Heads or Tales

Operation Homecoming

Last Saturday, I participated in an Operation Homecoming writing workshop.  Operation Homecoming is an effort by professional writers to encourage returning vets to write about themselves and their lives.  Our group consisted of three Viet Nam vets, one Desert Storm Vet and three Iraqi War vets.  The number of mentor writers equaled the number of participants: the head of the creative writing department for Miami University, a husband and wife from Cincinnati, who are both writers, two writers who flew in from New York, a screen writer who just moved from L.A. to Cincinnati and……me.  Towards the end of our four-hour session together one of the vets gestured towards me saying he has done talks in libraries and doing that kind of stuff wasn’t important.  My first reaction was embarrassment.  My second reaction was irritation.  My third was to rethink how I talked about storytelling, if I am invited back.  I’m pretty sure that guy didn’t have a clue about what telling a story is all about, so next time, I’m going to have to make sure people understand.  The other thing that comes to mind with a comment like that is why do people have to aim so high when they are just starting? No one talked about blogs, poetry nights, local magazines and newspapers, places that could be an immediate outlet.   The guy who pointed at me had a whole TV.  series planned.  I think we all see ourselves as the center of our own drama, and our ideas are original and important, to us.  So, my question is…Is it better to live in your head or to get out and test the waters?  

Planning a Storytelling Program

This summer I’ve been preparing for programs around Ohio.  When I plan a program I give a lot of thought to how I can create the most opportunities for connections between the audience and myself.  Nothing is better, for me, than when I look out and I see kids looking at me with their eyes wide open and their faces relaxed, and when I see the grown-ups smiling with their eyes wide open and their faces relaxed.  When that happens, I relax too, knowing that we are having a grand time all together and that all my planning and work beforehand paid off.  Here’s what I think about when I start to plan for a performance….

 

Who is the audience?  How old are they?  If there is a very definite age range I often take a look at Yardsticks by Chip Wood.  That book talks about kids by year and is very specific on social, developmental and school expectations.

 

How many will there be?  A really big audience needs more sound and maybe slower talking.

 

Where will we be?  A gym needs to have a great sound system.  Actually, a sound system goes great in smaller places too because it fills the room in a  warm way that a human voice, even a very strong one, can’t.   Also, lots of big kids sitting on the hard floor can be hard for their larger bodies, and they will need time to stand up and move.  Lots of little kids sitting on the floor might have more padding and not such gangly limbs, but they need opportunities to move as well.

 

The stories included in a program need to take the kids in a variety of directions and provide different experiences, and they need to tie in with emotional and developmental needs as well.  I try to provide at least one story that gives movement, one for deep listening, and one or more stories for laughing.  Elizabeth Ellis says that a program should have the following types of stories…”Ahh (one that is satisfying), Ah Ha (one that is surprising and Ha Ha (one for laughing).  She is so right.  An hour’s performance needs to take the audience in several emotional directions.

  

I like to make prior contact with the people who have hired me.  When I can talk to the person who has hired me, I can ask all the questions I have, and I can get a beginning feeling for the community I will be entering.  Having that person as a friend helps me feel welcome and secure.  Saying that, with all the planning and talking done, I like to come about an hour early to listen and talk to the people who will be attending.  Doing that helps me find stories I feel really glad to share.

The Peace Corps: Still Waiting ....

Here's a new comic from Nelson and me.  Go to the sidebar in the right hand column and click on " Still Waiting."  This is a short one.  Just click on each picture, and you'll be able to read it.  Click on "next" to go to the next page.  "Next" is in the upper left.

Storytelling, Music, Rhymes and Young Children

 

I’ve been working on the programs that I will do this summer for really little ones, ages three to five.  It’s always so much fun to think about what stories I’ll tell and how to weave them together and to imagine the good time I’ll have with all the children.  I think, especially with a very young audience, music and rhythm and rhyme are important.  My friend and storyteller, Bev Comer (www.beverlythestoryteller.com), commented not so long ago that young listeners need a reason to be in the story.  They need to have something to do.  I think she’s right.   I’ve been working on a version of “Hickory Dickory Dock”.  I’ve had that story for quite some time, but, this year, I’ve made some changes.  I have added a song for Henrietta, my mouse puppet, to sing as she is working her way up to the top of the clock, and I’m hoping to have the children be the clock ticking and even bonging when the hour strikes. Plus Henrietta has a very cool backpack.

