By: Eric Wolf,
on 3/8/2015
Would you like to be a part of a storytelling conference call that supports you in your use of storytelling? If so, then enter your name and email address and you will receive personal invitations to participate in The Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Conference call – most Tuesdays at 8pm Eastern. Name: Email: Share [...]
By: Eric Wolf,
on 1/29/2012
Storyteller Mark Goldman has been steadily collecting very short video responses from storytellers you know and love allover the country.
By: Eric Wolf,
on 1/25/2011
Press Play to hear Antonio Rocha speak on accessing the language of the body using storytelling on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.
Antonio Writes…
Dear listeners, my journey into storytelling has been a magical one. First, with my mime training with Tony Montanaro and a bit with Marcel Marceau, taught me a lot about how body language communicates so eloquently. Not by translating a sentence into movement but rather the intention and essence of a narrative. Less is more. Then, I got a BA in theatre arts from The University of Southern Maine, there I learned some more about theatre . So, I started to tell orally but never forgetting the physical eloquence learned from mime. That mixed with my own creativity assured a very particular language. Such approach has given me the opportunity not only to go to the far corners of the world but to far corners of my own soul. The storytelling community is a great home to be. Thanks for listening…..and watching.
Antonio Rocha’s Biography
Antonio Rocha, a native of Brazil, began his career in the performing arts in 1985.
In 1988 he received a Partners of the Americas grant to come to the USA to perform and deepen his mime skills with Master Tony Montanaro. Since then he has earned a Summa Cum Laude Theater BA from USM (University of Southern Maine) and studied with Master Marcel Marceau. Mr. Rocha’s unique solo shows of stories and mime have been performed from Singapore to Hawaii and many places in between including ten countries on five continents. Some of the venues include The Singapore Festival of the Arts, Aruba Intl Dance Festival, The National Storytelling Festival, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institution, The National Geographic, The Tales of Graz in Austria, Dunya Festival in Holland as well as many other Storytelling Festivals and educational institutions around The USA. Mr. Rocha is a member of the Maine Arts Commission, The New England Foundation for the Arts and the National Storytelling Association.
Feel free to learn more about Antonio Rocha on his website – http://www.storyinmotion.com
By: Eric Wolf,
on 12/8/2010
Over at the International Storytelling School I have been busy building a catalog of answers to the most interesting questions on the Art of Storytelling.
Most of the answers are private, available only to people who join the International Storytelling School as audience members for a donation of $15 a month. There donations have paid for new recording equipment and various other handy items that allow me to bring you the Art of Storytelling Podcast and Blog. Perhaps you would consider becoming a member and supporting the production of this show for pennies a day….
Here are a list of all the answers I have been laying out on the school website…
Applied Storytelling #001 - Community and Performance Storytelling
What is the difference between Community Storytelling and Performance Storytelling?
Applied Storytelling #002 – Finding Local Folktales and Legends
I would love to know what Folk tales can actually trace their roots to what became the state of Ohio.
Applied Storytelling #003 – New and Old Storytelling Worlds
With all this young and new innovative things that are happening that is, we don’t call it traditional Storytelling but it is Storytelling – how do we pull this new and old storytelling worlds together with undercutting the new or the old?
Applied Storytelling #004 – Bringing the Love Home.
I have spent this National Storytelling Network Conference with these wonderful storytellers. Now I want to take that energy and that feeling and that attention and bring it out into the real world. How do you get another audience to understand the nature of what you are saying?
Applied Storytelling #005 – Integrating a Story into your Repertoire
Once you have gotten started with storytelling, what is the best way to approach a story?
Applied Storytelling #006 – Theater vs Storytelling?
What is the difference between Storytelling and Theatre?
Applied Storytelling #007 – Building the Membership of Your Storytelling Guild
How do you build to your membership in your storytelling guild?
Applied Storytelling #008 – Story Rustling and What to do about it.
What do you do if someone else begins to tell your own personal story without your permission?
