Press Coverage of a Storytelling Festival: Troy, Alabama

Storytelling festivals often complain about how difficult it is to get press coverage. For one thing, they are competing with other events, from music to theatre to art to sports. I've also heard complaints from organizers that the press that do cover the event don't know the art form. (Note to organizers: hard to build recognition of your art form if you only hold an event (and invite the press) once a year)

This year, the Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival (January 30-31, held in Bundridge and Troy, Alabama, (pop. 2,341 and 13,935, respectively) and sponsored annually by the Brundidge Historical Society with support from Troy University, the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts) can't complain.

The festival had not one, but five stories in the local news. And that doesn't include the December 29 article essentially publishing the Festival's press release.

Four featured tellers. Four feature articles the week leading up to the Festival, plus a local angle feature:

Last Saturday: Windham returns to storytelling festival

Monday: ‘The Donald’ is back by popular demand
Check out the lede for this article:

Donald Davis.

Enough said.

Think reporter Jaine Treadwell is a storytelling fan?

Tuesday: Lepp brings tall tales to stage

Wednesday: Deedy: Ball of storytelling energy

Thursday: Unfamiliar storyteller to become familiar after weekend
Although the lede for this article focuses on the regional teller appearing at the festival, the article manages to really emphasize the role of the 18 local musicians who will be playing at the event. Not unexpected for a small town paper to recognize its citizens in such a way.

Oh, and in a column for the paper (published last Saturday), Ms. Treadwell admits it: she's hooked on storytelling.

Small town. Southern state (with a strong history of oral culture). Reporter who's an aficionado.

You could say there's a perfect storm of contributing factors to make this festival appear to be the prime cultural event in the local news.

What can you take away from the Pike Piddlers' example for your storytelling event?

Farewell, Winter Tales

(hat tip to Oklahoma Tellers)

After 28 years, the Arts Council of Oklahoma is closing the doors on WinterTales, its annual storytelling event. The Arts Council is, however, opening the doors on the Oklahoma City Storytelling Festival, which will be a new event in the fall.

I never had a chance to attend, but I did like one of its unique features: it asked its featured tellers to each perform the same well-known fairy tale, but with a different spin or perspective. Audience members might be treated then to three or four different versions of Sleeping Beauty or Rapunzel, each told from a different character's perspective, or set in a different cultural milieu, or told in a different style. (I got to sample such a Rashomon like concert at the National Storytelling Conference in Oklahoma City in 2005)

The last WinterTales will be February 6, 2009.

Feel free to leave your WinterTales memories in the comments.

Storytelling Behind the Scenes, or, Making the Sausage

A recent item in the newspaper announced an open house for a local award-winning theatre company, in which the public could drop in not only on the first reading of the company's next show, but the first rehearsal. Rough and Tumble's founding artistic director Cliff Mayotte said “making theatre is a social act and should not be created behind closed doors. If we can watch someone building a house or paving a street, they should be able to watch us making plays.”

This is actually nothing new. A quick Google search reveals various theatre, ballet, and opera companies occasionally opening their doors to the public to show off the "behind the scenes" work that goes into productions.

Such work helps to deepen the relationship with the audience beyond the one night they set foot in the building to see a production.

In the same vein, several storytellers are ignoring the old adage, variously attributed to Otto von Bismarck and Mark Twain, that "Laws are like sausages. You should never watch them being made," and opening up their development process to the public, at least via the Web.

(I'm fairly certain they aren't inviting the public over to watch rehearsals.)

(Yet.)

Rachel Hedman: Family Famine: Hunger for Love

Storyteller Rachel Hedman (who also blogs regularly at Voice: A Storyteller's Lifestyle) has set up a production blog for her upcoming storytelling production. Titled Family Famine: Hunger for Love, Rachel lets her readers in on everything from story research to marketing choices, collaborators to middle-of-the-night worry sessions. She's also had a countdown timer running on the blog since she started posting there in August of 2008. (Now that she's entering the final 30 days before the premiere, I expect she'll be posting blog entries a little less often!)

