story telling

Storytelling, one of our oldest art forms, has many branches spreading from the trunk. All branches to various degrees are forms of entertainment and information transfer.

The literary tellers include: tellers using rote word memory to remain true to the author's manuscript, tellers who have changed the author's literary language to oral language, tellers who have adjusted the language and added their imbellishments, and tellers who have recast the literary story into a different inventive approach of telling the literary story as personalized experience. Folk Storytellers add into their memory banks a flowing serial image of a story and create the word patterns during the telling of the story. Between these two primary approaches of rote manuscript memory and flowing imagery memory are other approaches I'm aware of, but am unable to understand, other than the teller is unable to memorize words or see an image, but they are talented tellers.

Literary and Folk storytellers also share the same need to understand and develop their talent skills in supporting the storytelling with appropriate vocal and physical body language which I refer to as Para-language. Lack of para-language talent skills, while more subtle then poor word construction and tongue twisting errors, are a major deterent to effective communication.

Storytelling includes tellers who have collected and retold stories from their own culture and from other cultures, and tellers who have creative talents {and those who lack development in creative talent} who develop original stories.

How a story is told has as many paths as there are storytellers. Some tellers come from drama backgrounds and include, as example, monologuest storytellers, others rose from storytelling cultures and family traditions, others simply stepped out on stage and told stories.

Stories arrive from many paths and the tellers have arrived from many paths, but all storytellers have in common the need to expand and develop their speaking talents, for this is a public speaking art form and there are very specific identifiable talent skills to understand and acquire. There are talent skills that need to be used in all lingual communication situations that do not change from one to one communication or from one to a group communication and there are additional lingual talent skills to be used in accordance to the environmental speaking conditions including audience and space.

All lingual storytelling includes both theater of the stage and theater of the mind telling talents. A storyteller who plans to entertain on stage should decide and control the audience's focus - either the action on stage {theater of the stage} or focus the audience on their own mental imagery {theater of the mind}. An audience also can focus on both the teller on stage and their own flowing imagery. There is no right or wrong entertainment between theater of the stage or theater of the mind, but the performing storyteller should have the talent and knowledge to choose which of the two forms to use and when to shift during a telling in lieu of basking in ignorance and letting chance shift between the two entertainment forms.

Diagnosed talent errors are most often a pattern in an aspect of speech or a failure to support the spoken word with appropriate verbal and physical para-language. Patterns and inapt para-language diminish effective communication. The most well known vocal para-language error, for example, is the monotone pattern. Every facet of a teller's voice is either a pattern interfering, or is neutral, or is supporting the flowing moment of the story. Body para-language errors include any unconscious, but controllable physical activity, distracting to a listener that fails to support the flowing moment of the oration.

Actors on stage have planned movements called blocking that supports the play. Storytellers on stage that have not planned their body movements (Blocking) to support the flowing movement of the story either need to be neutral {stand still} or move with a reason. Hand gestures {after one finely learns to get their hands up and communicating} have to be trained to tell the same story or know when to be neutral. In this case neutral can be up in view but motionless waiting for the next que. Eye contact is looking at a member of the audience until you know they know you are looking at them and at random shifting, not head bobbin back and forth or gawking down one's nose unless you are another Pete Seeger.

Boredom - I mean boaring boaring boaring Storytelling is listening to straight narration. "But that's my style I use with kids!" Well look out some day they will become free of their ball and chains and come looking for you! And if they can't find you they take it out on their parents during their teens.

Always substitute at every opportunity Character thinking out loud and Characters in dialogue and learn to change para-language, physical and vocal and Word Per Minute speaking rate with a little accent for each character. It ain't no big deal, just turn your child lose on stage cause if'n your willin' to be a fool, God, well He's willin to make you wise.