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.