The famous actress and teacher, Uta Hagen described many techniques in her marvelous book, Respect for Acting. I have previously spoken of The Endowment Exercise (click here) as a way to give life to objects in your story.

Here is another exercise that will assist you with using detail in your stories. Remember, this is an exercise to flesh out a large amount of detail. Once you have done that, you must still make a decision regarding how much of that detail you will use.

The exercise is to “Re-create TWO MINUTES of your life.” Remember, just brushing your teeth can take the whole two minutes. Take two minutes out of your life, and then re-create it on stage. For the storyteller, this means re-create it in the detail of describing what is happening.

To begin this exercise, I am reminded of storyteller and mime, Antonio Rocha, whose admonition was to clearly "observe".

Authenticity comes from research and observation. One must observe without judgment.

So, now we must make sure we are observing the details (without judgement) of just two minutes of our life. This could be something that YOU are doing, or something that you are watching or experiencing.

• Waiting to get on the bus, behind people with large packages.
• Waiting in line at the grocery store, behind a person, slowly counting out their change for the exact amount to give to the cashier.
• Shopping the produce section of the grocery store, you or observing someone else (or both of you).
• Watching a bird in the park, hop around, occasionally pecking at the grass for something to eat.
• Watching a mother and child at the airport (after three hours of waiting for the plane).
   
• Watching your dog eat its food
  I open the large, twenty-pound bag of dry dog food. I reach in and grab the measuring cup that I have left inside the bag, for convenience. I scoop up the measure of the dry kibble and gently drop it in her heavy, green, plastic, bowl. I throw the measuring cup back into the bag and seal it up with its zip-style closure. I back away to give her room. I look down at her and say, “There you go. Ready for breakfast? Go ahead, eat your breakfast.”

She looks up at me, and then looks toward the bowl. She sits. I know that she won’t approach the bowl until I walk away. I leave the kitchen with another, “Okay, go eat your breakfast.” She waits for a few seconds, then approaches the bowl. She puts her nose down closer to the food and sniffs for a moment.

She appears to start to eat, but in reality, she merely picks up two pieces of the kibble and walks out of the kitchen and onto the living room carpet. She puts her head down and tosses one piece about six inches in front of her, and the other, drops just under her chin. She eats the closest piece, then stretches her neck to grab the other piece in front of her, and crunches on that one. She doesn’t acknowledge me but walks slowly back into the kitchen and her bowl. Once again, she picks up two pieces of food and comes back to the living room carpet. She repeats the two drops, and separately eats them again. This process is repeated at least one more time, with great accuracy. Eventually, she will the go back to the kitchen and stay to eat the rest of her food, directly from her bowl.

I don’t know why she has that particular routine. She has always done it that way. I wish I could ask her why. Actually, I have asked her, out-loud, several times. "Why do you do it that way?" She never answers.

Well, that's just about two minutes of detail. What to leave in, what to take out? That's the $64-dollar question! The answer: It all depends. What's the story about? How long is the story? How long is the set? If the set is one hour, and this is a 20-30-minute story, all about your dog, you may want to keep all of it. If the story is shorter, and not specifically about your dog, you night need to edit it down. As always, Salt to taste (click here).

Remember - TWO MINUTES in real time!

Feel free to post your own two minute detail narrative in the comment section below, for others to read!

GCC STUDENTS:  Yes, I know it's Spring Break, but I am still offering extra credit. Here's a big one. Do the exercise above. Then re-create the details of the two minutes with a narrative, similar to the one about my dog.  You can pick ANY two minutes of your life. E-MAIL the narrative to me in a WORD document. mark@storytellermark.com MAKE SURE YOU PROOF YOUR SPELLING AND GRAMMAR! Must be received by me no later than THURSDAY Mar 15 at 2:00 PM (giving you two extra days than normal.) Totaal POSSIBLE points=25.