Marc Kelly Smith
Danny Hoch
SlamNation the Movie promo
Taylor Mali: What Teachers Make
Saul Williams
Monday, April 21, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
Days 23 - 27
Wednesday
Absent: Alex, Alina (ex), Lindsey, Cassie, Caitlyn, Kaitlin, Chip, Ash
We listened to Spalding Gray "Monster In A Box"
His work exemplifies "talking without a net" giving us the sense that at any moment he might come up against some emotion or memory that wasn't scripted. His device of telling about the writing of a novel closely fictionalizing his real experience allows him to tell his story in the first person and the third person.
Friday: Gwenda LedBetter part 1
Monday: Gwenda LedBetter part 2
Wednesday
Absent: Drew
Viewing of Rex Ellis story from "The Call Of Story"
Discussion of socio-political issues in storytelling and theatre. The tendency of revivalist storytellers to skirt or omit controversial issues vs. the tendency of theatre soloists to confront issues head on.
Also discussed the formation of the National Association of Black Storytellers.
Friday
Absent: Ash
We read the monologue from Anna Deaver Smith's "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992." Discussion of storytelling as subversion and Smith's coming at the King riots indirectly. We viewed her performance of 4 interviews from "On The Road: A Search For American Character."
Absent: Alex, Alina (ex), Lindsey, Cassie, Caitlyn, Kaitlin, Chip, Ash
We listened to Spalding Gray "Monster In A Box"
His work exemplifies "talking without a net" giving us the sense that at any moment he might come up against some emotion or memory that wasn't scripted. His device of telling about the writing of a novel closely fictionalizing his real experience allows him to tell his story in the first person and the third person.
Friday: Gwenda LedBetter part 1
Monday: Gwenda LedBetter part 2
Wednesday
Absent: Drew
Viewing of Rex Ellis story from "The Call Of Story"
Discussion of socio-political issues in storytelling and theatre. The tendency of revivalist storytellers to skirt or omit controversial issues vs. the tendency of theatre soloists to confront issues head on.
Also discussed the formation of the National Association of Black Storytellers.
Friday
Absent: Ash
We read the monologue from Anna Deaver Smith's "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992." Discussion of storytelling as subversion and Smith's coming at the King riots indirectly. We viewed her performance of 4 interviews from "On The Road: A Search For American Character."
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Friday's Father
Our next 2 classes will be in the Carol Belk theatre. Gwenda LedBetter will perform Act II of Friday's Father in two parts, and lead discussion with class. Please be on time.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Final Project Guidelines
For your final project, design a solo performance work based on a combination of your personal stories AND received stories from world cultures. Included in your design should be at least 3 elements influenced by historical forms of storytelling. Also included should be at least one new story you have discovered from researching folklore and mythology.
Checklist for the finished project:
Final Projects for seniors are due on Monday, April 28. For all others, Thursday, May 7.
Checklist for the finished project:
- A brainstorming diagram of stories that you will draw from.
- An introductory synopsis of the performance.
- An explanation of your staging concepts including props, visuals, and music.
- An outline of your performance from beginning to end including stage action.
- A fully written version of your "key" story.
- An explanation of historical influences.
Final Projects for seniors are due on Monday, April 28. For all others, Thursday, May 7.
Death of an Actor On Stage
From The Internet Movie Database
"Shawn won a huge fan base, however, touring in one-man stage shows which contained a weird mix of songs, sketches, satire, philosophy and even pantomime. A bright, innovative wit, one of his best touring shows was called "The Second Greatest Entertainer in the World." During the show's intermission, Shawn would lie visibly on the stage floor absolutely still during the entire time. By freakish coincidence, Shawn was performing at the University of California at San Diego in 1987 when he suddenly fell forward on the stage during one of his spiels about the Holocaust. The audience, of course, laughed, thinking it was just a part of his odd shtick. In actuality, the 63-year-old married actor with four children had suffered a fatal heart attack. A not surprising end for this thoroughly offbeat and intriguing personality."
"The irony of his death on stage is that it went "unnoticed" because of Shawn's strict instructions to stage crews. He would tell all concerned that he was liable to do anything at any time, including pratfalls, and that they were not to react to this. At his last performance, it did not occur to anyone that something tragic had happened until it was felt that his lying motionless on stage had run the joke rather thin. It was only then that Shawn was discovered to have died doing what he did best; enthralling his audience with his marvelous humour."
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Underneath The Lintel
Our next reading will be Underneath The Lintel. Have it read by Friday of next week (April 4). If at all possible, you should see the play before reading it. the play opens this week at NC Stage in downtown Asheville. Wednesday is pay-what-you-can night with tickets for a $5 minimum.
