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.

Finding Stories

One thing I've really enjoyed about the course so far is the opportunity we have to look for and enjoy different stories.
I've spent time perusing the 398.2s and Parent/Teacher collections and have enjoyed reading the different tales available. One of my favorite resources right now is Margaret Read MacDonald's Three Minute Tales: Stories from around the world to tell or read when time is short. It contains different situations one might be in when a story is just the right thing to fill time, or to make a point such as going on a walk, or on a museum tour. The tales are short (3 minutes or under, with the "time it takes to tell" estimated at the top.) From the discussion boards I can see that we have lots of Margaret Read MacDonald fans in the class, so you can now count me in as one as well. (I've checked out her "Twenty Tellable Tales" and will start on that soon.)

A publisher that I'm starting to notice is "August House" with their "American Storytelling" and "World Storytelling" series. Those stories are also nice at a couple of pages each with black and white pictures along with them. Something from the same publisher I ran across this spring break was called "Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts" which followed the school-yard chants, and camp songs that may not be appropriate for adult ears. I don't believe they count as Storytelling in any way (as they don't tell a story), but reading through the article on Folk Literature for class, most defiantly fall into that category, as they are passed from person to person with only slight modifications, and so fall into the storytelling tradition.

There are many other books I'm using as well that I pulled out of the 398.2s. Right now I'm searching for stories that I can tell to fit the story time themes "Days of the Week" and "pop corn". Any Suggestions? (The little Mouse, ripe red strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear was a great hit-- I used the book as the illustrations are what make that story.)

Today's Books:

MacDonald, Margaret Read, 1940-. (2004.). Three-minute tales : stories from around the world to tell or read when time is short. Little Rock, Ark. : August House Publishers. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy0710/2004046257.html

Sherman, Josepha. (1995.). Greasy grimy gopher guts : the subversive folklore of childhood. Little Rock, AR : August House Publishers.