Welcome to the Monday 5th Oct 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.
Upcoming sessions:
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
for our Session on
Monday 5th Oct 2020
1) Sephie Shochat-Beeri tells
(found on the Internet).
2) Ramya Srinidhi tells
"The Woman Who Married a Man 5 Times"
(a folktale from Turkey).
3) Zarin Maraikayar tells
"The Land Where Women Were Banished"
(a folktale from Saudi Arabia).
4) Smita Rajan tells
"One Day"
(an original creative story).
5) Hemalatha Ramesh tells
(a mythological story).
6) Ed Lewis tells
"The Story of the Pierce College
(a personal-experience story about when
Ed was a preschool teacher in a college
Child Development Center in the Los
Angeles area for children 2.5 to 6 years
old).
7) Sue Hodson tells
"The
Day Winnie Mandala Smuggled Her
and Nelson Mandela's First Grandchild
(a historical story)
____________________________________
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.
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