My first reaction to Rachel's production blog was of skepticism-- projecting my own tendencies to procrastinate led me to believe that blog like this could be an exercise in distraction, a way to spend time on the internet instead of working on the stories.

Well, after being a faithful reader of the blog for many months now, I can see the benefits. Not only does a production blog keep external pressure on a self-producing, solo performing artist to keep working (because the producing work now has an audience), but also, as a reader: I'm hooked. I, as a potential audience member, am connecting with the artist and at this point have an emotional investment in her success. I'm rooting for Rachel to succeed. All the backstory to this production is building a dramatic arc that will resolve itself at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo, Utah, on February 9, 2009, when Rachel takes the stage.

(And if my travel budget would allow it, I'd be there. Alas, I'll have to content myself with the DVD.) Tickets for the premiere and pre-orders for the DVD available at Family Famine: Hunger for Love.

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Diane Wolkstein: Monkey

Diane Wolkstein is known as the "Official Storyteller of New York" for her decades of work in that city's parks. Strangely enough, I was eight thousand miles away in Chennai, India, when I learned about Diane's latest production-in-progress, a telling of the epic of the Monkey King, made famous in the 16th century Chinese novel, Journey to the West. Dianne is collaborating with Bharatanatyam dancer (and Chennai resident) Anita Ratnam on this production, as well as with Taoist master Sat Hon. (When I got back home, my Facebook network alerted me to the new Web site she'd set up to document her journey with this story.) You can check out the latest news, backstory, and schedule for Monkey: Journey to the West on the site. The blog there isn't up and running regularly yet-- but, for those of you nosy web junkies like me, you can find extra video footage of Diane's travels and rehearsal process that hasn't made it to the "official" site at her Youtube channel.

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Sean Buvala: My 2008 or What a Storyteller Does All Day Long


Storyteller Sean Buvala recently ended a year-long experiment in blogging not the artistic process but the business process of storytelling --in photos. Aspiring storytellers with the ambition to perform often choose to underestimate or flat out ignore the hard realities of running and promoting a small business. Sean's photoblog is a necessary reminder of not only the unglamorous minutiae required to support a storytelling career, but also of how intertwined personal and professional life can be, especially if you are self-employed.
(Sean-- now that it's 2009, don't delete the site! Rare historical documentation ! http://2008pics.blogspot.com/

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Hope Baugh: Of the People: Stories and Images of Abraham Lincoln.

And finally, blogger Hope Baugh occasionally takes time out from her theatre reviews to let us in on her storytelling life. She's working on a 90-minute storytelling piece on Abraham Lincoln to help celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. Peek in at Indy Theatre Habit: http://www.indytheatrehabit.com/category/lincoln-project/

Exploring Storytelling through Dance in Tamil Nadu

During our cultural tour of Tamil Nadu, on two occasions we got to meet with and learn from two practioners of bharatanatyam, South Indian classical dance. Two afternoons is certainly not enough time to learn the history, cultural context, and range of this art form, even from master teachers, but we were willing students.

After lecture/demonstrations earlier in the week on other oral traditions of Tamil Nadu, we were ready for some hands-on, feet-on learning.

Thanks to YouTube, I can show you what bharatanatyam looks like:


Professional dancer Uma Ramesh had us up on our feet, stamping out talas on the floor. Clearly, her dexterity, stamina, and grace (not to mention her three decades of training), put our hilarious attempts at coordinated rhythm to shame. But after demonstrating for us the pure dance movements of bharatanatyam, she then led us in an exploration of the narrative aspects of the art form. In addition to its devotional and kinetic aesthetics, the standard presentation of bharatanatyam includes a story, brought to life through a specific gestural vocabulary of the hands and the face.

Explaining this in writing will be needlessly confusing, so luckily YouTube can show you what I mean. Here are some bharatanatyam workshop performances that focus solely on abhinaya, or the gestural storytelling. Take a look and see how specific the choreography is-- it's practically as literal as sign language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0qdfkoSQ5g

With plenty of hands-on exercises, Ms. Ramesh had us practice mudras (that's the religious term. I forget what the bharatanatyam term is for iconic gestures) and helped us explore a gestural vocabulary for telling a story. We broke into small groups and began choreographing ensemble renditions of "The Talkative Turtle," an animal fable familiar to most of us, even if we didn't know its Indian origins from the Panchatantra.

