Storytelling In Depth

Pat also gave us extra materials to go over outside of class, so I'll make you suffer through that as well.
So you want to be a storyteller (too)! You want to ride the waves without a net ... erm, I mean, a surfboard. Block that metaphor! You already have everything you need: a voice and a body. You will be communicating with both. The voice even communicates with unborn babies! Take care how you say things!
We've all learned from the Ripley's about body language, and the same things apply to storytelling. Your eyes are also a powerful communication tool. You have to use them to connect to your audience (to begin with and now and then to keep the connection up) as well as use them to express emotion, characters, and location (I look to the left, where "rabbit" is standing when I am tortoise speaking; I look to the right at "tortoise" when rabbit speaks). Then there are gestures. How much is too much? When are my gestures, albeit expressive and appropriate otherwise, a distraction? I use my eyes to confirm that the audience is still with me and not flinching each time I throw my arms around.
Your face is the focal point (as that's where the sound is emanating from), and you can use few flailing about with arms by using your face.
I use a lot of different voices when I do storytimes and storytelling (okay, most of them sound like Bob Dylan with a hangover). How do I keep voices straight (I don't always)? How do I even know how to make up an entire voice that's different from (not very, see parenthetical note about Dylan) the rest? I mimic other voices. Mostly Bob Dylan's, of course, but I have met a lot of people with distinctive voices and I remember them. I am careful, though, to only use certain readily identifiable voices with particular characters. The voice I use for Dog (and only that particular dog - not just any dog) is based on someone I knew in Boston.
But not everyone has to be able to mimic Bob Dylan and Marylyn Monroe (Cow) to differentiate between characters. Sometimes just the speed or pitch of voice is enough. Maybe it's enough to just say, "Said Cow." The important thing we learned from Pat is that you have to create your own style and it has to be one that you are comfortable with. I am more comfortable stepping behind a mask (even if it's invisible, like a voice) when I do storytelling.
Another thing to consider, besides your voice and body, is your location in relation to your audience. How close are you going to be? How big is the audience? What size of voice and gestures will you need? Will you need to walk around, the better to fix your individual "audients" with your eye? Or can you stay seated to be closer to them or more at their level? If you have a small group of pre-schoolers, you don't want to be towering over them so that they get little cricks in their tiny necks.
You can talk all you want, but then comes time for ...
The Pause.
It refreshes. It provides suspense.
It gives you a chance to catch your own breath.
Little Problems that crop up:
Nervousness.
Who doesn't get nervous? You think that after all the theatre I've done (since 1974) and twelve years of storytimes here at this library I don't get nervous? Have another think. Pat suggests that we do vocal warm-ups and relaxation exercises. We can also use the energy from our nervousness and channel it into our story. How does one do that? Especially since most of the nervousness is at the beginning of storytelling when there isn't much going on for you to work off your anxieties? Sing an opening song! If you aren't a singer, make it a chant. Let the rhythm of the song or chant help regulate your energy, focus it, and blow a bit of it off. (Note: some mornings Miss Marf is a little too tired from having too much fun on Second Life the night before and she usually finds a spot in a story where she can stick in a yawn and get it out of her system ... oh, look! Here comes the word "bed"! YAWWWWWN! That way it's not a distraction, it's ... it's an Augmentation!)
Storytellers and performers have for generations begun their performances with a "calling on" song. It settles the audience by getting their attention and getting them to focus on you as a group.

Earsdon Sword Dance Calling On

Good people pray heed a petition
Your attention we beg and crave
And if you are inclined for to listen
An abundance of pastime we'll have

We have come to relate many stories
Concerning our forefathers time
And we trust they will drive out your worries
Of this we are all in one mind

Many tales of the poor and the gentry
Of labor and love will arise
There are no finer songs in this country
In Scotland or Ireland likewise

There's one thing more need be mentioned
The dances are danced all in fun
So now you've heard our intention
We'll play on to the beat of the drum

Okay, it can be shorter than that. And you can get your audience to join in, if it's something familiar or easily learned.

Uhhh, uhhhh, and then, uhhhhh ... If you aren't Dog (who talks like this as part of his character, a forgetful type), this will be a distraction. Practice, practice, practice the story and if you are still hemming and hawing, take a breath whenever you feel the urge to air gargle. Breathing is quieter.
Wild gestures? Find something neutral to do with your hands (no pens to click!). One of the workshop's participants demonstrated the dreaded "fig leaf" - which is folding your hands over your crotch, like you're expecting to be kicked there. This is not the best solution. A better one, she told us, was putting your hands together at the fingertips at chest level. As long as you aren't trying to do resistance exercises with them while you are talking, they shouldn't be a distraction.
Pacing? Try sitting on a stool.
Talking too fast? Practice by imagining you're talk-ing to an id-i-ot. Just kidding! How about imagining your audience doesn't speak English very well or is taking notes.
Jerky storytelling, where some is really fast and then there are sudden stops? Try practicing by telling the story as fast as you can.
Not loud enough? Speak from the diaphragm. Support your speech from your belly, not with the throat. Will anyone believe that when I was young I stuttered and didn't speak up? "Stop mumbling!" my mother always said to me. What happened? Theatre, musical theatre. I had to develop a voice that filled a room. You take a deep breath and hold it, letting it out slowly and see how long you can take to let it all out. Practice that. I am now famous for being loud. When I want to be, anyway.
You have a story you really love, but it just doesn't sound right coming from your mouth? I have bad news for you. It's not one you should tell. I learned a terrific story at the workshop, one I thought had one of the best messages I'd heard in a long time. I was excited about this story! I rushed home and told it to my husband who just went, "Huh?" I guess that one just isn't my story to tell. It's a shame, but I'm not going to beat my head against the wall when there are lots of stories that hang on me and fit me like my own glass slipper, transforming me into cows, dogs, country bumpkins, and princesses. I'll just go with them.