling attention to the characters voices allowed for the story to flow over them, to move the narration forward. Brian “Fox” Ellis had a story telling style much more akin to mine, with little to no dialogue between different characters, using instead pure narration: he still varied and used his differences in his voice, but he kept the story moving with pacing, speed, pauses, volume, and tone rather than dialogue.
On our class boards early in the term we discussed the pros and cons of memorizing your stories word for word, and in watching Eth-Noh-Tec I could see how beneficial memorization can be. There was poetry in the stories, and clear imagery through word choice. Memorizing the script also allows for planned mistakes as Brian “Fox” Ellis often used the phrase “Walter- I mean-Water” to keep the storyline in the mind of the audience while making a small tangent to other things. However, while memorizing a script lends itself to theatrical performances, they also shine a spot light on mistakes of stumbled words, and losing a place in the story. Memorizing the script may also cut down on the audience participation that can be achieved by taking the storyteller out of the moment and into a script.
Another fascinating part of the storytelling performances was how the storytellers used their bodies. There was everything from the choreographed dance in Eth-Noh-Tec, adding theatrical elements and grace to their stories, to the simple gestures of Nancy Wang that subtly added to the story, such as rocking her body to the waves, or gently pushing in an imaginary drawer, to the exaggerated action motions of Brain “Fox” Ellis as he kicked and ran a home run in a school yard kick-ball game. Each had their place in the story and was used to great effect.
Sound and music were also utilized in different ways by these story tellers. Eth-Noh-Tec used a variety of wind instruments to add back ground music, song, interlude, and sound effects to their tales, where Brian “Fox” Ellis, used only his voice to create a gulping of water or a suck of a tube. What was most effective in the stories was the way that sound effects and body movements could indicated a change in the story before the teller used words to describe it. It was like the audience gained a “sneak peak” at the next emotion they were going to feel before knowing why they were going to felt that way. It was really effective and I’d like to take that into my own storytelling.
In addition to using sound effects and body movements to enhance my story telling I’d also like to add music. Watching online clips of Pete Seeger, I am inspired to learn a stringed instrument, such as a guitar or ukulele to play while storytelling, and although I do not have the opportunity to master an instrument during this course, it will be something I will aim for to add in to my storytelling in the future. Just as inspiring, and something I can practice now, is taking techniques from Eth-Noh-Tec, Nancy Wang, and Brain “Fox” Ellis on how they warmed up the crowd, putting themselves and the audience at ease and taking away all self-consciousness so the stories can be experienced by all.
Storytellers and their Stories:
Eth-Noh-Tec presents: Of Sojourns and Shadows: Asian American Message In the Myth
Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo and Nancy Wang
Friday April 17 2009 at the Hillsboro Main Library. Presented in cooperation with WCCLS Hearing Voices Storytelling Festival.
Stories:
Trouble Talk—Korea—animals and humans brag over who is the most powerful until disaster strikes
The Long Haired Girl—China—girl sacrifices herself to help her village
Willow Tree—Japan—Man tires to save tree from being cut down
“Feed my Dog” –India—A god’s dog teaches a village the dangers of materialism
Monkey Moon—Tibet—rhyming tale of Monkey king who wants the reflection of the moon for his own
Lanterns on a Dark Moon Night: The History of Chinese Americans in Monterey
Nancy Wang
Saturday April 18 2009, at the Beaverton City Library. Presented in cooperation with WCCLS Hearing Voices Storytelling Festival.
Stories of her family coming from China, their children born in United States, and how they were accepted into and rejected form different aspects of American life
Ellis, Brian “Fox” (Performer). (2006). Walter the Water molecule’s exciting journey through the water cycle. The StoryWatchers Club: Adventures in Storytelling. Our planet. DVD.
Walter is a water molecule that travels through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, perspiration, and many other places.
Enjoy!
The performances I viewed were so unlike each other in audience and performance that I had three very different experiences. The first I saw was an evening performance of Eth-Noh-Tec, the team of two storytellers from San Francisco preformed five short folk tales from all over Asia. Despite it being part of the same festival and one of the same performers, the next story telling performance was as different as can be: Nancy Wang told just a portion of the story of her family’s immigration from China and acceptance (or lack there of) in the United States five generations ago. This performance was on a Saturday morning, and the audience was significantly older than the Friday night audience for Eth-Noh-Tec. The third performance I observed was video recording of Brian “Fox” Ellis performing a single story aimed at children ages 5-12. The live audience in the film was a class of second grade students, which required a different sort of storytelling than the audience of adults.