Hilarity ensued—eventually. First we had to create a reader's theatre outline on the spot, then choreograph it, all the while navigating small group dynamics (only our 3rd day together, this the first collaborative task we were assigned, and clearly our group had at least two different styles of learners (talk it out first vs. do something, anything, and shape on our feet). My group never made it far enough along to rehearse the whole story and thus our first time on our feet was in front of our colleagues.

Our hosts graciously served us tea and cookies, but our limited time in the workshop and our need to "get it right" led us to corner Ms. Ramesh in the kitchen for more coaching and finessing of form.


We were pleased to learn that bharatanatyam's gestural vocabulary was expansive enough to include specific mudras for such words as: tree, water, bird, turtle. (And I learned my ring fingers are not coordinated enough to correctly form the mudra for "tree")

Later, our host Jeeva Raghunath would tell this very story as an interactive tale, reminding us of the gestures first, then falling silent during the story at those gestures, allowing the audience to jump in with the correct word, demonstrating for us an extremely practical use of our newfound technique.

But for me, the practical takeaway was this: specific, defined gestures can be an effective tool to tell a story. When used thoughtfully, gestures help the audience co-create the story in their imagination, by giving them a visual (and possibly kinesthetic) suggestion from which they can expand upon.

That should be obvious (coaches have commented on my lack of specific gestures for years), but for me, seeing a master artist who specialized in this, at a level so far beyond what I could even conceive, was necessary to really have it sink in.

India Storytelling Tour 2008, Twitter roundup

Just realized that it's hard to point people to Twitter info after the fact, so I'm cutting and pasting my tweets from the Tharisanam India Storytelling tour here. Dates don't exactly correspond to our tour stops... I didn't tweet live, but posted these in batches from internet cafes. I've reversed the order here, because Twitter, like a blog, has the earliest posts are on the bottom. Instead, these are chronological., so start at the top and work your way down.

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Things you don't want to hear from your HR manager 24 hours before you leave for India: "What leave of absence?" 10:22 AM Oct 30th

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Good thing all my clothes for India are on the clothesline. The forecast: no rain until tomorrow. Wrong. Guess who came early? 3:10 PM Oct 30th

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Heading off for India. 8:21 AM Oct 31st, 2008

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Door to door: my house in Berkeley to hotel in Chennai, 30 hours. Got about five hours of sleep in there. Still, beats going by horseback. Nov 2nd, 2008

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Hotel is a favorite of locals for wedding receptions. It's Sunday, and everyone is dressed to celebrate. Nov 2nd, 2008

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Masala dosa is a good breakfast, if spicy... but I just passed a donut shop on the way to the internet cafe. I'm torn. Nov 2nd, 2008

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Oh, by the way, I'm typing this from the future. I'm 13 hours ahead of California time. No jet packs yet, but lots of auto rickshaws. Nov 2nd, 2008

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Hanging out with storytellers (12 american, 1 Indian) in Chennai, India. More later. Nov 2nd, 2008

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Enjoying the afterglow of a sunrise workout on the Bay of Bengal with the Laughter Club of Marina Beach. http://tr.im/s40 Nov 3rd, 2008

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Nothing like traditional Tamil lamentation (oppari) to balance out the day's laughter quotient. Nov 5th, 2008

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Whoa. The bats in Chennai are larger than the cats back home in Berkeley. Nov 5th, 2008

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Tuesday night storytelling contest in Nocchikuppam: totally fascinating. Nov 5th, 2008

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Travel nurse got me paranoid about infectious disease. She didn't know the biggest health risk in Chennai is attempting crossing the street! Nov 5th, 2008

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The cure for Mallarone-induced insomnia: Kingfisher beer! Nov 5th, 2008

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One very happy busload of tourists on Dr. Radikrishnan Rd in Chennai this morning when we learned via Blackberry that McCain conceded. Nov 5th, 2008

