Storytelling Classes

October University Class

Storytelling: The Rest is Not Silence!
A class for all storytellers, those telling already, and those who have just decided that silence is less interesting than the carefully-chosen word. A class that introduces or reviews some basic elements of storytelling: its preparation, performance, and even a little of its place in period/documentation. Or, in other words, "I Want to Tell," "How Do I Tell?" and "What/Why to Tell."

Master Classes in Kapellenberg

SCA Storytelling: The Legend Begins
(Class Two)

"Once Upon a Time, There Lived..."

FROM LAST TIME...

     I. Mundane/Knowne World Storytelling
          A. Who Can Do This?
           B. The Details of Storytelling
               1. Mundane vs. Knowne World (periodicity/documentation)
               2. What Listeners See and Hear
                     a. Mechanics (eye contact, silences, space)
                    b. Language (voice[s], dialects, words, words, words)
               3. Behind the Scenes
                     a. The Story: Choice and Rehearsal
                     b. The Story: Telling and Evaluation
          C. Types of Stories
               1. Power
               2. Humorous
               3. Personal Narrative

WITH THANKS TO MAGNUS TINDAL...

     “And so the last thing I saw as I lay expiring on the ground was the archer, one foot on the gunwale, calling:
“Next time, use your shield!”

     II. Beastly Personal Narrative.
          A. Really Anybody can Do It.
               1. Funny Anecdotes.
                2. A Matter of Course.
          B. Preparing a Personal Narrative for Performance
               1. Much of the Same from Folk Tale Telling.
                    a. Words and Images.
                    b. Mechanics.
                2. Differences?
                    a. No Credit Needed.
                    b. The “So What?” trap--why it is harder.
          C. Personal Narrative in the SCA
               1. Proven Effective.
               2. Documentation?
               3. Filk--Master Efenwealt’s Versions...
          D. The Personal Touch...
               1. Subheading of Personal Narrative, for lack of a better...
               2. Victims of the “So What?” trap.
     III. The Home Story.
          A. Elements of Personal Narrative and Folklore.
               1. Story Choice.
                    a. By Definition, Personal.
                         1. From childhood.
                         2. Written by self or person near to you.
                         3. Story that you love.
                    b. The Given--”Don’t tell stories you don’t like.”
                    c. One step beyond.
                2. The Telling.
                     a. Told Like a Folktale.
                    b. The Emotion/Humor of the Personal Narrative.
          B. The Giving.
               1. Storytelling as a Gift.
               2. What Takes Telling Beyond Theatre.
                    a. Share Words, Emotions, and, Here, Yourself.