Thoughts on Lipman's Learning the Story Chapter
The pair and small group exercises of Shonaleigh's Institute powerfully demonstrated what Doug Lipman urges in this chapter. We experienced the value of learning a story by sharing it with others in a "practice telling" and through dialogue about the story and that "practice telling" with listeners. Ever since David gave us the assignment of telling a fairy/folk tale on Friday that we have never performed before, I've been extremely anxious about going public with a tale I don't know well. After reading Chapter 6, I think my blood pressure returned to a normal range -- because I am hoping we will use Friday's telling to gather input from supportive listeners, that we will enact the wisdom from this chapter.
This chapter inspired me to jump ahead to Chap. 14 and read through the advice about having a rehearsal buddy and a home audience. In fact, I believe Doug Lipman shared the rehearsal buddy concept with us three (?) summers ago when I was a summer student at ETSU and our class attended his Teller-in-Residence performance, which was delightful. I knew my method of learning stories - solitary rehearsals before mirrors or indifferent cats - was not a satisfying way to practice an interactive art form, and I cherish the all-too-few moments I get to practice a story before other tellers, and hear their thoughts and reactions on the story they heard, the questions it prompted in their minds, and reactions to my telling of it.
Other minds see different landscapes, characters, motivations, than I do, and hearing other perspectives enriches my understanding of a story and the points of contact it makes with listeners, and my next telling is enriched by them. It leaves me feeling a bit like a narrow stream that has met up with many tributaries and grown into a deep river as a result.
You're not alone in your apprehensions about the "never been told before story" for Friday. I am actively remembering what I teach my students: The audience is WITH you! They have empathy and want you to do well.
ReplyDeleteI am with you, too. For me the pressure is that I feel our time together in the class is so valuable, I don't want to miss squeezing the most out of the opportunity. When I first approach a story, it's pretty raw with lots of questions and the process of making choices is both exciting and nerve wracking. Time, preparation, 'harrowing" the material, and research gets a story to the point where I feel it is worth the time of others. But with this assignment we don't have that luxury - so after reading about twenty stories, I settled on one and even though it's not ideal, and I've rethought it several times, I decided that with the time we have - I will commit to it, for better or worse. And regardless of how we work up our story or which one we select, I have absolute faith it will provide "teachable moments" that Winnie talks about. .
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 6,Doug Lipman says that the best way to learn a story is through telling it informally---many times. Clearly, there is no time to transform it into a well-thought out story---it needs time to develop (almost like bread). I remember from a workshop I took with Doug Lipman last year---the more we told a story, the better it became.
ReplyDeleteHow beautifully stated. I feel like my sister Bees experience is growing and flowing like that river due to the patient and kindly feedback I have been given by fellow students during and since Shonaleigh's Institute.
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