Advanced Storytelling
A journal and discussion of the coursework for Advanced Storytelling, READ 5230, at ETSU Spring 2006.Thursday, March 02, 2006
Day 7
Day 7, March 1, 2006
Present: Tenika, Safia, Nomusa, Cynthia, Leah
We began with a clapping game in which we clapped in rapid sequence one after another. This got us awake and attentive to the group, and was fun. I then directed you through the following sequence:
1. Look about the room, focusing your gaze on some specific place or object in the room. Change your focus and gaze each time I clap my hands.(I varied the rhythm and tempo, speeding up and slowing down.)
2. Add a gesture to the gaze, "See and Show" again changing focus with every hand clap.
3. Add a word to the gaze and gesture, "See, Show, and Say" again changing with each hand clap.
4. On cue, say as many words as come to mind on the place or object that currently has your focus, "See, Show, Say and Flow."
5. Add shaping and sculpting gestures to the flowing words, "See, Show, Say, Flow and Sculpt."
6. Add the use of similes to the flow of words (example "chair like rock" "wall like skin") "See, Show, Say, and Simile."
7. Revert to "See and Show" and on cue gesture from the area of focus to nearby areas moving from focus to focus. I don't recall what term I gave for this, how about "See, Show and Link"?
8. Make the linking gestures continuous as if defining a landscape, "See, Show, Landscape."
9. Compose a phrase describing the landscape before you (example: "the tables in a row like rush hour, the chairs like impatient drivers.")
9a. After trying this straight out we reverted to "See, Show, Say" and then cued you to "Phrase" at whatever focus you were holding. This resulting in greater ease with the task.
We then shared our phrases with one other person in the group and finally with the entire group. We discovered how intriguing and poetic we can be when we find a way to generate our thinking and seeing, to stimulate some kind of flow of speech. This is a kind of thinking aloud, thinking while in motion, thinking while talking rather than stopping to think before speaking.
*Please write your phrases in the comments area of this post. Share you thoughts on the value of this exercise, the concepts and skills practiced and learned.*
After our reflection on the activity we began to work again on our sonnets.
Safia began with Sonnet XXIII (23) "As an unperfect actor on the stage..."
We saw again how the sonnet suits the speaker. This was a good selection for Safia because of her own experience as an actor. We discussed the sonnet's meaning and structure. (Sometimes in theatre we describe this activity as "glossing the text" using the word "gloss" as short for "glossary," in other words defining the text. For example, if we come upon an unfamiliar or intriguing word, such as "replete" in this case, we might say "let's gloss that.") We saw the use of certain verbal conceits ("word tricks") such as the contrasting of "strength" with "weakness" and "dumb" with "speaking". (Remember "dumb" in this instance means "mute.") We also noted that the end of the line is not always the end of the idea or statement. We saw that the lack of punctuation of any kind after the first line suggested that the idea and therefore the speech should continue relatively uninterrupted into the next line, connecting "on the stage" with "who with her fear..."
As we worked variations of Safia's presentation we saw a changing intent from her and a sense of her own wants influencing her performance. We saw how, when she was pleading with the entire group, she came forward physically as well as vocally and emotionally to reach out for our acceptance, dramatically reaching for Cynthia when she spoke "So I, for fear of trust..."
Tenika then shared her sonnet,116, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds..."
We glossed the text and noticed that in this sonnet, unlike the others, the sense of a subject and a need or want was not clear. The speaker of this sonnet does not refer to his or her self, nor to a "thou" or "thee". When we asked Tenika to imagine some context for her speaking the sonnet involving some partner who needed to hear these thoughts we saw a radical change in her performance. In theatre we would consider the context as the "given circumstances" comprised of all the has gone before the moment of the scene and all that is influencing or informing the scene. The "given circumstances" in this case were that Tenika was speaking to a lover at the end of their relationship, simultaneously criticizing and explaining her beliefs and expectations from love. We then changed the given circumstances and asked her to speak the Leah in the manner of a friend giving advice. Again the performance changed, especially the presentation of the first line. We then asked Tenika to find her own experience of the ideas in the sonnet and what they mean for her (is this idea of love something she has experienced before? Something she misses? Something she desires for herself but has never known? And so on.) Additionally we asked Tenika to speak the text with living thought, or "fresh" thought, as if she were finding the words and composing her speech in the moment of speaking. The result, we agreed, was full, clear, and compelling. We discussed that Tenika's intention to advise Leah was more compelling when it was also informed with Tenika's own personal connection with the ideas. Interesting discovery: we speak of the storyteller's intention to give the story to the listener, to be concerned for the listener's needs and experience, but we can see that the storyteller must still have a deep personal connection to the story even as they are giving to another.
We then reflected on the coursework thus far as we approach Spring Break. A good discussion followed covering many of the learning experiences you each found value in.
*Please write some of these personal reflections on what you have learned at this mid-point and post them in the comments.*
I then shared a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay "The Little Ghost". We discussed the poem and I used it to introduce our next assignment. I had asked for a "scary story" but I will now qualify that request:
Please prepare a story that in some way invites us to think of mysterious and otherworldly possibilities in the way that a ghost story does. This may still be frightening or disturbing, but at the least must involve some kind of question about reality, some sense of "more in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" as Hamlet says to his scholarly friend, Horatio.
My overall objective is for you to tell an enigmatic story in a manner that is direct, sincere, and honest. You must convince us of the truth of your story. Bring us to believe with you in the events of the story. Remember Kathryn Windham's remark about a good ghost story making you want to believe in ghosts.
