Folk stories

Ira Lightman -Storyteller 

 

Ira Lightman, storyteller, will be telling oral stories from across the British Isles –  folktales from Katharine Briggs’ definitive 4 volume Dictionary of British Folk Tales and Joseph Jacobs’ collections of English and Celtic fairy tales; from the Mabinogion in Wales; from Scottish tinker tales. Ira often draws from e-books on Gutenberg.org from the 19th century, when folktales of the centuries were first widely put into print, which can then be followed up after his visit, as a free download. Ira demonstrates how one remembers the core plot of a tale, and then improvises it fresh each telling (Ira often asks the class to tailor the tale to their day and name the characters, and change their circumstances and appearance).

Workshop

A half day runs by 2 or 3 short tales, followed by a medium tale, and then a class task to make their own oral stories. They can retell one of the tales Ira has demonstrated, or make their own. Ira shows skills for sketching out a story-plan, with some text and with cartoons, and then mentors the class in the skills of performance, holding the room, thinking on your feet, and using audience-interaction.

The workshop can then run over into the afternoon, and a full day, by staging a long story, often done outside. First, Ira will tell the story. Then he will ask the class to go back through the ingredients, plot and key incidents of the tale. Then he breaks the class down into groups and each group will act a part of the story. A few members of the class will become the narrator, linking the story sections.

The workshop often reveals that there may be skilled storytelling children in the room, who have previously switched off from telling stories on the page because they feel challenged by writing and spelling. Ira often likens the telling of a tale to the telling of a joke. The ingredients must be in the right order, clues must be dropped to make the ending work, and there must be fun interludes. When telling our own stories, we must have obstacles and problems. Man wants dinner, goes to shop, buys dinner and eats, is not a story. Man wants dinner, and keeps falling down holes randomly appearing from nowhere, starts a story.

 

http://youtu.be/kmgnZ2ASYhA