I have volunteered to tell at the Summer Fair. It seemed a pity to have a theme "Hooked on Books" without a storyteller! So I felt obliged!
What will I tell? Oh, the usual stuff, probably. That is to say, the stories that come most readily from my mouth and brain, and fit best with the needs of my audience.
I tend to start with The Tailor's Three Sons, because it's familiar, but not too familiar, and has the reassurance of some repetition but not too much.
After that, I check how much time people have, and maybe tell The Brave Little Tailor, which can be kept quite short, but still has some substance.
If people say they want a good, long story, then I'd love to tell Big Claus and Little Claus, from Hans Christian Andersen, which was the first story I ever told. But that definitely takes half an hour! The Lucky Boy also takes a fair time, but, if they're getting restless, you can leave out the second half with the Devil and his Granny. Another long one that I like telling is The Golden Bird.
Those are four tales from Grimm [though I've certainly made them my own over the years]. But I also like telling tales from Asbjornsen and Moe's collection of Norwegian folktales, such as Soria Moria Castle, and my favourite feelgood story, especially good to end a session, which I call The Widow of Wimborne.
Listeners often ask where the stories come from, and one answer is: other storytellers. Thus I tell three stories that I got from Taffy Thomas when he came to Salisbury: How Jack Became Mayor, The Parrot and the Moon, and The Cornish Tea-Room with the Cracked Flagstone.
I also think of stories in groups by nationality. I have a set of Japanese stories, and a set of Russian stories, and a set of Celtic stories, and a set of Jewish stories.
And I have a noisy story, The Village Band, which I like to do last, when I have a lot of enthusiastic children - or adults - in the audience, who want to let off steam.
Wednesday 17 June 2015
Friday 29 August 2014
POSTER
Sarum
story club
Second
Tuesday every month
The
Wyndham Arms
Estcourt
Road
Come
and listen, come and tell
7.45
for 8pm
Telling
Tuesday September 9th
Theme:
Awakenings
Friday 22 August 2014
STING IN THE TALE 2014
Of course I've been telling stories since I last wrote - telling stories at Southampton Story Club, at Wykeham Tales in Winchester, at Heads and Tales Story Cafe in Ringwood and at their other monthly meetings in the wonderful Earthouse at the Ancient Technology Centre in Cranborne. But what goes on in these other places is recorded [by me, as it happens] on the respective Facebook pages of these other organisations [Heads and Tales, aka New Forest Storytellers, also have a blogspot of their own, where I post the same text that goes on Facebook, but in a nicer typeface.]
Here, I post about the stories I tell outside of those contexts. So, I shall post now about the three contributions I made to The Sting in the Tale, the storytelling festival in East Dorset, which is now in its eleventh year:
On Tuesday, August 19th, Maddie Grantham and I told stories at Drusilla's Inn in Wigbeth by Horton under the title Eating the Apple. "Adult Content" was really a misnomer, if you're thinking of "adult mags", because the stories were all about how men and women relate to each other - emotionally as well as physically. We began with early tales, in which Men and Women lived separately, and regarded each other as belonging almost to different species. Then we moved on to stories in which the physical pleasure they could give one another was emphasised - in one case by a Rabbi, who was concerned that a marriage should be equally delightful for both parties to it. But not all of that physical pleasure - if that's what you want - can, it seems, be found inside marriage - at least, some people need to go outside it... So, the stories were mischievous and suggestive and relied on the knowledge which the members of our audience all had, but seldom shared!
And I really have to mention Laura Gray's splendidly suggestive artwork, the three banners which enhanced our performance, Eve on the left, temptingly offering her juicy apple, Adam on the right, looking with big eyes and open mouth at what he is being offered, and in the middle the apple itself, a big bite taken out of it, showing the five pips, and the bite itself miraculously in the shape of a heart.
On Wednesday, August 20th, I contributed to the Field of Stories at Cranborne my version of The Tailor's Three Sons, a classic tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, whose main motifs appear in tales from many other lands and cultures.
On Thursday, August 21st, in the delightful venue of Allendale House in Wimborne, I told a set of four stories, entitled From the Waterside to the Chase, comprising The Abbot and King John [a traditional tale, which also appears as a ballad, and has even been adapted as a ballad in German by Bürger]; Mary of Eling [which I first heard told by Rob Iliffe, but which I have made my own over the years]; Harald and Gerda [which I stole from Susan Price's The Footprint of the Wolf]; and The Widow of Wimborne [which I took from Asbjornsen and Moe's classic set of Norwegian tales and localised in the UK, selecting Lymington or Wimborne or anywhere else, as location dictated - it's one of my very favourite stories, and when I told it at the Children's Book Festival in Southampton Art Gallery in autumn 2012 Christobel Thomas capped it by telling an alternative Grimm version straight afterwards - comparative folklore for the kids!]
