Telling It... The Art of Storytelling

Once upon a time, there lived a land of people who had forgotten how to tell stories. In that No Story Land, no one talked much because all questions had to be answered “yes” or “no.” After all, an explanation is a story. And eventually, even that “yes” or “no” turned into just a nod or shake of the head.

In that land no one sang, because all songs tell a story. Even food was dull and mostly uncooked because there was no story of the first fire; and how could you share a recipe if you don’t tell the story about it? There were no newspapers, no books, no radio, no television. People didn’t go to church because there were no Bible stories, no stories of spiritual experiences, no singing—in short, nothing to do there. There was no school. How could you have school without books, or books—even textbooks—without a story?

There were no names for things. How could you explain water coming down the mountain in a creek that went to a river without a story? How could you talk about the sun that rose in the east and set in the west? What could you possibly say about why two people got married and babies were born? Finally, people started disappearing from No Story Land. No one knew why, because no one would ask. To answer, there would have to be a story. So No Story Land became a dead place. People who went there were “Storykillers.” They were people who thought they couldn’t stand being around other people, or people who wanted to tell everyone else what they should say and people who thought only certain stories should be told to children (the ones of which they approved, of course). But even they didn’t last long, because soon they could not even tell the story of why they came to No Story Land. Surely, in ages past No Story Land must have had stories and at least one good storyteller. Where is that storyteller now? Is there a way to get them back? How do we make sure our land doesn’t become a No Story Land?

Storytelling is the way of communicating with the world. It is the way of teaching and learning. In all the forms our communications take, there is a story. Even the material that is on television or at the movies or in the news starts with a story. Our theories about creation, the nature of the world, the nature of humanity or just how our children grow up are stories.

Storytelling is an art. Thankfully it is being taken seriously as a professional art form, and it is being reborn in the United States. An indication of this is the number of professional organizations, conferences, ways to network and professional publications that have grown up around storytelling (see sidebar).

Before storytelling started its professional coming of age, it was an activity done almost exclusively by the elders of a culture. It was the way wisdom and knowledge was transmitted. This was especially true in pre-literate societies, and we are beginning to recognize that it is also true for literate societies. We are learning that we have been telling stories all along even when we dress it up and called it science, history, psychology or especially language arts. Often the activity termed telling stories is said to be for children, and the only way some contemporary adults allow themselves to hear stories is to bring their children.

Author Alex Haley, author of Roots and Queen, said that telling was not done for children in his growing-up years. The children were allowed to stay and listen if they behaved, for the adults recognized the value of the history, the language and the adult camaraderie the children were privy to as they listened. But storytelling was how adults communicated with each other in Haley’s world. And that is still true in our world.

My first awareness of myself as a storyteller occurred after my marriage dissolved. I found myself time and again telling the story of overcoming my fear and getting on an airplane for the first time to get away from him. Though that was not by any means a professional telling, it was a way of communicating my hurt, anguish, triumph and need for relationship. And it was not a story for children.

There are many reasons to tell stories to children. Of course, there is the sheer entertainment value of the story, and it is a way for a parent to relax while giving the child total attention. Other reasons go from educational to healing. By using their imaginations, children can actually and safely try-on different ways of behaving and different ways of being. The stories can also give children what they need to allow them to look at their fears up close and often overcome them.

When children are confronted with a story hero or heroine, especially in stories that are personal to the teller, they begin to wonder if perhaps they might be able to face some challenge in their own lives. Many stories or tellers won’t have solutions and the children have to offer their own creative solutions to end the story. This may be the first time an adult has listened to their ideas as if they are valuable for themselves and not to see if they can produce the right answer (as defined by someone else).

Oftentimes storytellers are given secrets by children that they have not shared with anyone. (The professional teller knows which of those secrets are best referred to a person that is a professional in medicine or sociology or whatever field would handle the problem.) Such is the power of a well told story.

Most children who are read to or told stories early in life become better learners. The art of communicating through the telling of one’s stories is something that children can and do share with each other and with adults. That involvement with stories should not end once the child enters the classroom.

