TIPS FOR TELLERS

• It is OK to practise the art of storytelling even if you are not a master teller.
  
• You don't have to perfect tale before you begin telling it. Plunge in and let the audience help mold the story as you tell it. Keep telling and telling until it does become perfect.

• PREMISE:      Storytelling is a folk art. We are the folk, Storytelling belongs to us.
  
  
• PREMISE:      Storytelling is performance. Through body language, delivery, attitude, in every manner the teller enters a "performing mode".
  
  
• PREMISE:      Storytelling is more than performance. It is an event where audience and teller interact. Interaction may become vocal, approaching group drama. Or it may be merely an emotional intensity. The play between the audience and the teller of the storytelling event.
  
  
• PREMISE:      Storytelling is an audience-shaped art form. Repeated tellings to sensitive audiences tend to perfect a tale.
  
  
• PREMISE: There is no one "tale text". There are only transcriptions of tales taken from one telling of one storyteller. The tale is constantly changing from telling to telling and from teller to teller. There is no right text. There are infinite variants.
  
  
• PREMISE: Each storytelling event has function and meaning within its own cultural context. Your telling will function within the cultural context defined by your setting.
  
  
  • It is OK to tell the tales of a culture other than your own. Find out as much as you can about the function of these tales in their own societies. Learn about the context in which the tale was originally told. Share this information with your audience.
    
  • You do not have to tell with a high degree of ethnic authenticity. It is unlikely that you would be able to do this unless you have roots in the contributing culture. Realise that in your own telling this tale becomes socialised in function and context. You are borrowing from another culture elements, which your audience will enjoy. This is NOT culture reproduction; this is cultural borrowing. Be aware of ways in which you are changing the tale and level with your audience about the ways in which the tale has been reworked.
    
  • It is OK to mark the story with your own style. Just relax and do it your way. This teller, this tale, this audience... create a unique Event. You are not replicating... you are creating. Feel free to enjoy yourself!
  
  
  HOW TO BEGIN
  
  
  • 1. Start with short tales.
    
  • 2. Choose tales with repetitive elements.
  • 3. Choose tales with chants, onomatopoetic words, song, and unusual catchy phrases...these all act as mnemonic devices for the teller.
    
  • 4. Choose tales couched in direct language, which cuts straight to the heart of the matter. The language should possess a rhythm and cadence, which allow it to read aloud well, but it should not be Overly flowery or burdened with descriptive passages. The more difficult literary tales require memorization for success. Unless you memorize with ease, leave those beautifully worded literary masterpieces for the more experienced storyteller.
    Keep in mind that in most juvenile tale collections, the tales have been elaborated into short story format. The original folk telling was quite different from the printed tale you are working with. You may have to "unwrite" the tale to reduce it to tellable form. Better yet, start your career by using some of the excellent collections, which have kept their printed versions close to the oral form. These can be returned to an oral telling without excessive reworking.
    
  • 5. Choose a tale, which you really enjoy ...a tale, which is so good you want to tell it to someone.
    
  • 6. Compare variants. When you have selected your tale, check available folktale references to see if other variants of that tale are available. Compare variants to choose the best version for your telling. You may want to combine motifs from several variants for your own tale.
  
  
  FINDING THE TALE
  
  
  • 1. SKIM. In order to find those tales, which are just right for your own telling, you will need to browse through many collections of folk tales and short stories.
    
  • 2. KEEP L1STS. As you browse, keep lists of those tales, which you think you might want to learn some day. Go over your lists every few months to see if one of those tales excites you now. Sometimes a good tale will lie dormant in your imagination for years and then suddenly leap out from the list ready to be learned and told.
    
  • 3. MINE SPECIFIC AREAS. You will find certain ethnic areas or certain tale genre, which particularly delight you. Once you have identified those favourite areas, order up all the books available and mine them for tales you might learn.
    
  • 4. BORROW FROM OTHER TELLERS. Storytelling is an oral art form. It is passed much more easily from teller-to-teller than fonl1 teller-to-collector-to- author-to-book-to-teller. A tale, which lies dead and boring on the printed page can suddenly leap to life, the possibilities for telling made obvious, when we hear it performed by another teller. Most tellers are glad to have their tales picked up and passed on by other tellers. Traditional tales often end with an admonition to the listener to do just that.
  
  
  Reference material
  
  Margaret Read McDonald The Storyteller's Start-Up Book {August House, 1993)
  Twenty Tellable Tales: Audience Participation Folktales for the Beginning Storyteller. (H.W. Wilson, 1984)
  The Storyteller's Source book: A subject, title and motif-index to folklore collections for children {Neal-Schumann/Gale Research, 1982)