Here, I post about the stories I tell outside of those contexts. So, I shall post now about the three contributions I made to The Sting in the Tale, the storytelling festival in East Dorset, which is now in its eleventh year:
On Tuesday, August 19th, Maddie Grantham and I told stories at Drusilla's Inn in Wigbeth by Horton under the title Eating the Apple. "Adult Content" was really a misnomer, if you're thinking of "adult mags", because the stories were all about how men and women relate to each other - emotionally as well as physically. We began with early tales, in which Men and Women lived separately, and regarded each other as belonging almost to different species. Then we moved on to stories in which the physical pleasure they could give one another was emphasised - in one case by a Rabbi, who was concerned that a marriage should be equally delightful for both parties to it. But not all of that physical pleasure - if that's what you want - can, it seems, be found inside marriage - at least, some people need to go outside it... So, the stories were mischievous and suggestive and relied on the knowledge which the members of our audience all had, but seldom shared!
And I really have to mention Laura Gray's splendidly suggestive artwork, the three banners which enhanced our performance, Eve on the left, temptingly offering her juicy apple, Adam on the right, looking with big eyes and open mouth at what he is being offered, and in the middle the apple itself, a big bite taken out of it, showing the five pips, and the bite itself miraculously in the shape of a heart.
On Wednesday, August 20th, I contributed to the Field of Stories at Cranborne my version of The Tailor's Three Sons, a classic tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, whose main motifs appear in tales from many other lands and cultures.
On Thursday, August 21st, in the delightful venue of Allendale House in Wimborne, I told a set of four stories, entitled From the Waterside to the Chase, comprising The Abbot and King John [a traditional tale, which also appears as a ballad, and has even been adapted as a ballad in German by Bürger]; Mary of Eling [which I first heard told by Rob Iliffe, but which I have made my own over the years]; Harald and Gerda [which I stole from Susan Price's The Footprint of the Wolf]; and The Widow of Wimborne [which I took from Asbjornsen and Moe's classic set of Norwegian tales and localised in the UK, selecting Lymington or Wimborne or anywhere else, as location dictated - it's one of my very favourite stories, and when I told it at the Children's Book Festival in Southampton Art Gallery in autumn 2012 Christobel Thomas capped it by telling an alternative Grimm version straight afterwards - comparative folklore for the kids!]
Friday 9 May 2014
Ancient Technology and Other Ancient Skills
Every adult knows what is meant by "the oldest profession" - which presumably means that the storytellers, practitioners of the oldest art, didn't get paid for their work [no change there, then]. But as ancient crafters of ancient words they obviously belong in a place dedicated to Ancient Technology, viz. The Ancient Technology Centre at Cranborne, which is where they will be, not only on Special Saturdays organised by the Cric-Crac Club of London, but also on other odd dates, once a month, through the summer until the autumn, and especially on the Field of Stories Day as part of The Sting in the Tale Festival. [Monday 16 June, Tuesday 8 July, Monday 18 August, Thursday 4 September, Thursday 2 October, Thursday 6 November - unfortunately, the last three clash with Southampton Story Club at the Art House Cafe, to which I owe primary loyalty; the Field of Stories will be on Wednesday 20 August at the Ancient Technology Centre.]
Normally, I use this blog to talk about paid gigs. What goes on at the the three storyclubs I attend each month [Southampton Story Club, Wykeham Tales in Winchester and Heads and Tales Storytelling Cafe in Ringwood] I commemorate on the appropriate facebook pages.
But the first Sting in the Tale Special was last night, and deserves a mention, since it doesn't yet have a facebook page. Suzanne told The Name of the Dragon; Taprisha told a tale of Alfred the Great combining storytelling with espionage; Fiona from Stroud told a marvellous Afghan story, which I am stealing, about a King's attempt to teach a poor man that he shouldn't take each day as it comes. Graham revealed the erotic nature of the Eels from Ware [not from Plaistow, in fact, though that was his title]. Jill told Donkey into Man. Tony Horitz told Kate Crackernuts. And I told my version of Tsar Saltan, which derives from Post Wheeler's Russian Wonder Tales on Surlalune, rather than the Pushkin poem [among other things, I import Baba Yaga pretending to be the Old Nursemaid]. And the fire barely smoked...
Normally, I use this blog to talk about paid gigs. What goes on at the the three storyclubs I attend each month [Southampton Story Club, Wykeham Tales in Winchester and Heads and Tales Storytelling Cafe in Ringwood] I commemorate on the appropriate facebook pages.