Given what is at stake, storytelling should be taken very seriously by the schools. What is at stake? Our children’s imaginations. Study after study has been done to show that the amount of time most American children watch television is astronomical, and that doing so is robbing them of their ability to think. Storytelling rekindles that imagination. As the children listen, their minds have to create the pictures instead of being fed the pictorial results of someone else’s imagination.

In the classroom, students should not only be told stories but become involved in telling their own stories. When students are engaged in storytelling, either by hearing or telling, their communications skills (listening, talking, writing and reading) develop more rapidly, they acquire some appreciation of all the cultures from which stories come, they become more sociable and they achieve some level of assurance and self-confidence when speaking in front of a group.

Actually, storytelling works better with children than many other ways of trying to communicate. There is rarely a time when I tell stories in a classroom that the teacher does not comment that such and such child responded positively to storytelling as they had never responded to lecture or instruction. From experiences with many children, it is apparent that the repeated message, the yelled message, the cajoling message or the threatening message are not as efficient as sharing the message through the experience of a story.

Once the students are interested in storytelling in the classroom, the story can be used to teach, or at least, enhance any subject area. Student enthusiasm for storytelling can be turned into a teaching tool to stimulate interest in learning. You might ask why a professional is needed. Can’t the teacher just read the story to the class?

Yes, the teacher could read it, but the interaction that is possible when the teller can watch the children as they hear the story is not available when reading. Knowing this can make it easier for a teacher to take storytelling to the next level of learning someone else’s story and telling it. Just as the teacher continues to offer the students opportunities to draw and paint (though she/he may not be a visual artist), sometimes with a visit from a professional, so should the teacher offer the storytelling sometimes with a visit from a professional.

The professional teller learns to get him/herself out of the way so that the story is told through him rather than from or by her. As one teller put it,

Storytelling is an experience of living on several levels of consciousness simultaneously. At once, I was reading the audience, checking on their involvement, reaching out to that seven-year-old boy whose eyes never moved away from me. I was telling the story, making sure I had the action sequenced, getting in the phrases I like and find necessary, finding new words and gestures that made it just right….And then, the story took flight.

Yes, the teller learns the art of movement and gesture, the art of the voice, timing and delivery, perhaps music and facial expression. The teller learns the story inside and out, backwards and forwards. Then the teller learns how to give the story its head, so that the teller becomes the instrument upon which the story is played. That is the art of the story.

The professional storyteller is also sensitive to the need for adults to continue to hear stories. Many times I have noticed in settings other than the classroom, adults bringing their children as an excuse to come hear the stories themselves. So the teller may be telling to the children but will include elements that will appeal to the older members of the audience.

N. Scott Momaday, in speaking of the power of the storyteller in Native American culture, said, “The storyteller is one whose spirit is indispensable to the people. S/He is magician, artist and creator. And, above all, s/he is a holy person. Hers/His is a sacred business.”

Our stories come from the discoveries we make about the way the world works. In short, the story comes from spirit. The words are used to shape, define, explain, comfort, bless, console, excite. Equally important is the use of the voice. Telling implies a spoken or oral activity. A teller expert in vocal interpretation could come close to telling a story with no worlds by using vocal inflections and expressions and gesture. The use of words and the use of voice is the art of storytelling.

Storytellers in this day and age are called by many names. They are called reporters, scriptwriters, authors, poets, rappers, singers, journalists, playwrights, novelists, lyricists, actors, technical writers, physicists, musicians, ministers, teachers, lexicographers, correspondents, secretaries, psychologists and professors. And finally, they are also being called storytellers.

Adora Dupree comes to the storytelling and dramatic arts from her family’s tradition of the spoken word. She is an actress, director, writer, creative dramatist, ordained minister, and storyteller. She uses her dramatic and spiritual training to enhance her storytelling work. This story was first published in High Performance #63, Fall 1993.

Original CAN/API publication: October 2003