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David Sidwell's workshop at StoryFest 2006March 4, 2006
A Great WORKshop
by Pamela Hanks
David Sidwell knows how to direct a great workshop. And it was WORK.
Early on he led us in the story, "Going on a Lion Hunt". Suddenly, in the middle of everyone climbing a tree, he yelled, "Freeze!" Then he spot checked the room to see if our muscles were flexed sufficiently to actually be climbing a tree.
"If you're not tired," he said at the end of the lion hunt, "then you did it wrong."
He explained that there are two kinds of actors: internal actors and external actors. An internal actor tries to see (and/or smell, taste, touch, hear, or have emotions about) and be in the moment and then their brain tells their body how to act. An external actor decides ahead of time how a king should stand and then ‘remembers' to stand that way when he is the king.
As storytellers we need to develop the skill of becoming internal actors. David pointed out that this is the most difficult thing a storyteller can do.
As he explained, when we are internal actors in our storytelling, we are giving images (the images we are seeing, tasting, touching, hearing, smelling, and having emotions about) to our audience. And giving images to an audience is telling a story.
When we are external actors in our storytelling, we are giving information (this is how a king might stand during the 1800's) to our audience. But giving information to an audience is lecturing.
David summarized, "If we are seeing our story with all of the senses, then our audience will see it too." He added that doing this is the number one thing a storyteller needs to improve in.
To help us practice this, we paired off and he gave us a sentence to say to our partner:
"As the moon rose over the forest, the animals began talking with one another."
Then each time we tried it, we were given a different "mood" to convey to our partner: Spooky, Romantic, and Funny
I learned that when my partner and I practiced it sitting next to each other, we used different methods to convey the mood than when we practiced it standing and 12 feet away from each other. It made me stretch my storytelling muscles and develop new ones.
He left us with one admonition: "Be honest in your tellings and really ‘see' what you are telling."
I had an opportunity just half an hour later to try it out. As I told my story, instead of just showing my audience what the pirate and the farmer looked like, I tried to become them. I hefted buckets of water. And I must have done it right because my back hurt.
David Sidwell teaches storytelling at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. He has told stories to thousands of children and adults in a variety of venues. He maintains a website devoted to storytelling at www.ultimate-storytelling-guide.com
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