Present: Tenika, Safia, Nomusa, Cynthia, Leah
We began with a clapping game in which we clapped in rapid sequence one after another. This got us awake and attentive to the group, and was fun. I then directed you through the following sequence:
1. Look about the room, focusing your gaze on some specific place or object in the room. Change your focus and gaze each time I clap my hands.(I varied the rhythm and tempo, speeding up and slowing down.)
2. Add a gesture to the gaze, "See and Show" again changing focus with every hand clap.
3. Add a word to the gaze and gesture, "See, Show, and Say" again changing with each hand clap.
4. On cue, say as many words as come to mind on the place or object that currently has your focus, "See, Show, Say and Flow."
5. Add shaping and sculpting gestures to the flowing words, "See, Show, Say, Flow and Sculpt."
6. Add the use of similes to the flow of words (example "chair like rock" "wall like skin") "See, Show, Say, and Simile."
7. Revert to "See and Show" and on cue gesture from the area of focus to nearby areas moving from focus to focus. I don't recall what term I gave for this, how about "See, Show and Link"?
8. Make the linking gestures continuous as if defining a landscape, "See, Show, Landscape."
9. Compose a phrase describing the landscape before you (example: "the tables in a row like rush hour, the chairs like impatient drivers.")
9a. After trying this straight out we reverted to "See, Show, Say" and then cued you to "Phrase" at whatever focus you were holding. This resulting in greater ease with the task.
We then shared our phrases with one other person in the group and finally with the entire group. We discovered how intriguing and poetic we can be when we find a way to generate our thinking and seeing, to stimulate some kind of flow of speech. This is a kind of thinking aloud, thinking while in motion, thinking while talking rather than stopping to think before speaking.
*Please write your phrases in the comments area of this post. Share you thoughts on the value of this exercise, the concepts and skills practiced and learned.*
After our reflection on the activity we began to work again on our sonnets.
Safia began with Sonnet XXIII (23) "As an unperfect actor on the stage..."
We saw again how the sonnet suits the speaker. This was a good selection for Safia because of her own experience as an actor. We discussed the sonnet's meaning and structure. (Sometimes in theatre we describe this activity as "glossing the text" using the word "gloss" as short for "glossary," in other words defining the text. For example, if we come upon an unfamiliar or intriguing word, such as "replete" in this case, we might say "let's gloss that.") We saw the use of certain verbal conceits ("word tricks") such as the contrasting of "strength" with "weakness" and "dumb" with "speaking". (Remember "dumb" in this instance means "mute.") We also noted that the end of the line is not always the end of the idea or statement. We saw that the lack of punctuation of any kind after the first line suggested that the idea and therefore the speech should continue relatively uninterrupted into the next line, connecting "on the stage" with "who with her fear..."
As we worked variations of Safia's presentation we saw a changing intent from her and a sense of her own wants influencing her performance. We saw how, when she was pleading with the entire group, she came forward physically as well as vocally and emotionally to reach out for our acceptance, dramatically reaching for Cynthia when she spoke "So I, for fear of trust..."
Tenika then shared her sonnet,116, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds..."
We glossed the text and noticed that in this sonnet, unlike the others, the sense of a subject and a need or want was not clear. The speaker of this sonnet does not refer to his or her self, nor to a "thou" or "thee". When we asked Tenika to imagine some context for her speaking the sonnet involving some partner who needed to hear these thoughts we saw a radical change in her performance. In theatre we would consider the context as the "given circumstances" comprised of all the has gone before the moment of the scene and all that is influencing or informing the scene. The "given circumstances" in this case were that Tenika was speaking to a lover at the end of their relationship, simultaneously criticizing and explaining her beliefs and expectations from love. We then changed the given circumstances and asked her to speak the Leah in the manner of a friend giving advice. Again the performance changed, especially the presentation of the first line. We then asked Tenika to find her own experience of the ideas in the sonnet and what they mean for her (is this idea of love something she has experienced before? Something she misses? Something she desires for herself but has never known? And so on.) Additionally we asked Tenika to speak the text with living thought, or "fresh" thought, as if she were finding the words and composing her speech in the moment of speaking. The result, we agreed, was full, clear, and compelling. We discussed that Tenika's intention to advise Leah was more compelling when it was also informed with Tenika's own personal connection with the ideas. Interesting discovery: we speak of the storyteller's intention to give the story to the listener, to be concerned for the listener's needs and experience, but we can see that the storyteller must still have a deep personal connection to the story even as they are giving to another.
We then reflected on the coursework thus far as we approach Spring Break. A good discussion followed covering many of the learning experiences you each found value in.
*Please write some of these personal reflections on what you have learned at this mid-point and post them in the comments.*
I then shared a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay "The Little Ghost". We discussed the poem and I used it to introduce our next assignment. I had asked for a "scary story" but I will now qualify that request:
Please prepare a story that in some way invites us to think of mysterious and otherworldly possibilities in the way that a ghost story does. This may still be frightening or disturbing, but at the least must involve some kind of question about reality, some sense of "more in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" as Hamlet says to his scholarly friend, Horatio.
My overall objective is for you to tell an enigmatic story in a manner that is direct, sincere, and honest. You must convince us of the truth of your story. Bring us to believe with you in the events of the story. Remember Kathryn Windham's remark about a good ghost story making you want to believe in ghosts.
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