# Auspicious day for weddings. Not so auspicious if your hotel room is next to the reception hall. Nov 5th, 2008

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Off to more adventures. Nov 5th, 2008

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Learned about indigenous tribes of India from our host, Hindu marriage from our translator, and the Mahabharata from a Texan in a sari. Nov 6th, 2008

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Oops. Not a sari. The other thing... my guide is going to scold me for getting it wrong. Again. Nov 6th, 2008

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5 days in. I ask a tour buddy when "lord of the flies" sets in. She notes we arrive in the jungle in two days. Nov 6th, 2008

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Half of our group are retirees. I hear they're the first to go savage once we lose the air conditioning and the coffee. Nov 6th, 2008

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We may not all come back. Nov 6th, 2008

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Nothing like practicing a song with a master theatre artist while massacring his language. Nov 8th, 2008

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Watching comedians work without understanding their language... a master class in pace, posture, and audience control. Nov 8th, 2008

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As if live music, epic storytelling, and performance theory wasn't enough-- food, glorious South Indian food! Nov 8th, 2008

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Hindu temples aren't my thing. My thing: taking pictures of American tourists taking pictures of Hindu temples. Nov 8th, 2008

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Planting saplings at an herbal medicine nursery in rural Tamil Nadu. Nov 8th, 2008

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Best way to revive a gaggle of storytellers who've been on a bus for too long: Kingfisher Beer! Nov 8th, 2008

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Sitting in shade of a tree in rural India, listening to stories from tribal elders. Nov 10th, 2008

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Yes I paid too much for those souvenirs. Yes I got suckered 'cause I'm a foreigner. But I got a story out of it. Nov 11th, 2008

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The cross-cultural miscommunication in restaurants here is delightfully comical, until it happens to your dinner. Nov 12th, 2008

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You can fit 15 storytellers in a double room if they are determined enough to swap stories. Nov 12th, 2008

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Wed: shadow puppet workshop. Puppets whacking each other with clubs is funny in any language. Nov 14th, 2008

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Thurs: Pizza Hut! Nov 14th, 2008

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Thurs: master class in gesture, narrative in contemporary Indian dance from http://www.anitaratnam.com/ , including the Ramayana in 7 min Nov 14th, 2008

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The heady fragrance of my LOVIN EGO deodorant (Indian brand) tempered by the DEET insect repellanant Nov 14th, 2008

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Fri: 2 gigs in Chennai-- I get the rough one, but the tour rocks the house @ Alliance Francaise of Madras Nov 14th, 2008

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Sat: end of tour. Jeff B and I set out to see India on our own Nov 14th, 2008

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Autorickshaws in Chennai : autorickshaws in Delhi :: Asteroids : Sinistar. Nov 16th, 2008
(analogy explained here)

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Hey storytellers-- Jeff and I made it to the site of Indraprastha, the legendary city built by the Pandavas in the Mahabharata. Nov 18th, 2008

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Sadly, there's a modern city of 12 million people built directly over it, so there's nothing left of it to see. Nov 18th, 2008

---(end storytelling stuff... more travel adventures in India below)---

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Maila Kofta, where have you been all my life? Nov 18th, 2008

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No Bharatnatyam for us. Instead: treated to one of Delhi's infamous traffic jams. Nov 18th, 2008

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Mmmmm. Thunderbolt beer. Better than Kingfisher. Nov 18th, 2008

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Puzzling over six-story Hanuman near our hotel. http://tinyurl.com/55oo7a Nov 18th, 2008

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Set Blade Runner in a hot climate and set the architecture back six centuries: Delhi. Nov 18th, 2008

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Amazing Mughal architecture in Delhi. But we are missing the stories. Nov 18th, 2008

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Mind-blowing walk through the narrow alleyways of Old Delhi. Stumbled into the wholesale bangle bazaar, dodging pushcarts and motorcycles. Nov 18th, 2008

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As storytellers far from home, Jeff and I are delighted to chat with affable English speaking locals. Turns out-- they all own shops. Nov 18th, 2008

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You'd think after falling for the friendly local/shopkeeper gambit six times, we'd avoid #7.... You'd be wrong. Nov 18th, 2008