Days 20 - 22
Wednesday. Absent: Kaitlin, Drew
Friday. Absent: Ash, Carly
This week we finished up some activities with form, working briefly with verse forms:
iambic pentameter and trochaic tetrameter. Some discussion of the use of verse forms influencing the development of content.
Discussion of 2.5 Minute Ride by Lisa Kron included looking at the diversity of stories that make up the composition.
Assignment to diagram the stories in some manner. Thank you Alina and Chip for you work.
We watched Hal Holbrook's 1967 performance of Mark Twain Tonight, a play created by the actor studying a large body of work and then compsing the program conversationally in the persona of Mark Twain. More on Hal Holbrook here. (Side note: Richard Corson's elaborate makeup for the young Holbrook launched his fame as a stage makeup artist. His book Stage Makeup continues to be a standard text in the art.)
Friday. Absent: Ash, Carly
This week we finished up some activities with form, working briefly with verse forms:
iambic pentameter and trochaic tetrameter. Some discussion of the use of verse forms influencing the development of content.
Discussion of 2.5 Minute Ride by Lisa Kron included looking at the diversity of stories that make up the composition.
Assignment to diagram the stories in some manner. Thank you Alina and Chip for you work.
We watched Hal Holbrook's 1967 performance of Mark Twain Tonight, a play created by the actor studying a large body of work and then compsing the program conversationally in the persona of Mark Twain. More on Hal Holbrook here. (Side note: Richard Corson's elaborate makeup for the young Holbrook launched his fame as a stage makeup artist. His book Stage Makeup continues to be a standard text in the art.)
Monday, March 24, 2008
Day 19
Absent: Alina (ex), Lindsey (ex), Ash, Alex
pop quiz to blank stares:
What is Kamishibai?
Who was Milman Parry and what did he discover?
What does Bånklesånger mean and what does it refer to?
Okay, I'm a softy. I let you have until Monday to tell me. But look out. Not next time.
Cowboy poetry. An abridged recitation of Robert Service's "Blasphemous Bill." A viewing of Waddie Mitchell telling "Belle of the Ball." An exercise in rendering our personal stores in rhyme.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Day 18
Absent: Alina (ex), Lindsey (ex), Kaitlin
Discussion of the aversion to storytelling in religions "of the book."
Forms of picture/object storytelling:
Especially significant this weekend are Stations of the Cross
Other forms still present today:
Felt/Flannel Board Storytelling: here's a link to a flannel board treatment of the folktale "Cap O' Rushes" (a source story for King Lear)
Power Point, Film Strip, Overhead Projectors.
Here is a link to an early form of animation that may have a storytelling function.
"Oldest Animation In The World Found In Burnt City"
Story told: Sky Woman's Basket.
Activity: game of "what is it?" applied to 3 little Pigs. the object can tell the story and the story can tell the object. The story itself can be considered an object that is modified to tell the story the teller wants to get across.
Assignments: Read "2.5 minute Ride" by Lisa Kron in Talk To Me.
Discussion of the aversion to storytelling in religions "of the book."
Forms of picture/object storytelling:
Especially significant this weekend are Stations of the Cross
Other forms still present today:
Felt/Flannel Board Storytelling: here's a link to a flannel board treatment of the folktale "Cap O' Rushes" (a source story for King Lear)
Power Point, Film Strip, Overhead Projectors.
Here is a link to an early form of animation that may have a storytelling function.
"Oldest Animation In The World Found In Burnt City"
Story told: Sky Woman's Basket.
Activity: game of "what is it?" applied to 3 little Pigs. the object can tell the story and the story can tell the object. The story itself can be considered an object that is modified to tell the story the teller wants to get across.
Assignments: Read "2.5 minute Ride" by Lisa Kron in Talk To Me.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Day 17
Absent: Caitlyn, Kaitlin, Cassie
Topic; storytelling with objects. Referencing World of Storytelling chapters 3, 4, 12.
Opening game with walking stick ("rhabdos") involving prop transformation a.k.a 'What is It?'
Marble Story: "Jason's Pearl"
String Story: "Cat's Cradle" "Jack & The Beanstalk"
Shoestring Story: "Rabbit"
Topic; storytelling with objects. Referencing World of Storytelling chapters 3, 4, 12.
Opening game with walking stick ("rhabdos") involving prop transformation a.k.a 'What is It?'
Marble Story: "Jason's Pearl"
String Story: "Cat's Cradle" "Jack & The Beanstalk"
Shoestring Story: "Rabbit"
Day 16
absent: Alina, Lindsey, Chip, Alex
Brief discussion of story mosaics- mostly working from Carly's example.
We watched and discussed "The Call of Story" dvd with storytellers Donald Davis and Carmen Deedy.