But the first Sting in the Tale Special was last night, and deserves a mention, since it doesn't yet have a facebook page. Suzanne told The Name of the Dragon; Taprisha told a tale of Alfred the Great combining storytelling with espionage; Fiona from Stroud told a marvellous Afghan story, which I am stealing, about a King's attempt to teach a poor man that he shouldn't take each day as it comes. Graham revealed the erotic nature of the Eels from Ware [not from Plaistow, in fact, though that was his title]. Jill told Donkey into Man. Tony Horitz told Kate Crackernuts. And I told my version of Tsar Saltan, which derives from Post Wheeler's Russian Wonder Tales on Surlalune, rather than the Pushkin poem [among other things, I import Baba Yaga pretending to be the Old Nursemaid]. And the fire barely smoked...
Monday 3 March 2014
International Storytelling on February 28th at SWGGS
Well, it all depends on what you understand by international! I wasn't actually jetting anywhere further than Salisbury, but I was telling a story in two languages, neither of which was English. As part of SWGGS Languages Day, I was hired to tell in French and German, and on reflection i thought it would be better for all concerned if I told one story in both languages at the same time - that is to say, giving my listeners twice the chance to comprehend what was going on. [That's the way I saw it, and I hope that's the way they perceived it - I haven't had any explicit feedback yet...]
I chose Hansel und Gretel [or Jeannot et Margot, if you prefer], because it has a simple structure and is extremely well-known - though I began from the notion of Hunger driving parents to wish to get rid of their children, and only dropped the names in after the first five minutes. I also had some mischief with the gender roles, suggesting what an exception it was that Hansel, the boy, should have the bright idea about dropping the pebbles to show the way home, and making the witch say that she was a semi-feminist, because she was choosing to eat the boy first - a semi-feminist, because of course she was using the girl to do the cooking!
I also made great play with the rising of the moon, illuminating the pebbles, and managed to use good French and German phrases to emphasise the kick up the bum that Gretel gives the witch, to push her into the oven.
As a wind-down, I told them a story in English for the last 5 minutes, the one that I call Mr Wodjersay, but which I originally read at the age of 15, at school, in German: Kannitverstan by J.P. Hebel, the text of which can be found here. [I re-locate it to C19 London and modify it a little - but it seems to me a fine story about linguistic comprehension!]
At least I was asked whether I would be available for next year's Languages Day!
I chose Hansel und Gretel [or Jeannot et Margot, if you prefer], because it has a simple structure and is extremely well-known - though I began from the notion of Hunger driving parents to wish to get rid of their children, and only dropped the names in after the first five minutes. I also had some mischief with the gender roles, suggesting what an exception it was that Hansel, the boy, should have the bright idea about dropping the pebbles to show the way home, and making the witch say that she was a semi-feminist, because she was choosing to eat the boy first - a semi-feminist, because of course she was using the girl to do the cooking!
I also made great play with the rising of the moon, illuminating the pebbles, and managed to use good French and German phrases to emphasise the kick up the bum that Gretel gives the witch, to push her into the oven.
As a wind-down, I told them a story in English for the last 5 minutes, the one that I call Mr Wodjersay, but which I originally read at the age of 15, at school, in German: Kannitverstan by J.P. Hebel, the text of which can be found here. [I re-locate it to C19 London and modify it a little - but it seems to me a fine story about linguistic comprehension!]
At least I was asked whether I would be available for next year's Languages Day!
Thursday 12 December 2013
Sarum Story Club in suspended animation
When the November meeting produced only two of us at the start of it [though a third teller arrived half an hour later, and two listeners arrived at 9pm] it became clear that the Club could no longer lay claim to the wonderful venue of The Shoemakers' Hall at The Pheasant in Salt Lane, Salisbury. I was told that the room was booked by someone else for a Christmas function on December 10th in any case, and Poetika [the literary open-mike night, see it on Facebook] has snapped up the second Tuesday in January, which would have been a chance for a re-launch. Dylan Theodore has booked the second Tuesday in February as a fund-raising event including story-telling, and I'll be there as a performer, I hope - but I'm looking for a smaller, less high-profile venue, with lower expectations, and probably a different night. The truth is that attendance at story-telling groups fluctuates wildly and inexplicably: Southampton Story Club had 20plus in October - and 6 in November - and the same in December [as I hear - I couldn't be present, because I was playing a title role in Winterslow's panto, Beauty and the Beast - I'm sure you can guess which one!]
More news when I have some!
More news when I have some!
Friday 1 November 2013
Hallo, Halloween!
The National Trust's event, outdoors in a wood near Wellow, was cancelled for lack of interest - which was just as well, because the indoor one at The Museum of Army Flying in Wallop was subscribed to the limit, and I ended up doing two end-on sessions for each age-group, telling for three hours virtually without a break - to tell the truth, stopping was the hard bit!