Applied Storytelling #009 - Finding New Venues for Adult Storytelling
How can we inside the storytelling community develop inside the greater community a spot where we can have stories
By: Eric Wolf,
on 10/29/2010
Press Play to hear Kathy Collins speak on being a Comedian who tells stories and being a storyteller who uses comedy on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.
Although I began storytelling as a teenage in high school forensics competitions, I have always felt like an imposter among “real” tellers. I consider myself an actress, one who memorizes lines and portrays characters, as opposed to a wise and wonderful wordsmith. Over years of performing, I’ve become a lot more comfortable with straying from the script and improvising, but it still seemed more like acting than telling. On Maui, I have a greater reputation as a comedienne than a storyteller.
Then I was blessed with the chance to perform this summer at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Project, where I was billed as one of several poets in the La Casita Festival. Talk about feeling out of my league… now I’m a phony poet too? It seems to me that all poets are storytellers, but not all storytellers are poets. Or are they/we?
Fortunately, this summer I also attended a storytelling festival in Canada’s Northwest Territories. At a tellers’ workshop there, I was surprised to hear the chief executive of a performing arts center mention Bill Cosby as his favorite storyteller. He went on to say that he thinks stand-up comics are the tellers of our time.
I felt liberated after that workshop. I no longer feel out of place among storytellers. Once in a while, either my alter ego Tita or I will perform a serious or poignant tale. But mostly, I now see myself as a storyteller who also happens to do stand-up and theatre. I am grateful for the privilege of getting to do what I love and love what I do for a living.
More on Kathy Collins:
Maui actress/storyteller/comedienne/dancer/radio personality Kathy Collins has been performing on stage since she was 13 and began her broadcasting career at 17. Raised on Maui, her pidgin-speaking alter ego, “Tita”, is a fixture at Oahu’s annual Talk Story Festival and a regular columnist for Maui No Ka Oi Magazine. Her first CD release, “Tita Out”, won the 2005 Hawaii Music Award for Comedy Album of the Year.
Collins performs frequently at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, where she recently presented Kathy Collins’ Death Comedy Jam, an irreverent and poignant look at death and widowhood written after the death of her husband, Barry Shannon, with whom she co-founded non-commercial Mana’o Radio (91.5FM). Other recent performances include playing Bloody Mary in MAPA’s production of “South Pacific”, telling Pele stories in New York City at the Lincoln Center Out Of Doors Project, and a featured role in the full-length movie “Get a Jab” (premiering at the Hawaii International Film Festival in October 2010).
1 Comments on Kathy Collins – Comedian as Storyteller – Storytelling as Comedy., last added: 10/29/2010
By: Eric Wolf,
on 8/25/2010
Press Play to hear Ruth Stotter speak on working with props in storytelling performances on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.
Ruth Stotter Writes....
I love the idea that as a storyteller, you travel light. A "bag" of stories takes up no room and is easy to carry around. But I also love interspersing stories with props - both as a folklorist carrying on old traditions and as a way of adding a visual component. Puppets, masks, and origami are among my favorites. You asked why I am currently so intrigued with string stories and I will try to answer. It never ceases to amaze me that with a simple loop of string you can make hundreds of figures, and that these string designs can be used to tell stories.I think they were the first picture books. Tellers in traditional cultures twisted and turned the string to make illustrations to accompany their oral texts.
When I went to Easter Island, where they still hold an annual string story competition, I found that they were using a rough hewn string from a plant and told stories in the old Rapa Nui language, not the modern Rapa Nui, nor Spanish, which is the official language. In Fiji I met a man who easily copied my string figures. I found it difficult to learn his, as I am used to book illustrations. Besides stories, of course, the loop of string is used for stunts and magic tricks.
Organizing the String Gathering in San Francisco in 2004 I was happy to meet other members of the International String Figure Association. This organization sends members a monthly string figure-design as well as various newsletters and books. Several of the people who attended the Gathering brought power point presentations of their experiences collecting string figures from Yupik Eskimoes, Navajos, and various Oceanic Rim countries.
