Welcome to the Monday 2nd Nov 2020
webpage of the
"Storytelling by and for Adults"
Series
(occurring via Zoom)
Presented by
This is a series of Open-mic
Storytelling sessions.
The sessions are usually held
on the first Monday of each month
beginning at 6pm India
time.
(If you are not in India, you could
determine the starting time in your
time zone at
www.thetimezoneconverter.com
.)
For the past seven years (starting in
2013),
this series occurred in a Cafe
Coffee Day in Chennai. Now
it is
occurring via Zoom videoconference.
Participating Storytellers are
requested to
1) tell stories that are especiallly
meant for adult listeners,
and
2) consider telling in the
during at least parts of their
performances.
Admission is free.
If you have not yet attended a session
in this series -- to register to attend the
the sessions, please send an email to
info@storytellinginstitute.org
___
Recordings :
6th July 2020 session --
Links to recordings are here.
3rd August 2020 session --
Links to recordings are here.
7th Sept 2020 session --
Links to recordings are here.
Monday 5th Oct 2020
Links to recordings are here.
Upcoming sessions:
Monday 2nd Nov 2020 -- The Program
is below.
Monday 7th Dec 2020.
Monday 4th Jan 2021.
Feb 2021 -- Chennai Storytelling
Festival 2021,
the 9th annual edition of this Festival.
____________________________________
"Storytelling by and for Adults"
Recordings of Storytellings
(and Discussions)
in our Session on
Monday 2nd Nov 2020
1) Jeff Gere tells "CC
Camp"
(a story about a supernatural encounter
with members of the First People of Hawaii).
2) Barry Stewart Mann tells "Swagger"
(a personal-experience story).
3) Ahn Sook tells "Jungsoo Monk becomes
the King's Counselor" (a Buddhist story).
4) Meher Gehi tells "The Wooden Sword"
(a folktale).
5) Priya Balasubramanian tells
"The Robin and
the Village: A Love Story"
(the story of an incident that occurred).
6) Sahil Raina tells "A Conversation that
Never Happened" (an original creative story,
inspired by a personal experience).
7) Nageswara Rao tells "Some of My
Experiences as a Math and Science Teacher"
(personal-experience stories).
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
Here are some "Storytelling via
Videoconference"
tips and suggestions:
1
There is no substitute for being very familiar
with the story one is going to tell, for knowing
the story inside and out. In addition to practicing
telling it to friends and family members, you could:
A) draw the events of the story, and/or B) write out
the story. But
-- the fewer words you memorise,
the better. And of course please do not read the
story aloud this coming Monday. Please seek to see
and feel the various parts of the story, and let your
words arise on their own, in improvised ways.
2
Before and during your performance: Visualise
the story situations -- and use words, tone of voice,
facial expressions, gestures, etc, to help your
listeners
also visualise these situations.
3
Alternate between speaking as the narrator, and
speaking as characters.
As much as possible,
speak as the characters -- let the characters speak
for themselves. Use unique ways of speaking and
moving for each character.
4
Take your time.
Do not rush. Take pauses, to let
things sink in.
Alternate between: A) Loud / soft.
B) High pitch / low pitch. C) Fast / slow.
5
Think about what is a key "meaning", a key
"point",
of the story for you -- and build your performance
around this.
6
Think about what is a key "turning point" of
the
story for you -- and build your performance around
this.
7
Consider the emotions that arise as you tell the
story.
If you feel these emotions, your listeners would also.
8
Alternate between looking at viewers' images, and
looking into the camera (which gives your viewers
the impression of eye contact with you). You might
set your Zoom window to "Gallery view" as you
tell,
or you might "pin" one listener's image
(magnifying it),
so you could tell especially to this person.
9
Notes about the "Candid" storytelling style
are at
http://storytellinginstitute.org/candid.html .
You might slip into and out of this style as you tell.
Please keep in mind --
_____ You have up-to-10-minutes to tell your
story. Immediately after this, there would be
up-to-10-minutes of (appreciative) discussion
about the story and the way you told it, and
possibly some role-playing with story characters
_____ The role-playing may involve me, you,
and/or others (imaginatively, and very respectfully)
speaking to and as characters in story that has
just been told. We do this to further immerse
ourselves in the stories. This activity often leads
to interesting discoveries about the stories, and
our reactions to them.
<end>
