Monday, September 05, 2005

The Lady and the Storyteller

I've been teaching an introductory storytelling class and typical for summer, the group is small. Once a week, we gather together for the students to share the story they've been working on each week. It's a lot of fun. We videotape the tellers and use that for self and group feedback.

Last week, my students (who are actually all high school students this time around) each tackled a large traditional story. Although we don't assign stories, they all came back with a very similar type of story. For example, one of the more reticent students took on "Lady and the Tiger" to tell and experience.  Each of these young people did a great job telling, self evaluating and giving feedback to each other. For some of the students, the last class was a grand experience in getting past fear and hesitancy and simply jumping into experience of  public storytelling. I love being a storyteller and I think that I love teaching even more.

My <b> Tip of the Week</b> for you this week is: JUMP IN. I've used this tip before and I will use it again. If you want to be a storyteller, tell stories. As a painter is not a painter until she picks up brush and paint, so a teller is not a teller until he tells a story. Don't give into your fears that you might not know all the rules or you might do it wrong. There's a new book right now that is being promoted as THE BOOK to give THE rules of storytelling. Don't you believe it. Suggestions, guidelines, ethical discussion- those things are all good. Don't get too concerned in the beginning about breaking rules. For me, the "rules" of storytelling are more like pools of refreshing water than pits of unforgiving lava anyway.

Maybe you've been hesitant about telling stories. Maybe you've been waiting for a '"sign" to tell you to start. I am happy today to be your sign-bearer. Jump in and start telling.

Grandma, What Big Search Engines You Have

"Oh, grandmother, what big search engines you have!"

It’s fun for me to read the search words that people use to find Storyteller.net with search engines. All hail the Google. In the last few days, I’ve seen things like: storyteller, king midas, business speech, hospital shop, lodging for storytelling convention and audio stories. This afternoon there was a search for "nubile girls" and we came up in the top ten. Sorry, you will have to go GOOGLE that to see which article in our site came up with that keyword. Actually an easier way is to go to the ARTICLES link on our site, type in whatever word you are searching for then CLICK on the search button. But I have to warn you, it’s not nearly as scandalous as it sounds. So go forth and Google or Search as your heart desires.

But that leads me to this question: So, what do you know about the Brothers Grimm?

We’re seeing an increase in the searches for variations on the name Grimm. Why? There’s a way-off-the-mark (or so it appears) movie coming out in the U.S. at the end of August that uses the Brothers Grimm as tale-weaving con artists. However, it appears that the movie's pre-release hype is promoting people to find out more about the Grimm fairy tales.

Here is your "Tip of the Week": So arrives now the opportunity in your classrooms, libraries, homes and wherever else you Tell to develop some programming, displays and new tales to go along with this apparently renewing interest in the J&W Grimm Brothers. If it’s hitting the search engines now, the Grimm interest might be pretty heavy in a few weeks. Perhaps for the brief time that the Grimms will be of interest to popular culture you might spark some long-term interest in story and literature.

If you do the search in the Articles section of Storyteller.net, you’ll find four articles that deal with the Grimm Brothers, two of which are rather in-depth. We’ll be building more Grimm Brothers materials over the next month including a new CD that I am releasing. Please come pay us a visit. Feel free to Google us if you’d like.

"The better to find you with, my dear."

Here is yet another

Here is yet another post right from my desktop. Try to be as excited as I am

The Second First Post

The Second First Post