Story structuring formulae:
Donald Davis: Places, People, Problems, Progress.
Elizabeth Ellis: Ha Ha, Aha, Aah, Amen.
David Novak: To Place, To Reveal, To Relate.
Brief discussion of story mosaics- mostly working from Carly's example.
We watched and discussed "The Call of Story" dvd with storytellers Donald Davis and Carmen Deedy.
Story structuring formulae:
Donald Davis: Places, People, Problems, Progress.
Elizabeth Ellis: Ha Ha, Aha, Aah, Amen.
David Novak: To Place, To Reveal, To Relate.
Day 15
Continued conversation groups, creating story mosaics. We added "collective stories" with the personal stories. Examples: King Midas, Sleeping Beauty. The challenge was to fit the collective in among the personal stories. Notice the way stories can be used to understand stories. By putting different stories in relationship certain qualities are emphasized or accented.
Assignment: create story mosaics on your own, matching personal and collective stories. Diagram the mosaic and come to class ready to discuss.
Assignment: create story mosaics on your own, matching personal and collective stories. Diagram the mosaic and come to class ready to discuss.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Day 14
Absent: Kenny
We began a conversational activity to discover some of our latent "body of text."
I told the story of watching a lizard in my backyard when I was a boy. We reflected on that story and found other memories triggered by the tale. Chip took us on a virtual tour of the duck pond in back of his childhood home. From there we split into teams of 2 or 3 and did walk-thoughs of our places of memory. In the process, memories were recovered and stories were found. We then sat in conversation groups of 3 and 4 and began a mosaic-making activity in which each shared story is put onto a card and set in relation to previous stories.
Assignment: bring at least 3 new cards for stories to class on Wednesday.
We began a conversational activity to discover some of our latent "body of text."
I told the story of watching a lizard in my backyard when I was a boy. We reflected on that story and found other memories triggered by the tale. Chip took us on a virtual tour of the duck pond in back of his childhood home. From there we split into teams of 2 or 3 and did walk-thoughs of our places of memory. In the process, memories were recovered and stories were found. We then sat in conversation groups of 3 and 4 and began a mosaic-making activity in which each shared story is put onto a card and set in relation to previous stories.
Assignment: bring at least 3 new cards for stories to class on Wednesday.
Day 13
Absent: Alex, Kenny, Cassie
We watched Robin Williamson tell the tale of Tristan & Isolde. He shows one way in which a traditional bard may have mixed satire and local humor with the poetic and sublime material of the romance. Williamson's opening takes us from the present day into the story by way of the bus line to "Chapel Isolde." He makes jokes about America (California wine such as "My Wild Irish Rosé") even as he entrances us with the love magic that overwhelms the two heroes. He played the harp very effectively but when the story called for Tristan to play, he used comic pantomime. In these ways, the storyteller keeps the listener engaged with surprises and broken expectations and reinforces a sense of tribe with locally based humor and "in" jokes all the while creating a romantic tale that enchants our sense of place: Ireland's Chapel Isolde.
We watched Robin Williamson tell the tale of Tristan & Isolde. He shows one way in which a traditional bard may have mixed satire and local humor with the poetic and sublime material of the romance. Williamson's opening takes us from the present day into the story by way of the bus line to "Chapel Isolde." He makes jokes about America (California wine such as "My Wild Irish Rosé") even as he entrances us with the love magic that overwhelms the two heroes. He played the harp very effectively but when the story called for Tristan to play, he used comic pantomime. In these ways, the storyteller keeps the listener engaged with surprises and broken expectations and reinforces a sense of tribe with locally based humor and "in" jokes all the while creating a romantic tale that enchants our sense of place: Ireland's Chapel Isolde.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Looking Ahead
Welcome back everyone,
This week we will begin to explore story composition as we work toward our final assignment (see below). Towards this end, you will all participate in conversational storytelling activities intended to explore your own "body of text."
We will also continue our study of storytelling history.
As I look at contemporary storytelling and contemporary solo performance, I see a preponderance of confessional, personal narrative. Generally, the storytelling movement celebrates the attaining of wisdom, maturation and discovery via personal experience often drawing from family memories. The overall feel is one of wholeness and wellness. The solo performance genre tends to expose trauma and distress via personal experience, and concerns itself with woundedness and recovery. The overall feel is one of brokeness and endurance. We see in both the exploration of retribution, redemption, and responsibility.
In the midst of all this, I am left wondering what has become of the fictional tale? What has become of the 3rd Person narrative? The bulk of storytelling history concerns itself with the confabulation: the creating and maintaining of myth, fable, legend, and romantic history. In the post modern era, we are without the super structures of the past: pantheism, polytheism, monotheism, divine right, supernatural governance, etc.. In place, we have the cult of the individual, a pervasive solipsism in which we can only examine truth through our experience.