I bring up the audience first because, as Nancy Wang stated—in theater the 4th wall separate the audience from the performance, where in storytelling the 4th wall extends behind the audience, to include them in the excitement, and makes them part of the performance. The different ways the storytellers included their audience was intriguing to observe and participate in. For example the storytellers preformed age appropriate jokes, for the adult audience of Eth-Noh-Tec a passing remark on current events roused a chuckle, where Brain “Fox” Ellis lengthen out a moment in his story about what happens when water molecules leave the bladder for his second grade audience, and they went wild with delight.
Part of the excitement in the stories that I appreciated the most was the voices and characters that the storytellers gave life to. The folktales of Eth-Noh-Tec had a host of stock characters that were very distinct from each other with voice in pitch, speed, and timbre when these characters talked to each other (in the two person performance) it was instantly clear to see what sort of character we were dealing with. On her own, Nancy Wang used more subtle character voice, each character was still unique, but rather than calling attention to the characters voices allowed for the story to flow over them, to move the narration forward. Brian “Fox” Ellis had a story telling style much more akin to mine, with little to no dialogue between different characters, using instead pure narration: he still varied and used his differences in his voice, but he kept the story moving with pacing, speed, pauses, volume, and tone rather than dialogue.
On our class boards early in the term we discussed the pros and cons of memorizing your stories word for word, and in watching Eth-Noh-Tec I could see how beneficial memorization can be. There was poetry in the stories, and clear imagery through word choice. Memorizing the script also allows for planned mistakes as Brian “Fox” Ellis often used the phrase “Walter- I mean-Water” to keep the storyline in the mind of the audience while making a small tangent to other things. However, while memorizing a script lends itself to theatrical performances, they also shine a spot light on mistakes of stumbled words, and losing a place in the story. Memorizing the script may also cut down on the audience participation that can be achieved by taking the storyteller out of the moment and into a script.
Another fascinating part of the storytelling performances was how the storytellers used their bodies. There was everything from the choreographed dance in Eth-Noh-Tec, adding theatrical elements and grace to their stories, to the simple gestures of Nancy Wang that subtly added to the story, such as rocking her body to the waves, or gently pushing in an imaginary drawer, to the exaggerated action motions of Brain “Fox” Ellis as he kicked and ran a home run in a school yard kick-ball game. Each had their place in the story and was used to great effect.
Sound and music were also utilized in different ways by these story tellers. Eth-Noh-Tec used a variety of wind instruments to add back ground music, song, interlude, and sound effects to their tales, where Brian “Fox” Ellis, used only his voice to create a gulping of water or a suck of a tube. What was most effective in the stories was the way that sound effects and body movements could indicated a change in the story before the teller used words to describe it. It was like the audience gained a “sneak peak” at the next emotion they were going to feel before knowing why they were going to felt that way. It was really effective and I’d like to take that into my own storytelling.
In addition to using sound effects and body movements to enhance my story telling I’d also like to add music. Watching online clips of Pete Seeger, I am inspired to learn a stringed instrument, such as a guitar or ukulele to play while storytelling, and although I do not have the opportunity to master an instrument during this course, it will be something I will aim for to add in to my storytelling in the future. Just as inspiring, and something I can practice now, is taking techniques from Eth-Noh-Tec, Nancy Wang, and Brain “Fox” Ellis on how they warmed up the crowd, putting themselves and the audience at ease and taking away all self-consciousness so the stories can be experienced by all.
Storytellers and their Stories:
Eth-Noh-Tec presents: Of Sojourns and Shadows: Asian American Message In the Myth
Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo and Nancy Wang
Friday April 17 2009 at the Hillsboro Main Library. Presented in cooperation with WCCLS Hearing Voices Storytelling Festival.
Stories:
Trouble Talk—Korea—animals and humans brag over who is the most powerful until disaster strikes
The Long Haired Girl—China—girl sacrifices herself to help her village
Willow Tree—Japan—Man tires to save tree from being cut down
“Feed my Dog” –India—A god’s dog teaches a village the dangers of materialism
Monkey Moon—Tibet—rhyming tale of Monkey king who wants the reflection of the moon for his own
Lanterns on a Dark Moon Night: The History of Chinese Americans in Monterey
Nancy Wang
Saturday April 18 2009, at the Beaverton City Library. Presented in cooperation with WCCLS Hearing Voices Storytelling Festival.
Stories of her family coming from China, their children born in United States, and how they were accepted into and rejected form different aspects of American life
Ellis, Brian “Fox” (Performer). (2006). Walter the Water molecule’s exciting journey through the water cycle. The StoryWatchers Club: Adventures in Storytelling. Our planet. DVD.
Walter is a water molecule that travels through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, perspiration, and many other places.
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