Often in my notebook I write down a few words to jog my memory about something that was discussed in class. These were some of the notes I wrote down for Friday: "Let the intensity of the moment lend seriousness to the voice." "Way-finding." "Clarity? Orientation? Articulation?"
I found these points or words that David said interesting because it's really difficult to fully grasp what can go into a story being told unless you're deep in the trenches of studying storytelling. The points that David makes on a daily basis about improving stories are all very helpful and some of the tips are downright paradigm shifting for lack of a better phrase. Well, I wanted to use the word "mind blowing" but that might be a bit dramatic. Then again, last week in storyteller's gym I remember a few people making real "a ha, WOW, I didn't know you could do that!" faces when David was showing us some pantomime techniques. I feel like I experience the same thing in our Advanced class through reading the text and experiencing the lectures and class exercises.
The reason why I made it a point to write down "articulation" was that I was reminded in class last Friday that articulation is only one of many aspects of telling a story. How I internalized this was, there are so many other ways to mess up, or do great at a performance. Sometimes I limit myself to just think about articulation. But I had a lot of fun workshopping my story to work on clarity and orientation also. And I had a lot of fun looking for clarity and orientation in Friday's stories as well.
This next paragraph is not a direct link to something discussed in class on Friday but I did want to write down something from one of our books. In chapter 4 of the Rodenburg text the author talks about how sometimes we violate a child's right to speak and play with sounds. Many of us might have experienced times where we were corrected for a certain type of speech. For example, how Rodenburg mentions "stop mumbling" as one phrase that might be said from a parent to a child. But as I was reading the text I felt challenged that sometimes even I get on the case of my niece from time to time. Only when she uses this one baby voice because I can't really stand it. And I'm not the only one who has said something to her about it. But next time I hear her use it I will think twice about saying something and just let her explore her different voices that she wants to play with. Some of her voices will be really awful and some will probably be quite lovely. But the Rodenburg text reminds me that children need that room to explore, learn, and grow.
I have said, "stop mumbling" or the equivalent to my own children. What the child likely hears is "stop." How much better if they would have heard the message,"I want to hear what you have to say. I want to understand you."
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