We will explore these ideas as we continue.
Here's what you have to look forward to as we begin the second half of our course:
Reading:
World Of Storytelling: Chapters 3, 4, and 12.
Talk To Me: "Underneath the Lintel"
Other:
Friday's Father Act II: tbd
Doug Elliott, "Groundhogology": tbd
NC Stage "Underneath The Lintel": tbd
Final Paper: Compose a monologue play incorporating personal narrative, folk narrative, traditional and theatrical storytelling.
This week we will begin to explore story composition as we work toward our final assignment (see below). Towards this end, you will all participate in conversational storytelling activities intended to explore your own "body of text."
We will also continue our study of storytelling history.
As I look at contemporary storytelling and contemporary solo performance, I see a preponderance of confessional, personal narrative. Generally, the storytelling movement celebrates the attaining of wisdom, maturation and discovery via personal experience often drawing from family memories. The overall feel is one of wholeness and wellness. The solo performance genre tends to expose trauma and distress via personal experience, and concerns itself with woundedness and recovery. The overall feel is one of brokeness and endurance. We see in both the exploration of retribution, redemption, and responsibility.
In the midst of all this, I am left wondering what has become of the fictional tale? What has become of the 3rd Person narrative? The bulk of storytelling history concerns itself with the confabulation: the creating and maintaining of myth, fable, legend, and romantic history. In the post modern era, we are without the super structures of the past: pantheism, polytheism, monotheism, divine right, supernatural governance, etc.. In place, we have the cult of the individual, a pervasive solipsism in which we can only examine truth through our experience.
We will explore these ideas as we continue.
Here's what you have to look forward to as we begin the second half of our course:
Reading:
World Of Storytelling: Chapters 3, 4, and 12.
Talk To Me: "Underneath the Lintel"
Other:
Friday's Father Act II: tbd
Doug Elliott, "Groundhogology": tbd
NC Stage "Underneath The Lintel": tbd
Final Paper: Compose a monologue play incorporating personal narrative, folk narrative, traditional and theatrical storytelling.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Blind Raftery The Poet
Blind Raftery was an historical figure whose verses are still with us. Robin Williamson's story of him can be considered a kind of bardic praise and wonder tale. Notice the use of formulaic passages and the constant quality of humor and mischief in his telling. The bard may not have been an entirely austere figure, if Williamson's performance is any indication.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Day 12
Absent: Tyler
Pellowski's definition (World of Storytelling, pg 18)
"the entire context of a moment when oral narration of stories in verse and/or prose, is performed or led by one person before a live audience; the narration may be spoken, chanted, or sung, with or without musical, pictorial, and/or other accompaniment, and may be learned from oral, printed or mechanically recorded sources; one of its purposes must be that of entertainment or delight and it must have at least a small element of spontaneity in the performance."
Discussion of "elements of storytelling performance." Here is a short list:
More general effects:
Pellowski's definition (World of Storytelling, pg 18)
"the entire context of a moment when oral narration of stories in verse and/or prose, is performed or led by one person before a live audience; the narration may be spoken, chanted, or sung, with or without musical, pictorial, and/or other accompaniment, and may be learned from oral, printed or mechanically recorded sources; one of its purposes must be that of entertainment or delight and it must have at least a small element of spontaneity in the performance."
Discussion of "elements of storytelling performance." Here is a short list:
- Audience: presence and interactivity. Can be conversational or ritualized ("ho?"/"hey!").
- Authenticity and Spontaneity of performance.
- Spelling and weaving: "Rhapsode" stitch + song. Combinatorics. Repertory. "Body of Text." Flow and Consistency.
- Minimalism/Simplicity. Low tech.
- Lyricism/Vocal skill and variety. Consider that the pleasure of speech is in the combined effects of voice and word.
- Didacticism: Common Ground yielding Meaning.
- Affective Hook: involving the emotions.
More general effects:
- Communication of Experience
- Conflict
- Entertainment/Delight.
The Week Ahead
Next week I will be performing and keynoting for the Timpanogos Mid-Winter Storytelling Conference.
Because of this, there will be no classes from Feb 18 - 27.
Instead, you will receive an extended mid-term assignment in the form of several readings and recordings. These will be distributed on Friday.
If you cannot attend class for some reason, please arrange for someone to pick this up for you.
Because of this, there will be no classes from Feb 18 - 27.
Instead, you will receive an extended mid-term assignment in the form of several readings and recordings. These will be distributed on Friday.
If you cannot attend class for some reason, please arrange for someone to pick this up for you.
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