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Why work in this fashion? Well for one it breaks the third wall in a very special way. One can actually reach out and touch ones audience members, clink mugs and adjust ones programming according to their expressions. Certainly this can be done in a theater but one gains a greater sense of control through a cluster instead of a crowd. And one can pay greater individual attention to ones audience. One can also judge them more effectively when one is using a tighter lens so to speak.

Picking the right story for an individual that you meet in passing can be very powerful. One is also afforded a greater selection of stories that you might want to tell by having the luxury of picking your crowd cluster or individual. You are not limited to what you are hired to do. You choose what to speak about and find the right people to tell it to. Or the people you encounter choose what you speak about. This sort of randomness is exciting. On a festival day I have no idea what stories I will be telling or where in a venue I will be telling them. I simply go for a walk with a mushroom stool on my head and I try and catch as many smiles as possible and turn them into stories. After they’ve enjoyed my tale they will tip me or buy some of my merchandise.

For some reason the threat of being turned down for a single story is far easier to deal with than being turned down for a full hour performance. There is less at risk because there is less to gain. Though sometimes the telling of a single story to a crowd passed by will sell several CD and gain good tips.

The Challenges of working this way are great. People that come to a storytelling concert or hire you for an event are familiar with what you do. Working the street at a festival people did not ask for you by sitting down. You are asking them and you cannot be offended when they say no nor can you take no at face value. A lot of things are going through their mind such as, if you suck this could be really embarrassing. Or you must not be very good otherwise you would be on one of the stages. It is a futile effort to explain to them that I choose to work this way, that stages have been offered to me and that I refuse them. You can’t explain to people that this is actually a very powerful way of experiencing storytelling; the only way is to do it for them. Then you must keep them there using charm, body language, and sound effects.

The strongest weapon one has an intimate storyteller is to make it be about them more than it is about you. And you have the luxury of getting to nod with them as if you were in conversation. Because you are only five feet away this is natural. Some people are uncomfortable with someone working up close. You can either maintain eye contact to keep them until they are comfortable or shift to those that are. Sometimes you will encounter a group that is of split mind. Meaning several have the inclination to move on while others want to stay awhile. You can choose to play to the stayers or the goers. Sometimes they will go, but this is rare if I’ve set up the encounter right.

Other challenges include weather. Sometimes I have to work out in the pouring rain or sandstorms. You have to be a warrior to keep peoples attention. Fortunately they wouldn’t be out there in that situation if they weren’t warriors of happiness themselves.

Lastly how does one become paid for this sort of work? First you must convince festival officials that this sort of work is valid. The second is that one should be tipped to the people you perform for, the passers by. A direct hat line such as is done in common circle street acts cannot be done.

Storytelling as outdoor theater in the street can be a rewarding experience fraught with challenges it has many rewards.

Other things I will be discussing will be the fusion of storytelling and magic. When it is effective and when it is not. The uses of visual focus.

I would also get into storytelling as a character and how that shapes your work.

I am sorry to report that the conference call was not recorded - due to a technical problem or a mistake on my part. I don’t really know why. This has never happened before, where a whole recording was lost, in any of the 60 hours of recorded interviews I have done so far, but – hey their is a first time for everything. I apologize if this is annoying to you – you have no idea how much annoying this is to me.

Just goes to prove my point that you will wish you were there live for the call. In any case, I hope that you will participate if or when we hold another open forum on the future of NSN.

Peace

Eric Wolf
Host of the Art of Storytelling with Children Talk Show
http://www.storytellingwithchildren.com

Sally Crandall writes…

This Tuesday, I’m looking forward to talking with Eric about historical storytelling. When I take on the creation of an historical story, I look at it as an opportunity to go back in time and explore places and people. The first story I told was about the 1913 flood, which changed the future for Columbus and for Ohio. I was sitting in my kitchen one summer afternoon when I heard a survivor of the flood, Ida Griswold, tell her story during a radio interview. I called her up, and, even though she shouldn’t have, she let me come over and spend a day getting to know her and see the house in which she grew up and which survived the flood. She pointed out the crack in the window caused by a floating telephone pole, and told me her dad never fixed it, and she never would either.

I’m excited to be talking with Eric about some of the stories I tell and about their specific uses in the classroom. A few years ago, I spent several days in Cleveland at a Kennedy Center Workshop for teaching artists. It was a valuable experience. There I began to explore the idea of using the drama idea of tableau, or frozen pictures, with students to explore the history and characters in the stories I tell. I hope listeners call in with questions and their own experiences.

Sally’s Blog
http://sallycrandall.typepad.com/

Sally’s Home Page
http://www.sallycrandall.com/

Folktales bring us the wisdom of the ages. They have been honed and shaped over centuries. They are there for everyone, functioning on the one hand as entertainment and on the other through offering so many layers of meaning that they are accessible to all. Adults may proclaim that Jack and Ti-Jean, Cinderella and Red Riding Hood (and all those other lesser-known heroes and heroines of the stories we ought to be telling more often) are archetypes. Children simply recognize in these long-lived characters various aspects of their own being. Folktales become then one of the places where children experience what it is to know themselves as adventurers.

