Welcome to the Monday 7th Sept 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
___
6th July 2020 session --
Links to recordings are here.
3rd August 2020 session --
Links to recordings are here.
Upcoming sessions:
Monday 7th Sept 2020
-- The Program is below.
Monday 5th Oct 2020.
Monday 2nd Nov 2020.
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"
Monday 7th Sept 2020
A link to the recording of each telling
is here.
1) Anubha
Tiwary tells "The Magician"
(adapted from The Indian Epics Retold,
by R. K. Narayan).
2) Geethanjali
Javed tells "A Lesson for Life"
(a personal-experience story).
3) Mani Nachiappan
tells "Breakthrough"
(a personal-experience story).
4) Sandhya Naren tells "Kunjan
Nambiar and
Ottam Tullal" (a legend about how
Ottam Tuallal,
an art of Kerala, was invented).
5) Uma Jairam tells "And
Thus Began the Dialogue"
(an
episode from a myth).
6) Murali Dhar tells "Ulysses Returms to Ithaca"
(an episode of Ulysses, also known as Odysseus,
an ancient Greek epic).
7) Rinah Sheleff tells "Conversations
with My Selves"
(a personal-experience 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
https://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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