Convener: Jonathan
Bidgood
Participants:
Sarah, Danny
Scheinman, Timothy, Mark
Trezona, Dodger
Phillips,
Martyn
Duffy, Morvern
Macbeth, Sarah
Corbet, Ian Pugh, Ed
Jaspers, Kate
Lane, Mary
O’Connor, Jonathan
Bidgood
Summary of
discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:
Reading List; Books suggested by members of the group
Joseph Cambell; everything, but especially ‘The hero with a
thousand faces’
Christopher Booker; The Seven Basic Plots
Women Who run with the wolves L.Ester
The Feminism of Fairytales, Maria von Fanz
Rumi
Songlines, Bruce Chatwin
Why do we tell stories? To teach/explain/pass
experience/convey culture
To
celebrate
To
find out what happens next…
To
tell the story of who we are
Jonathan Explained why he had called the session, explaining
his interest in the deep archetypal nature of folk tales and desire to create a
piece around the stories of the british Isles. He observed that, while we do
have access to folk tales, and there is a great deal of literature around the
symbology and import of those tales, the majority come from places where the
local culture still has a widespread link to the stories.
Dodger Told us about Leo Sofer, a Modern storyteller, and
mentioned some of his travels to see master story tellers around the world in
action. He outlined various principles that he had learnt from them, including
the importance of never writing the stories down… lest you devalue your art,or
make yourself redundant, perhaps. Or maybe because the importance of the
stories is that they remain (a)live.
He recounted meeting an Irish storyteller, Jack with the
Flat Cap, who refused to tell him anything about his craft, but did allow him
to come and see him tell the same story twice, allowing him to step out of the
process of being told, and observe the craft.
He also mentioned that many traditional stories are nested
to three degrees, with a story inside a story inside a story.
The group talked about storytelling as a physical art, a
mesmeric, hypnotic process, in which the audience entrains to the physical and
emotional signals of the storyteller.
Dodger suggested that Peter Pan and Wind in the Willows are
both books written to be read aloud, with the Rhythm of the language designed
to have a similar effect upon the audience.
Danny mentioned that he is a lecturer in storytelling, and
has spent a great deal of time researching storytelling processes and examining
how they can be applied to group performance.
There was talk about the sentimental narratives of Hollywood,
which often steel the form but bowdlerise the content of classic narrative,
especially the work of Disney. Jonathan observed that it was interesting that
the group was meeting in Tatooine, given how much of starwars’ plotline was the
product campbell’s work on mythic structure.
The book Eragon was mentioned as an example of the potency
of these stories. Written by a teenager who essentially copied his narrative
structure from the starwars movies.
There was brief discussion of Mitaclirans(?), as an example
of the newer starwars films missing the point, trying to make magic into a
blood disorder, and thus losing all their charm/glamour
Talk turned to the subject of music, how it could interact
with stories and with the tradition. Danny described his experince of
experimenting with music in story contexts, and observed that, while music
creates atmosphere, melody sits in the same aural and emotional space as the
storytellers voice, and thus tells story.
The Black Rider and Shockheaded peter were referenced, the
latter especially for its ability to tap into the psyche of the child in a very
primal fashion (and then she… DIED!)
There was discussion around the way stories get transferred
and evolve within an oral tradition. Strong traditions still extant in the isle
of man and Norfolk were mentioned.
The group finished by sharing emails and agreeing that it
would be interesting to meet and explore some the ideas arising from the
session through the medium of an open space workshop.
