Storytelling Guild Accreditation Sept 2008

Sunday, October 25, 2009

You would think that telling stories in front of a room full of storytellers would be easy wouldn't you? Sympathetic listeners, kindred spirits, all of that. But going for Accreditation with the Storytelling Guild was one of the hardest things I've ever done - storytelling-wise.
Sure, they're great listeners, and of course they are a fantastic responsive audience, but they are also very experienced in the art of storytelling, and know all the tricks in the book.
Anyway, I stood in the usual room at the Hughenden Hotel that we have our Teller's teas in, took a deep breath and plowed right in with asking the Riverside riddle question, and while they were thinking of that, the Guild president Vivienne very kindly agreed to be my volunteer as the lion in the story of the Dancing Lion. She did a great job, and telling a story that I've told for over twenty years allows you to relax into it, and play around with it as necessary.
The audience were then asked if anyone had solved the riddle. A few suggestions were made, but none really answered it, so then I told the story of The Riverside Riddle.
Eve Hoff and Stephen Martin also told for Accreditation.
We were then each called out individually to the dining area of the hotel to get feedback. How nerve-wracking - 3 professional storytellers doing a written critique of your telling. The feedback was great! One of the panel said she didn't have much written down because she was so engaged in the stories that she forgot to write! Music to a storytellers ears.
So, after telling stories for well over 25 years, I know am an Accredited Teller with the Australian Storytelling Guild (NSW)

Cross-cultural storytelling launch

An exciting new storytelling project is developing between the Ourimbah Campus Library and the Gibalee Centre at the Uni of Newcastle.
For several years, the Library has taken part in Open Day at the Campus with Library tours and storytelling. Annie Vanderwyk from the Gibalee Centre was interested in building on the storytelling by broadening it's scope and giving it a campus focus.
Thus was The Cross-cultural storytelling project born, where a region that is represented in the international student cohort is chosen as the focus for stories, and the tales are interpreted by Aboriginal performers/dancers from the local community.
For Open Day 2008, August 23, stories from Australia and Africa were selected and given new life by a group of talented young dancers with connections to the Uni.
This was the first time I had collaborated with anyone in my storytelling, and I found the process both challenging and very rewarding. I formalised my telling style much more than I normally do, and found that I needed to stick very close to the original telling as we'd rehearsed it, so that the performers knew where they were up to in the story. Being able to respond to the audience wasn't as easy, and meant that story couldn't be adapted on the fly to suit the particular group of listeners.
However, each performance brought new life to the stories, and the audience responded very positively to it. We will certainly continue the project in November with Kids Day Out.

Children's Book Week 2008

For the 4th year in a row, I celebrated Children's Book Week at St John's School, Woy Woy. A full morning of storytelling meant every child in the school was abe to share in stories that fit this years theme of "Fuel your mind."
The younger classes dramatised the story of "Caps for Sale", while the older classes volunteered a helper for the African story of " The Dancing Lion."
All classes laughed at the antics of silly dingo in "Dingo and Goanna play the tap sticks" and shook their heads at the arrogance of the village chief in "All things are connected."
As usual, every child and several of the teachers dressed appropriately to the theme, and the Library was decorated to celebrate CBW.
As usual, one of my favourite gigs of the whole year.
Here's a link to the Newspaper article about the gig.
http://digitaledition.expressadvocate.com.au/default.aspx?iid=9199&startpage=page0000031

Workshop for Uni business students

Aug 9, 2008 saw me leading 40 final year Bach of Business students of the Uni of Newcastle in an Organisational storytelling workshop. Combining the theories of Knowledge Management and Communities of Practice with practical storytelling examples meant that the students could see the application of stories in realistic settings. I had some great feedback from the lecturer and some of the students, about how they enjoyed hearing the stories as well and the more factual material. I had a business student approach me just recently this year who had heard about the workshop and wanted some info about Org storytelling for a presentation she had to do.

WriteNow 2008 Workshop

After not being able to do this at Challenge Ranch last year when Glenn had a serious work accident on the day, and my storytelling buddy Jo Henwood valiently jumped in at the very last minute, I was really thrilled to be invited to be part of the WriteNow 2008 activities at Challenge Ranch.
Only students in 5th and 6th grade who have string creative writing abilities get selected to attend the WriteNow camp. My job is to get their creative juices flowing with storytelling, and to set them a story creation task for the following evening.
I did this in a much more structured way this time, and sent a detailed outline to the co-ordinator of what stories I would tell, the issues we would discuss about each of them, and the follow-on activities that I would ask of the students. It was a great night, and we worked solidly for almost two hours. The stories used were 'Heaven and Hell'; 'Bedd Gelert'; and 'Sukkhe and the White horse.'

A dry spell

Between April and August was a dry spell for storytelling, although that allowed me to concentrate on my daugher, who was very ill for the first half of 2008.
I had a few storytelling inquiries during this period, but I either wasn't available on the date required, or the gig just didn't eventuate after the initial inquiry.
It did allow me to concentrate on my study in the times when my daughter didn't need me.

Catching up on storytelling activities

Apologies for not posting any news for such a long time. I've been doing the odd storytelling job here and there, but have really been focussing on my study. So the following few posts will be about each of the gigs I've done, every single one of which I've thoroughly enjoyed.
So first up, back to one of my favourite places to do storytelling, Challenge Ranch at Somersby.
On a balmy summer's night, I told stories to nearly 200 kids at Challenge Rach for a holiday Camp. Over two sessions, we shared stories in the stand alone huts on the far edge of the paddock. The walk through the night air added to the adventure of the experience, and made it something special after they cleaned up from dinner. The teachers/cousellors are always so welcoming, and these were a more lively bunch than I usually tell to at the Ranch, probably because it wasn't a school camp.
I had several volunteers in each group who asked to share a story with the group. I love it when that happens spontaneously. I have to confess to making several audience members cry, for the first time ever in one of my storytelling sessions. I told my reworked version of the Mongolian version of the 'Horse-head fiddle' and children cried in both sessions. I noticed a few of the adults tearing-up as well. A good result for a tragic story I'd say.
I also told the 'Riverside Riddle' a slow, languid tale that speeds up dramatically at the end and has a twist.