Yesterday, I rehearsed the piece I want to do for the Austin Fringe in Jan. called Adventure and Romance: Not For the Faint of Heart. It’s a 25-minute story about Nelson and I in the Peace Corps last year. I asked Lyn Ford, a fine storyteller, to be my coach. We set up in her living room, and I stood in the sunlight of her big front window and began. Half way through, my brain forgot where it was in the story and I had to stop and wait for it to reload. I did finish the story, but the part I felt most confident of took a long time to recall, and I was surprised. On the way home and into the evening I had almost flashbacks of Rwanda….even of dreams I have had. It was a little scary. I wonder if telling that story in its entirety to a stranger triggered something. Today I can remember the order of the story, but I am left wondering what happened.
Often when I have to remember something…especially foreign words…I go through a period of time when there is a blank space in my brain. I just have to revisit it and revisit it until a road is carved and the new phrase is there. The experience yesterday felt a little like that. The only part I’ve memorized of the story is the outline and the ending, but it was those parts that my brain suddenly threw aside. It feels like there’s something I’m rejecting or something I’m hesitant to admit. Something that has to be smoothed out for me to be able to really tell that story. In my opinion, all of those obstacles are to the good. Telling the story, in the end, will be richer.
Clik here for the Frontera Fest website.
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