Once upon a time, there was a storyteller called Joan Bodger who was running a Headstart program in Harlem. It was before Headstart got going. Experts came to visit, to see what all the fuss was about. One of them asked Joan, somewhat disparagingly, “What do you want for these children?” Joan answered, “I want them to be poets and princes. Poets to the extent that they have command of their own language. Princes – you know, like the heroes in the old stories: they may be shoveling the muck in the stables but they will stand at the centre of their own lives.”

We cannot imagine a parent or educator who would not have a similar aim (although we would, of course, say “princesses” as well). We’ve both been working with children for many years now – Jan as storyteller and writer of books for young people; Jennifer as storyteller and specialist in arts education. We’ve seen how a story told seems to be able to leap directly over barriers to some deep place of understanding we know will stand young listeners in good stead. We do not set out to be teachers but we are aware that the folktales inform and instruct as nothing else can. “What will you carry away with you from what you’ve heard today,” we ask often. The answers are always surprising and always heartfelt.

Here’s something else. The folktales belong to oral tradition. They were meant to be remembered and they are. Go into a school once, come back a year later, two years, meet the same children. They will always be able to name the stories told. That speaks volumes for how well the stories must be doing their work of handing on a torch of strength from those who have gone before us and in whose steps we tread.

We do not believe the folktales are “pure magic.” We believe they must be handled with care.

Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on April 15th, 2008 at 8PM ET when I spoke with Jeff Gere on Thinking Big with Radio and TV on the Art of Storytelling with Children podcast.

A BLUEPRINT: I offer a blueprint based on my evolution here in Hawaii mapping a progression from a teller to a story producer of a Festival, a radio, and TV series. I believe it is vital for us to moving storytelling into the blood stream of the mainstream.

MY OPINION: Storytelling is like folk music before Peter Paul & Mary. Its self-image loves small and intimate, is largely adverse and suspicious of media and documentation while the REST of the Web Entertainment World explodes bland content in an ever-growing variety of methods and technologies. Content is King, storytelling is a DEEP WELL of PROFOUND CONTENT, but it/we are NOT reaching the fast-food masses. Our self-image does not serve us. I believe there’s a need for Storytelling. We have an opportunity: We who drink in this well ARE the ones to bridge this gap, get OVER our techno-phobia, and feed this rich story mana to the Masses. OK, you say, but HOW?

“The First impediment is self-imposed” Helen Keller.

A FLOOD BEGINS WITH A DROP: (you): Start with YOURSELF. Do your homework, find your Voice & polish coal into a jewel with your tongue. Tell tell tell tell and tell: THEN get biz card, resume, and website. Start small and (more…)

Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on April 8th, 2008 at 8PM ET when I spoke with La’Ron Williams on supporting peace and social justice through storytelling interviewed on the Art of Storytelling with Children podcast.

Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on April 1st, 2008 at 8PM ET when I spoke with Jackie Baldwin and Kate Dudding on the storytelling in schools website interviewed on the Art of Storytelling with Children.

(from Storytelling Magazine) - Quantitative Studies * Innovative Projects
by Jackie Baldwin and Kate Dudding
Who will be interviewed on the Art of Storytelling with Children on this coming Tuesday April 1st at 8pm ET.

First, we must confess a strong bias. We believe that storytelling belongs in every school around the world, and we want to encourage and support that goal. Here’s how we went about it with our project, Storytelling in Schools.

As pressures build in schools for national testing, reporting and accountability, many people feel storytelling can be eliminated in schools. However, we knew that there were many quantitative studies documenting the methods and effectiveness of using stories and storytelling techniques in traditional classrooms to help teach the standard curriculum. But these studies were not (more…)

Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on March 4th at 8PM ET when I spoke with Mark Morey on the Art of Mentoring.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008
For Immediate Release

Contact: Eric James Wolf
Phone: (937) 767-8696

Margaret Read MacDonald reviews the Art of Storytelling with Children podcast in Storytelling Magazine

The review appears on page 41 of the March/April 2008 edition of Storytelling Magazine and I am happy to tell you that Margaret Read Macdonald (MRM) wrote a glowing review of this show. Storytelling Magazine is the United States’ only magazine dedicated to the continuation of the oral tradition for both amateurs and professionals. MRM is one of the most respected and accomplished children storytellers in the United States.

Not only did MRM call the show “an invaluable resource for all.” she also said that the show “…provides a window into the minds of other tellers, and allows us to listen in on the conversations we would love to have if only we could meet them face to face.” MRM called Eric Wolf “a skilled interviewer” and said he is “obviously well prepared for his guests and full of enthusiastic curiosity about them.” To read the full review you will have to check your copy of the magazine or go to your local library.

I created a promo for the show with MRM as a previous guest.
You can listen to it right now if you wish.
Play Promo at…
http://www.switchpod.com/users/brotherwolf/PromoMRM.mp3

I interviewed her on show #036 Margaret Read Macdonald
- Telling across language barriers. Read more at….
http://www.storytellingwithchildren.com/2007/12/06/margaret-read-macdonald/
Hit the Play button to listen to the interview.

Press Seeking more information should first read…
http://www.storytellingwithchildren.com/category/press-release/
Press Contact Email: peace@ericwolf.org

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