Telling a Story

• Listen to the story as you tell it.
• Remember the details as you come to them.
• Play the part when each character comes onstage.
  • How does each character's point of view differ?
• The old poets turned stories into rhymes and songs. (Example: Twa Corbies)
  • Helps with memorization
  • Becomes part of pacing and rhythm your listeners will perceive, even if they don't recognize it
  • Find the repetition (typically in threes) (Example: Three Little Pigs, many others)
  • Sometimes repetition exists to be ended (Example: Mr. Fox)
• Find the structure in the plot itself.
  • Find the turning points
  • Call attention to them - but do it implicitly
  • parallels (Example: The Three Heads in the Well)
  • Emotional rise and fall (Example: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)
• Gimmicks have a purpose - they are the hook in your listener's memory. Just don't overdo it.
  • voices, dialect, foreign languages. A really good teller can tell in a foreign language and hold the audience. (Example: Beowulf) But it's better to avoid dialect than to be inauthentic.
  • effects - jump stories (Example: Fee fo fi fum)
  • jokes
• Let the listener do some of the work. Encourage the imagination. Example: the half-descriptions of otherworldly settings in the Irish myths
• Look for mystery, and let some questions remain. Example: the ambiguous character and motivations of Godfather Death.
• How to use your voice?
  • Vocal instruction - volume without strain
  • Warm ups - range, annunciation
  • Diet, hydration