Storyteller Numero Quatro

This afternoon, my husband and I trekked down to Olympia (a 1 1/2 hour drive from Redmond!) for a storytelling event. I found the posting on the South Sound Storyteller's Guild website, and thought that this was something I could attend. Online, the event was titled "An Afternoon of Story and Song," and was a fundraising event for the 23-year old granddaughter of one of the guild members, who was recently diagnosed with follicular lymphoma.

I was a bit nervous going into the event because it as a fundraiser for someone that I didn't know, in a church that I was unfamiliar with (which means that most of the attendees of the event were most likely attendees of the church), and I was not feeling well. (In fact, I left early, at the intermission following the free-will offering.)

The event opened with brief introduction of the MC, Billie Mazzei, and then proceeded into a folk-song, "This land is my land..." This set the stage for the cooperative nature of the afternoon, as audience participation was not just recommended, but demanded by the performers (good-naturedly, of course). Then, another member of the South Sound Story Tellers Guild, Randi Moe (or Queen Randinka as she was referred to) told the story of Noah and the flood. This was not the normal Bible story, but was a rhythmic story accompanied by a small drum with the frequent refrain, "You wanna hear, hear the story?" She referred to herself as a griot from Biblical Africa and used the sing-song of her story to reinforce that allusion throughout. It was a great twist on a classic tale, replete with critters and storm.

After the tale of Noah, the singer, Ric Zassenhaus, led the audience in the story of the Exodus in song, "Pharoah, Pharoah." This is an adaptation of the story of the people of Israel fleeing Egypt, set to the tune "Louie, Louie." It's fun and has great movements. It works well with children, and the seniors in the audience seemed to enjoy themselves as well.

Next, Billie Mazzei told the story of her parents' honeymoon in Ireland and her father's inability to drive a stick, and then Randi returned to tell the story of long ago, when a tall tale teller needed to find a replacement. This was unaccompanied, but was humerous and involved several tall tales in one. Next, there were some gospel songs, and another story. This time, the story was about the Tailor and his new coat of wool. There was some more singing, and Billie told the story of her husband's magical piece of wood.

It was a fun afternoon, and people were in a generous mood. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Accidental Story Hour

Today there was an educator event at Barnes and Noble. I always go to these if it can work with my schedule simply because the discounts are so substantial. Today, I went in time to actually be there for the event, which included a raffle (I won the onyx edition of Monopoly), free stuff (I got the Nancy Pearl action figure!), and a story time.

The story moment was fabulous. A local writer, Suzanne Williams, came and spoke about her writing process, how she discovers her story-fodder, and then proceeded to read a couple of stories. Suzanne Williams had been an elementary librarian in the Kent and Auburn school districts before becoming a children's author, and came ready to tell stories. She was dressed in a princess costume and engaged very clearly with her audience.

The first book Williams read was Mommy Doesn't Know My Name
which was quite cute. She began by explaining how she came up with the concept and what inspired the story: she called her own 3 year old daughter "pumpkin," and her daughter indignantly told her, "My name is not pumpkin; it's Emily!" This inspired her to list all the pet-names she called her children, and then served as the inspiration for this book. She said that when she was a librarian and would read the book to children, she would give seven different children a mask and have them wear it when she got to that part of the book. (The mother in the book calls the daughter seven different names; the daughter, Hannah, imagines herself as each of them.)

Next, she explained about her Princess Power series (and that explained the princess costume!). Williams explained how she wanted to write about adventurous princesses, not ones who just pined away for boys. She talked about how she read a lot of fairy tales to get ready to write the 6-book series and tried to come up with new magical powers for each of the princesses that would correspond to their needs for adventure--a blue lotion that could heal bruises or cuts, a never-empty coin purse, a magical carpet--all of which would come in handy when out adventuring!

Then, she ended the time by reading her book Ten Naughty Little Monkeys. This books is a retelling of the old rhyme, "Ten little monkeys, jumping on the bed..." She retold it so that they do more than just jump on the bed and truly were mischievous. The illustrator for this book was great! Anywho, Williams explained how she used to tell that rhyme to her children while they were growing up and got tired of the monkeys simply jumping on the bed. She wanted them to do something else, and so wrote about it!

In all, this was an interesting performance. She wasn't very lively, but was a bit soft-spoken. Nevertheless, she was entertaining and engaging. Why? Probably because Williams maintained eye contact throughout the entire time. She didn't really read the books, but used them as aids to jog her memory as to what came next. (AFter all, she wrote the books.)

Great storyteller example

This was posted to the 561 discussion forum, but I thought I'd add it here as well. It's great. (From Smoke Signals)

Storyteller Numero Tres

Ok, one of the stories on the January podcast of storyteller.net is HILARIOUS; the story is "Bargain Shopper" by Kendra McGrane. It is FABULOUS. She makes use of a variety of storytelling styles, including the repetition of ideas such as "tall, dark, and handsome man" throughout the story to keep the ideas flowing. (ok, I know that there's a term for that, but I forgot.)

Storyteller Numero Dos

Debra Morningstar on storyteller.net tells the story of "Grasshopper Song." This story is told with wind instruments and traditional Native American song (though it's not clear what is the particular origin of the song). According to this story, the Grasshopper Song is a prayer to make the grass grow. The Coyote wants to learn the song and tries; he forgets and tries to force the grasshopper to teach him. Eventually, the story tells the tale of how the coyote has short front teeth and how people learned how to save grass seeds and plant them in order to make the grass grow.

Her voices for the different characters are entertaining and different. she makes the coyote seem slightly menacing (and he is the villain in the story) and the grasshopper sounds very happy. When she has the characters sing, they do not sing zany tunes, but rather sings the Native American song. (Again, I don't know what the particular Nation is, but it is from the Americas).

She keeps the story going by threading in wind instruments, whose music sets the tone for the story. The story was very interesting and quite different from others I'd heard.