I was pleased to be invited to write the section "String Figures" for Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Storytelling and Folklore, edited by Josepha Sherman. That led to my writing A Loop of String.
So, you see, my friends, all of my interests - origami, puppets, magic, folklore and storytelling - coalesce in this seemingly simple folk craft! I guess the bottom line (literally in this letter ) is that as a storyteller I find it challenging and irresistible to adapt and adopt string figures as part of my storytelling performance.
Bio: Ruth Stotter's kaleidoscope activities in storytelling include telling stories at a local Rennaisance Faire for six summers, producing and hosting "The Oral Tradition" radio program on KUSF-SF for six years, directing the Dominican University storytelling program for 14 years*, teaching and performing in Portugal, France, England, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, India and Africa. She is the author of About Story, More About Story, The Golden Axe, Smiles: 101 Stunts and You're On!. She has chaired and presented papers at meetings of the American Folklore Society and for several years served on the ASF Aesop Committee, which selects the best children's books based on folklore. Her honors include the Reading the World Award from the University of San Franc
By: Eric Wolf,
on 4/21/2010
Press Play to hear Brother Wolf takes questions from his audience on the Art of Storytelling Show on how to work with Audiences This is 2 of 3 shows commemorating the 100th Anniversary episode of the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Show. This Episode is podcast in 128 bit rate – this higher bit rate costs more to cast online – if you enjoyed listening to the higher quality show – perhaps you would consider purchasing your next download through the website….
This picture is called a Wordie – it is picture of what words people are using when making comment on the blog.
Click on it too see a closer look…
I would like to thank the following people for contributing there time and energy to the 101st Anniversary Episode….
Tim Ereneta Story Lab X – http://storylabx.tumblr.com/
Kevin Cordi The Story Box Ning – http://thestoryboxproject.ning.com/
Jonatha and Harold Wright Telling in Tandem – http://www.jonathaandharold.com/pubs.html
Fran Stallings NSN Oracle Award Check out the NSN website at http://www.storynet.org
Baba the Storyteller – http:// www.babathestoryteller.com What do you see for the future of the art of storytelling?
Trish Cane Suggestion of Books for storytelling to children and Adults
Dianne de Las Casus – Congradulations! She has a wonderful blog at http://storyconnection.net/blog/
Elisa Pearmain Stories to teach Peace – tell us a story example. http://www.wisdomtales.com
Resources Suggested:
Alternative to Violence Project
Children of the Morning Light.
Harvey Heilbrun How do you deal with an audience that is out of Control? http://hdhstory.net/
Sarah Hauser How do you involve kids in stories with out losing control? Portland, Oregon Storytellers http://www.portlandstorytellers.org/tellers/pages/sarahhauser.html
Jeanette W. Vaughn What is the responsibility to the audience as a Storyteller?
http://kuumbastorytellers.org
Thank-you to everyone who asked a question or added there two cents to this show….
Eric Wolf
What People are saying about the Art of Storytelling Show…
1 Comments on Art of Storytelling 101st Anniversary Episode., last added: 4/21/2010
Yes I know I have to many ongoing projects – but I just not excited by them anymore… so lets role the dice together and see what happens… This is the Story of Grandfather Rock as told bt he New England Native People… If you are a regular youtube watcher please take a moment to [...]
The Woman Who Sold Winds & Other Tales of the Sea by Ralph Chatham Available from Curmudgeon Story & Whistle Works 703-698-5456 email: [email protected] $10.00 + postage http://voicesintheglen.org/storytellers/ralph-chatham/ Reviewed By Linda Goodman I was particularly excited to listen to Ralph Chatham’s CD The Woman Who Sold Winds & Other Tales of the Sea, not [...]
Storyteller Mark Goldman has been steadily collecting very short video responses from storytellers you know and love allover the country.
I wrote an article like this back in 2009 – there has been a lot of water under the that bridge and I rarely write articles for this bog – but recently someone twitted about that old post and I thought – what they heck might as well update my readers. Keep in mind that [...]