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Can't wait to leave Delhi and see if teenagers outside the city limits are as enamored of acid wash jeans and designer label shirts. Nov 18th, 2008

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That our train ticket number nor our names match those on the passenger list on the Kerala express does not faze the conductor. Off to Agra! Nov 18th, 2008

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Coincidentally, we share a berth with a German man whose knowledge of corporate storytelling far exceeds our own. Nov 18th, 2008

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Swapping stories with fellow travellers to while away the hours in a train berth. A welcome break from sightseeing and bargaining! Nov 18th, 2008

The Red Fort in Delhi was impressive. The Fort here in Agra-- jaw dropping. Friendly guide happy to tell us stories. Nov 18th, 2008

Guide, friendly, self-taught, and quite knowledgeable, tells us he'd like to show us a special rug emporium. Jeff does a spit take Nov 18th, 2008

Off to bed early to catch sunrise at the taj mahal. More later. Nov 18th, 2008

Overcast at Taj Mahal. Still worth the trip. Words can't describe its magnificence. Nov 19th, 2008

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Thursday: exhausting. Up at 5:30am, didn't reach hotel in Jaipur until midnight. That our guide brought us to THREE emporiums didn't help. Nov 19th, 2008

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Amazing Race moment in Rajasthan: it's dark, we haven't eaten in 9 hours, & our driver has no idea where the train station is. Nov 19th, 2008

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Beautiful hotel in Jaipur (nicest so far): manager tells us that autorickshaws = guaranteed detour to souvenir shops. Nov 19th, 2008

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My bargaining skills stink. Especially when the shopkeeper lived in Berkeley for 8 years and we hit it off immediately. Nov 19th, 2008

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Bharatpur: two Rajasthani families (English vocabulary: hello, mother, son, father, family, USA) find Jeff and I fascinating. Nov 19th, 2008

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Thurs: No dinner. Jeff shrewdly suggest I wait until my last night here before sampling samosas cooked from a vendor on the train platform. Nov 19th, 2008

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And by samosa vendor I don't mean snack bar. Instead: guy with a pushcart, propane tank, pot of oil, tongs, and a stack of homemade snacks. Nov 19th, 2008

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Bharatpur: Three computer hardware engineers ask us about salaries in the US; their jaws hit the train platform. Nov 19th, 2008

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Wishing we'd arranged to meet storytellers in Rajasthan. I'm sightseed out. Dreading the inevitable rush of souvenir wallahs. Nov 19th, 2008

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Thursday OK. Audiotour of city palace keeps hucksters at bay. Also drowns out shouts of tour guides for German, French and Japanese tourists. Nov 20th, 2008

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Best hotel yet: hot water, warm toast, and on TV: Amazing Race Asia. Nov 20th, 2008

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Probably should have skipped that episode of Nat'l Geographic Extreme on TV-- "Air Crash Investigations" the day before I fly home. Nov 20th, 2008

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Friday plan: 4 sights/sites in Jaipur, then start the 30 hour journey home via Delhi and Hong Kong. Nov 20th, 2008

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Ajmer: now that's a fort! Finally see the appeal of marble palaces. Also: snake charmer with cobra. Cliche, but everyone gawks. Nov 21st, 2008

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Autorickshaws in Jaipur: slower than Delhi, but variable pavement makes it the bone-jarringest, rip-roarin'est ride in the West. Nov 21st, 2008

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Feel sorry for new arrivals at New Delhi train station who have to face the mob of taxi drivers clamoring for your business. Nov 21st, 2008

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New Delhi airport: WTF? What kind of international terminal doesn't carry the Indian edition of People magazine? Nov 21st, 2008

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Delhi airport: Thomas Cook says I don't have enough rupees to convert back to dollars, I should spend it at duty free shop, beyond security. Nov 21st, 2008

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Delhi airport: Duty Free Shop says we don't accept rupees, only dollars. Try to spend my last rupees on India's famous ciabatta panini. Nov 21st, 2008

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Back home and thrilled to be so. Feel like crap, but nothing a lot of sleep won't cure Nov 22nd, 2008