 

If you’re a person who works with little ones, here’s my advice to you:

 

Find words that rhyme or phrases you can rhyme in stories you tell.  Don’t just tell the classics like the Billy Goats Gruff.  You can make a story out of any important thing in a child’s life.  Who has ears….why you wear a coat when it’s cold….why a worm is brown..those all are fertile story plots.

 

Have your character sing a song.  Can the children sing along with part or all? You don’t need to be a great composer.  In “Hickory Dickory Dock”, Henrietta sings, “Front paw. Front paw. Back paw. Back.  I’m a mouse who’s smart as a tack.”  That goes to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”  She sings three verses up and two verses down. “Back paw. Back paw. Front paw. Front. I’m as strong as an elephant”

 

Feel playful with your singing.  Have fun with your rhyming and everyone else will too.

Here are some story ideas to think about.  You'll find books about these folktales under their title in the library.

"I Know An Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly"--How many variations can you do with this one?  My friend Beverly uses a football.

"Who's In Rabbit's House?"  Rabbit shouts through his door and the voice shouts back.  A great spot for rhyming and joining in.

"The Tailor"  I made up a song and movements to go with this story as the tailor makes a story from his fine coat.  Think about it.  You can too.

"The Carrot Seed"  A great chance for rhyming and participation

Africa and the Peace Corps

 Take a look at THIS comic.  Go to the sidebar on the right and click on it.  Just click "next" to read each page.  There are only three. Yesterday, we were at Oakland Park nursery and saw an older woman accompanied by a much younger person.  The older woman had to have been from Africa.  She didn't have all the bright colors and cloth that would tell me she was from that continent, but when she spoke I heard her accent.  That's how I knew.  Also, I knew because she wore a heavy sweater in the heat of that spring day and a long polyester dress.  Round eye glasses with no frames glinted in the sunlight.  She wore a cloth hat with a brim and plastic shoes.  She was walking so slowly.  Her younger American friend was practically dancing circles around her, trying to walk at her pace.  Every few steps the older woman, probably my age, but she looked older, stopped and talked.  I'm sure that African woman was in a place that was confusing...so much language, so many cars, everything moving so fast, but she didn't seem to be anything but herself.  Someone who would not be rushed.

Looking Good in Comics

I've been flooding Nelson with comic ideas and he is burning up the drawing board.  This one is about drawing comics.  He can really draw himself well because he has been doing it all his life.  When it comes to drawing me, I feel I come out looking a little like a troll....I'm not saying there isn't any truth in that.  Click on the right side bar to see his new comic with me doing the words....it's called Looking Good in Comics.  I think this is a good one.

Babysitting Comic

This new comic is an embarrassing moment for me. Go over to the sidebar on the right to see it. The title is Babaysitting.  Nelson has been working on this comic for over a year.  I gave him a long story to work with, and yesterday he finished.  I'm much more at ease with all that babysitting stuff, I'm glad to say.

Peace Corps and Waiting

When Nelson and I applied to the Peace Corps two years ago, we waited a month and were given a possible assignment to the South Pacific.  All we had to do was get all our medical stuff in within the next six months or so.  Getting that medical clearance took longer and our slot in the South Pacific was given to someone else.  In January, we were told that if we would expand what we were willing to do and where we were willing to go, we stood a better chance of getting a posting.  Even though we initially said we didn’t want to be teachers and we didn’t want to go to Africa, it appears that we might be teachers in Africa.  We've been told that we might be in southern Africa and now it might be western Africa.  Since January, I’ve been under the impression that we would hear any moment about where we will be going.  Waiting for the phone to ring for four months is exhausting.  I’ve discovered that I have a two-week threshold before I have to call and hear that we will be called as soon as they know anything.  It’s like releasing steam from a steam valve.  I’ll be calling tomorrow or Monday.  I’ve also begun to take a hard look at this waiting period, since it may be as close as we actually get to become part of the Peace Corps.  I spend time each day reading at least one PC volunteer blog from Benin or Mali.  Today is Mali.  The blogs are encouraging and disturbing….great friends made, heat, dancing, disease.  The more I read the more I hope that we are up to the task.  This week I’ve been looking for folktales that reflect what I’m feeling.  Here are some I have found:

 

            The Blind Men and the Elephant…I feel that I only have pieces of what to expect and each one defines the experience in a completely different way.

 

            If It Belongs To Us It Will Come To Us—I found this Buddhist story in Thai Tales, Folktales from Thailand.  An old couple finds a pot filled with gold in a termite mound in their rice field.  The husband says if it belongs to them, the gold will find its way to them.  The wife, however, is all for taking it then and there.  The two go home and tell everyone about what they found.  Two robbers go to find the pot and take the gold.  What they discover, however, is a large snake.  Angrily, the robbers place the pot just inside the door of the old couple so that the snake will find them.  When the wife trips over the pot in the morning, she sees the gold.  Her husband is satisfied, saying that the gold found its way to them, and it is now theirs to keep.  

 

I like that the couple, without worry or concern, told everyone about the gold in their field and I like that only robbers went to take it.  Everyone else left the gold there for fate to play out.  I like the Buddhist approach of stepping back and not letting emotions cause suffering, which is exactly what I am experiencing in my Western mind as I wait for the phone to ring.

Storytelling Coaching

Yesterday I was lucky to be invited by my friend Lyn Ford to be a member of a coaching session she was doing for the local public radio station ,WOSU, as part of a program on storytelling.  Six of us, including Julie McGhee, the coachee and the lady with the microphone,  gathered in the downtown library ready to spend a couple of hours.  

Julie told the story of her grandfather coming from Ireland and meeting the lady who became his wife.  Afterwards, we all gave her some well deserved positive feedback and then started, ever so gently, to pick the story apart.  I think what I loved was to be able to respond as a listener and tell where the mental image that I was carrying got confused or lost.  I also loved that the whole group worked to find ways to smooth those problems out.  The questions we asked brought out some great stories from Julie.  Her grandfather, who couldn't read, was a little guy who stuffed his hat so he could be taller.  Most interesting to me was how much the truth was binding her. Making sure we got the facts stood in the way of giving us a verbal picture at times.  I think, in personal and historical storytelling, that’s a hanging place.  The facts feel so important.  The trick is to weave in what’s necessary while letting the characters be in charge.

 Here’s a quote from Tobias Wolf that I like:

   “In creating a story, you want to create a situation that calls on the resources of that character in ever deepening ways and ways that may even surprise the character himself.”

Peace Corps

Nelson and I have applied for the Peace Corps.  It has been a long process.  I have heard that thirty three percent of the people who even start the application process actually go through to the end.  I believe it.  Nelson has been requested to get a hearing aid, which I believe was a good thing, even though he questions it.  He also had to have a tooth fixed that he was ignoring.  Originally, we were told we would be going to the South Pacific, but, because of all the time it took to  fulfill our medical check-ups and must dos, we got closed out of that.  I was going to be an environmental educator and Nelson would do something with sewers and water.  When we first heard about that posting, I inhaled all the literature I could find and emerged with mixed feelings about entering a culture largely destroyed by missionary zeal.  Now, it has been tentatively been put out that we might find a place as educators in Southern Africa.  The funny thing is that two things, I initially said I did not want to do and where I did not want to go was: being a teacher and going to Africa.  After all the time and papers and waiting, it all sounds good. I’m delighted to go to Africa if we can.    Our assignment has not come to fruition and the reality is that it may not.  A site has to accept us with all our setbacks: age, teeth and hearing aids, and they have to have a place for two people, not just one.  Two, I am told is hard to place.  I’m thinking that in the next week or so we will hear something.