From the Stage. . .
or the Page
Art from Rachel's Perspective
As one of the symbols of the New Year is a baby, it may be no surprise that my husband and I wanted to have everything completed for our part of the adoption process.
Now come the waiting and the hoping.
We have been married for over eight years, and we have always wanted children.
Motherhood and adoption was on my mind while interviewed by two different local newspapers on December 18th (http://tinyurl.com/utfrogkisser) and December 24th (http://tinyurl.com/davisfrogkisser) in regards to the newly released Frog Kisser CD.
Suddenly, I wondered how many folktales delved into adoption. How close were these tales to the adoption process today?
With 2010, it seemed as good as any time to dub it the "Year of the Family". Though, every year should be "Year of the Family".
Then, that phrase took hold as well as an idea to publish a book entitled "Year of the Family: 12 adoption tales to place in your home & to value the process today". Perhaps my experience as a storyteller and as a prospective adoptive parent could help others.
Any parent--biological or adoptive--could embrace such a book and receive comfort and joy from the love we give each other when we create families.
Besides my experience with the adoption process--with still much adventure to come--part of the inspiration came from the book "Happily Ever After: Folktales that Illuminate Marriage and Commitment" by Meliss Bunce.
If you know of any adoption folklore stories, please share with me through info@rachelhedman.com. You might see your name in the dedication and credits.
 Cap's Off to You
Featuring: Casey Hedman
Loyal Listener & Rachel's Husband
Layton, UT
With the New Year, it seemed a time to truly kick-off for the "Year of the Family" by exploring my husband's views on storytelling, especially as he supports me in this art.
Ever since a 10-year-old boy, Casey recognized the skill his neighbor, Lora Schmidt, has as a storyteller. Adults noticed the talent, too, and sometimes invited her to tell a story or two at neighborhood or church gatherings.
Lora was not the only well-known storyteller to Casey. During elementary and junior high schools, he watched Bill Cosby's stand-up comedy routines that felt more like expanded stories rather than the typical rapid-fire jokes that most comedians would use. Casey particularly enjoyed when Cosby described the moment of confronting his son about his "pig-sty" room.
Casey smiled and reflected, "My dad used some of the same words about my room."
It was the humor found within personal narratives that drew Casey the most to the art of storytelling. He exclaimed, "That makes everyone a storyteller, in that sense." Casey added, "It's like a member of your family telling you a funny story that happened to them or one of their kids. . .only the professional storytellers have a better way of telling it."
Though Casey is quick to say that he is not a professional storyteller, he did tell a story while at a storytelling guild summer party for families rather than pass the opportunity.
Casey teased his wife, "I tell stories once every seven years. . .in public."
If you hang around Casey enough, you would hear stories more often. In fact, it was through the form of story that Casey proposed to Rachel. He focused on the story of their relationship merged with fairy tale terms and ended with an "eternally ever after".
Besides one-on-one storytelling, he has noticed a larger scale of storytelling online.
"The world is getting smaller, and social media makes storytelling more readily available--whether [people] recognize it or not as 'storytelling'." Casey continued, "They may now know it is 'storytelling', but they would recognize the performance aspect. They may look back and realize storytelling for what it is."
Thank you, Casey.
You are one of the many who recognize storytelling for what it is and what it could be.
What are your loyal listener memories? Email your story to
info@rachelhedman.com.
Random Rachel Ideas (RRIs)
Ideas for the Art to Embrace
National Forensics League will have storytelling as a national category with the same rules for competition rather than the scattered rules that differ from district to district.
Although there are 50 states, there are 104 districts that hold Forensics, public-speaking contests. The storytelling category developed between 1960 and 1970. Yet, each district determines if this category would be available to students. The rules could also be different.
A Minnesota district has a student draw three titles of stories from a total of 10-15 stories previously chosen by NFL. The student has half an hour to prepare one of the three titles. Then, a Kentucky district requires that the story be published. A Hawaii district urges the student to retell a story in their own words and much emphasis on gestures and movement. Two Wisconsin districts have rules that consist of five decided types of stories to choose each year and each round has one of these stories told with no repeats.
Besides local tournaments, storytelling is available at the National Tournament but only as a supplemental/consolation for the finalists who do not get pass the first round of judging.
If the districts which offer storytelling had a conference call or meeting, perhaps one set of rules for the storytelling category could be agreed upon and pave the way for it to be available at the National Tournament beyond a consolation level.
This could happen.
 YouthTellerTip
3 featured from Daily YouthTellerTip from Twitter (StorytellingAdv)
1. Share storytelling skills on avoiding fast talk, fidgeting, and forced gestures in comical way with you as "bad" example.
Youth have energy that could be directed as positive strength for storytelling. Otherwise the energy could transform into fast talk, fidgeting, or even forced gestures. The youth may not even be aware that they do these habits. When you provide the "bad" examples, exaggerate so that there would be no doubt as to what the youth need to watch for in the art.
2. Teach storytelling microphone etiquette so they feel like stars. Kindergartners could have more stage presence than adults.
Youth may be perfect in their performance until it comes to working with a microphone. Homes are not usually equipped with microphones so taking something as simple as a paper towel roll could work for the youth to practice having one hand while telling. However, nothing can replace a real microphone, as youth need to understand about feedback sounds and the distance to hold the microphone to their mouths.
3. Storytelling staging is not the same as theatre staging. Drama teachers who coach tellers need to know the differences.
Drama teachers need to be coached as to storytelling staging to avoid youth learning theatre techniques that would be hard to unlearn later on. Tandems and tridems are popular with youth, though this is where staging becomes even more important. Kids are tempted to look at each other rather than the audience. The loss of eye contact then transforms a storytelling experience to a theatre experience. The kids could single out an audience member that they could pretend is their partner on the stage. Share the excitement of looking at your audience rather than stressing the scariness of such a feat.
Game of the Month:
Story Amoeba
Shared by Rachel Hedman, creator
Audience: youth to adults
Level: intermediate
Items Needed: None
Number of Players: 10-30
Roles: Heads (at least two) and Tails (all others)
Ave. Playing Time: 10 min. to however long you want to play
One-Liner: resembles story race between two or more amoebas as people latch onto each other and build stories until everyone is connected
Instructions:
A large area of about 30' by 30' or more allows for more excitement for the game. At least two people need to be the Heads of the amoebas, with roughly one Head per 10 or more people. The decision for the number of Heads also depends on the number of stories to be told at the same time. Everyone else will be potential Tails for any of the amoebas.
Each Head has the goal to be the longest amoeba by the end of the round. A Head approaches a potential Tail and starts a line of a story such as "The forest was known to be magical and the villagers kept away from it." The Tail grabs onto the Head's waist and adds another line to continue the story.
The Head and Tail walk together, still latched at the waist, and approach another potential Tail. The Head repeats the first line--with tweaks if desired, the first Tail repeats their part, and then the next Tail adds to the story. This Tail grabs onto the end and so on.
The quicker that the people come up with their stories, the faster they could build their story amoeba.
The other Heads are also running around and attempting to develop their stories.
When everyone is latched together in some way, the round ends. Another round could start with different people as the Heads.
Repeat for as many rounds as desired.
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