Storytelling, Folktale, Personal Story, Beowulf

Last week we started a new unit in Folktales and Storytelling

On Tuesday we each told a folktale and a personal story. It was really interesting because when telling a story there's a lot you have to work on. I believe you need a list of techniques to tell it correctly. I feel in a good story teller they need to be engaging, have the audiences full attention, eye contact I feel is really important because you want to intimidate them when telling a story. You need to be confident when speaking, the tone needs to be clear and projection loud.

What I found when telling both my folktale and personal story is that they differed. The story I told first was my folktale, I went with my culture and used my own knowledge and personal experience. I told the tale of Ganesha, I didn't prepare myself, I just said it and how it came out of my mouth is how it came out and I went with it. From the feedback I got back was that my beginning was good, I had everybody's attention from the minute I spoke. I decided to tell the story in one tone and stood with that tone through it. I thought the way I projected my voice was clear and interesting. I made eye contact when speaking to make sure not one person was looking away when I was speaking. I thought I said the story well.

The personal story I told in terms of storytelling differed from my folktale, my personal story had entertainment in it where as my folktale had a religious meaning. To me it felt like I was telling my personal story like it was a conversation to a group of people, I told a story of the time I went to watch my first football match with my brother. I thought it was an interesting, funny story to tell, it had a bit of comedy into it, which is why people laughed and I expected them to because it was a funny story. What I found out was when telling my personal story I was much more passionate than  when I was telling my folktale.

Beowulf

On Thursday we looked at Storytelling, we used Beowulf as our stimulus but we used a new method of storytelling. We experimented using papers, shadows and puppetry. I thought it was a really interesting, creative way to story tell.

We were split up into groups and had to improvise scenes from the Beowulf story
In my group it was Anna, Charlotte and Jack and we experimented using paper as wings where as the other group they rolled up the paper and used it as a spotlight. All performances were performed in the dark which suggests it could be performed in Artaudian style.

Afterwards we swapped groups again where it was me, Jordan and Jack and we told the story of Beowulf through a big sheet of paper with 3 holes cut out in the middle. We were being creative and imaginative and used parts of our body when telling the story. We show a part through the holes each time and swap it over with a different one. I used my nose, eyes, mouth swapping it over each time.

Other groups used shadow shining flashlight on the walls while telling the story using hand puppetry.
The day was brilliant, there was a lot of creativity, ideas beyond outside the box, it was a good devising lesson. I look forward to the next devising storytelling lesson.