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The National Storytelling Festival Revisited - Page 2

© Chris King

Here are some of the lingering thoughts, impressions and ideas that traveled home with me. By now, if you have read this far, you probably realize how important attending and loving this Storytelling Festival is to me, and you don’t know a tenth of it. I always gain a new perspective on stories and storytelling. Here are some points to ponder.

• If you use a puppet — for example “Maynard Moose” — to tell stories, you can say words and change meanings and morals of stories that you can’t get away with as a regular teller. After all, what can you expect from a moose?
• Personal stories have strength for listeners as long as they remind us of our own stories. They don’t have to be the same story, and they can be outrageous, but they still need to have enough truth to be plausible.
• Remaining true to ourselves as storytellers gives us a presence and an everlasting quality. I will never forget the unique clothing, use of music and props, manner of speaking or not speaking, intelligence, sincerity, and integrity exhibited by all of the tellers at the Festival. And, I haven’t even included the wonderful Regional Tellers who performed at Exchange Place, Youthful Voices, the Swappin’ Ground, the Cabarets, and at the Ghost Stories.
• To move or not to move depends upon the teller and his or her approach. Peter Cook was all over the stage, while Syd Lieberman barely lifted a finger, and yet both had our full attention.

How about joining us next October in Jonesborough, Tennessee, for the 30th Anniversary National Storytelling Festival? For information visit the International Storytelling Foundation at: http://www.storytellingfoundation.net and/or the National Storytelling Network at: http://www.storynet.org.

One word of warning. If you take the plunge and attend a National Storytelling Festival, you will be hooked for life. I make my reservation for the next year’s event every year when I check out of my motel on Sunday morning. How else do you imagine that it has grown from 60 to 10,000 people?

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