They were lovely, attentive audiences, and I did my best to give them what they deserved. For the younger ones, I sandwiched Beautiful Vasilissa between two brand-new stories that I had invented the previous morning while walking the dogs. These were Jeremy Swaps His Clothes and Mine!, and sooner or later I will write down versions of them and post them on my mikerotheatre blogspot. Jeremy developed a whole extra area of character around his relationship with his mother, which simply hadn't been there when I told the bare bones of it to my friend, James Willson, while driving two dead freezers to the corporation tip in the morning. [I'm enormously grateful to James for his love of stories, since it lets me try them out, without having to go around talking to myself...]. I definitely sensed empathy from adults and children where that difficult relationship was concerned - and in this story, as in Mine! I deliberately tried to leave the audience with work to do, if they were to understand what was going on. Mine! was perhaps more traditional, but, as I always do, I gave it psychological motivation: there ought to be a reason why someone is the victim of a ghost, it shouldn't just be mere chance! I also tidied up Vasilissa as I was telling it, managing, I hope, to incorporate the three mysterious riders slightly more seamlessly than many versions I have read. I trimmed the tests to one [separating onion seed and poppy seed - not least because I actually know what they both look like!] and effectively cut to the chase... Thought for the future: which of the skulls does she take and why? [Whose skulls are they, anyway? Would they plead their cause? If I'd had longer, we might all have found out...]
For the 8+, I was very bold and decided to tell only two stories, both of them quite demanding and moving, the first with a definitely unhappy ending, the second for sure with a happy one. The first, with a personal frame, is told in a pub near Wayland's Smithy, by the great-grand-daughter of the woman who experienced it; and a pretty young archaeologist, called Adela, who is drinking in the same pub, contributes the vital information needed to make disturbing sense of the events. [Even so, I like to thin that some of my listeners went home asking their Mums and Dads, "Is that why....?" I want to tell stories that stay in the mind and stick like a burr.] The happy one was Mary of Eling, which I stole years ago from Rob Iliffe and too seriously, whereas he told it a little jokily. It has a superb structure and more or less tells itself - but I still get a catch in the throat and a tear in the eye at the climax.
Perhaps it was a bit severe, filling the forty-odd minutes with so few stories - but wouldn't you rather have two really good pieces of home-cooking than a trayful of sickly bought desserts?
My thanks to Rebecca of the Museum, who has hired me for the second year now! Let's hope she makes it a third - with some other stuff in between!
They were lovely, attentive audiences, and I did my best to give them what they deserved. For the younger ones, I sandwiched Beautiful Vasilissa between two brand-new stories that I had invented the previous morning while walking the dogs. These were Jeremy Swaps His Clothes and Mine!, and sooner or later I will write down versions of them and post them on my mikerotheatre blogspot. Jeremy developed a whole extra area of character around his relationship with his mother, which simply hadn't been there when I told the bare bones of it to my friend, James Willson, while driving two dead freezers to the corporation tip in the morning. [I'm enormously grateful to James for his love of stories, since it lets me try them out, without having to go around talking to myself...]. I definitely sensed empathy from adults and children where that difficult relationship was concerned - and in this story, as in Mine! I deliberately tried to leave the audience with work to do, if they were to understand what was going on. Mine! was perhaps more traditional, but, as I always do, I gave it psychological motivation: there ought to be a reason why someone is the victim of a ghost, it shouldn't just be mere chance! I also tidied up Vasilissa as I was telling it, managing, I hope, to incorporate the three mysterious riders slightly more seamlessly than many versions I have read. I trimmed the tests to one [separating onion seed and poppy seed - not least because I actually know what they both look like!] and effectively cut to the chase... Thought for the future: which of the skulls does she take and why? [Whose skulls are they, anyway? Would they plead their cause? If I'd had longer, we might all have found out...]
For the 8+, I was very bold and decided to tell only two stories, both of them quite demanding and moving, the first with a definitely unhappy ending, the second for sure with a happy one. The first, with a personal frame, is told in a pub near Wayland's Smithy, by the great-grand-daughter of the woman who experienced it; and a pretty young archaeologist, called Adela, who is drinking in the same pub, contributes the vital information needed to make disturbing sense of the events. [Even so, I like to thin that some of my listeners went home asking their Mums and Dads, "Is that why....?" I want to tell stories that stay in the mind and stick like a burr.] The happy one was Mary of Eling, which I stole years ago from Rob Iliffe and too seriously, whereas he told it a little jokily. It has a superb structure and more or less tells itself - but I still get a catch in the throat and a tear in the eye at the climax.
Perhaps it was a bit severe, filling the forty-odd minutes with so few stories - but wouldn't you rather have two really good pieces of home-cooking than a trayful of sickly bought desserts?
My thanks to Rebecca of the Museum, who has hired me for the second year now! Let's hope she makes it a third - with some other stuff in between!
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