More Storytelling Crowd Sourcing! Caleb Winebrenner is a community storyteller, teaching artist, and the Activities Director at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Phoenix. Having recently moved to the Valley, he is "crowdsourcing" his forthcoming book, The Community Builder’s Playbook. It's a book of innovative games and story structures designed specifically for community and youth development. It’s not a manual or a technical handbook, but an accessible collection of different ways to play in community.
Storytelling Concert to Video Stream Online Wednesday - September 25th
Cassie Cushing, now living in Berkeley California, has created a show that is a blend of storytelling and visual art. Three tellers – Cassie Cushing, Tim Ereneta, and Pam Faro – will regale you with daring and thrilling tales of gods, heroes, adventure, and delight. Magician Keith Boudreau will dazzle, amaze and befuddle. Simultaneously, local Berkeley artist Salma Arastu will draw illustrations as she listens to the stories, in a spontaneous act of creativity and a coming together of storytelling and visual art. Wednesday, September 25th – mark your calendars for awesomeness! Probably the most innovative one is that they will be doing LIVE VIDEO STREAMING of the performance.
Odyssey Storytelling in Tucson Thursday, October 3rd
This curated Storytelling event in Tucson is in it's 11th year! Six people are invited to tell ten minute, personal stories on a theme in front of an audience. The stories are not read or memorized, they are told from the life experiences and creativity of the teller. This month: THE SPONTANEOUS SHOW! (with Tucson Improv Movement)
AZ Republic Live Storytelling Thursday, October 3rd Home is Where the...Stories of the places most special to us.
Celebrate our emotional homes, our childhood homes, our first homes, our vacation homes, our spiritual homes, our family homes.
Featured tellers: Michael Heller, Gabe Williams, Kim Porter, Tom McDermott, Liz Fichera, Nicole DeLeon, Diane Jacobs. It is not necessary to pay for Garden admission to attend.
Gertrude’s at the Desert Botanical Garden - 1201 N. Galvin Parkway - Phoenix AZ 85008
Tickets are selling swiftly! Make sure you buy yours because we only have 110 seats at this venue and no way to add more.
$10. $5 for students. Buy tickets at brownpapertickets.com. A portion of the proceeds benefits Republic Charities.
Greek & Roman Myth Throw Down Friday, October 4th - 6:30-8:30 pm
Be part of the fun! Join everyone at South Mountain Community College as twenty-six storytelling students from the many Community College storytelling classes in Maricopa County share their three-minute versions of Greek and Roman Myths. The audience will vote on the best stories. Then, on Monday, October 7th, the top ten will tell the full versions for Myth Informed Classic Moves
Tap-Tap-Tap Saturday, October 5th
Storyteller and tap dancer Dustin Loehr will be performing at the Herberger Theatre Festival of the Arts doing a Story/Tap performance on the Kax stage. Don't miss this great teller/performer!
Stories Connect Us All Online Storytelling Festival - October 9-11
Join a worldwide movement to promote understanding among different racial, ethnic and religious groups through Stories Connect Us All, the world’s first-ever online storytelling festival to focus on building bridges between cultures.
During the three-day festival, participants can log onto the Stories Connect Us All Facebook page (www.Facebook.com/StoriesConnectUsAll) to watch personal videos stories from a different professional storyteller every half hour, from 8 a.m. to 10 pm (CDT) each day. The videos will feature multicultural storytellers sharing stories of their unique cultural backgrounds, challenges and triumphs.
Over the three days, you can hear 72 stories by over 60 professional storytellers!
Lather, Rinse, Repeat! - Now Say it With Me! We are all familiar with the instructions on our bottles of shampoo. Most people have accepted that you only need to shampoo and rinse ONCE, but many still repeat the process, thus using twice as much shampoo as they need to.
But in storytelling, repetition is not considered wasting product, it's considered, building connections!
Using repetition in your story helps the audience connect to the story by reinforcing audible touch points. Repeating words or refrains makes the story more familiar to them. Often, they are anticipating those moments of repetition.
You can involve the audience even more with a "call and response". Having them join in each time with "Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum" builds audience rapport. This audience participation along with the repetition can make for a delightful and communal storytelling experience.
In using call and response, you must always gage the level of willingness of the audience to join in. Most listeners want to join you and feel like they are part of the storytelling process. Occasionally, you may get resistance. You must decide whether using this method will engage the audience more, or create more distance between you and them.
Look for the places in your story - even personal stories - where you can use repetition and/or call and response to build community, connections and cohesiveness.
There Must Be a Narrative The Portland Story Theatre hires solo artists for short residency programs throughout the year. Slash Coleman was one such performer who had great succes while there.
Like many other entities, the organization has an application process that one must go through in order to perform in a solo, residency program.
Given the fact that there a lot of Fringe and Performance Art pieces out there, I found it quite interesting that one of their stated criteria is the following:
There must be a narrative. It need not necessarily be conveyed through spoken words, but there must be a storyline that the average audience member will really grasp and follow. Portland Story Theater is not the place for abstract performance with no meaning or hidden meaning or meaning so obscure that no one except the performer gets it.
I loved this, especially the last few words! Anyone have any additional thoughts?
Please comment below.
- National Storytelling Network? You should be.
Caleb Winebrenner is a community storyteller, teaching artist, and the Activities Director at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Phoenix. Having recently moved to the Valley, he is "crowdsourcing" his forthcoming book, The Community Builder’s Playbook. It's a book of innovative games and story structures designed specifically for community and youth development. It’s not a manual or a technical handbook, but an accessible collection of different ways to play in community.
Thursday, October 3rd
Friday, October 4th - 6:30-8:30 pm
Saturday, October 5th
Online Storytelling Festival - October 9-11
We are all familiar with the instructions on our bottles of shampoo. Most people have accepted that you only need to shampoo and rinse ONCE, but many still repeat the process, thus using twice as much shampoo as they need to.
The Portland Story Theatre hires solo artists for short residency programs throughout the year. 
