Areas of Unrest

21 November 1999 - Tellabration

QOTD: "Our only weapons in this war of your lifetime are the weapons of the mind. In this country we consider those weapons to be curious at best. Unless we change this part of our culture, we will endure a steady decline in the American standard of living in a nation more and more owned by foreign interests." - Paul Tsongas, 1989 graduation speech at M.I.T.

Reading: Nick Pollotta and Phil Foglio, Illegal Aliens

Listening to: Cats and Jammers, Too Close For Comfort

Since I still can't write about jury duty, I'll write more about Tellabration than I otherwise might have. Last night was the 5th time Long Beach Storytellers put on a Tellabration. There were a few hundred other similar storytelling events the same night, as the idea has now spread to 12 countries and 42 states. The Saturday night before Thanksgiving has become an evening for everyone to gather and celebrate storytelling, with a particular emphasis on telling to adults.

I carpooled with Audrey and Katy (who drove) and we arrived at the El Dorado Nature Center just after 7 p.m.. Unfortunately, the gates were still locked, so the three of us and a few other early arrivals stood around watching three very fat raccoons raid a garbage can. Almost all of the tellers were there by the time Mary showed up with a key. Mysteriously, another Nature Center employee was there inside the complex, but hadn't realized she was supposed to have the gate unlocked for us. I never did hear an actual explanation of what had happened. Fortunately, the chairs had already been set up, so all we had to do were quick mike checks and have our little meeting in the back room to find out what order we were in and do a relaxation / centering exercise.

We ended up with an audience of about 70 people, which is quite comfortable in that room. Christina (who was emceeing) started by talking a bit about the idea of Tellabration and then went on to dedicate the evening to Norman's memory. Then the actual program began.

Katy led off with an Ethiopian folktale about a king who loved stories so much that he neglected the work of running the kingdom. It was very well told, with assistance from a puppet, and was a good story to lead off the event. She was followed by a personal story from Nancy, about a friend who had recently died of cancer. I often like personal stories but this one just didn't work for me, probably because it didn't really seem to go anywhere. Carol told her adaption of Jane Yolen's "The Cat Bride." The middle was a bit muddled, but the ending was crisp and pulled things together.

We had managed to coerce two relatively new tellers to participate and it was very obvious to me how nervous Sheri was. She told an Australian folktale and got more confident as it went on. Unfortunately, she got minorly panicked when she had trouble remembering the ending. Still, she got through it and did credibly enough for a novice. Maya ended the first half with an adaptation of Robert Munch's "Love You Forever." She substituted the song "Shortnin' Bread" for the title song and, really, left just the barest outline of the original story. It's a story I've never cared for much, but she did tell it well and she has a nice singing voice.

Ed led off the second half with a fable (a literary story in fable form, not a folktale). He was followed by Roger (another new teller) who told a literary story. Both of them told well enough, but neither story was one I cared for. In the case of the story that Ed told, I thought it was preachy. The problem with Roger's choice was deeper, as it was a story that had a certain mystery element and was too hard to follow as a listener. It reminded me of the difficulties inherent in adapting literary stories. The listener doesn't have the opportunity to go back and reread parts they missed, so you have to really nail things down right off the bat.

Then it was my turn. I told a Chelm story and advertised it as Jewish folklore. Actually, when I had looked back at my sources earlier in the day, I discovered that there was actually very little of the original story left in my version. The short version of the story is that a man from Chelm goes to another city and sees and tastes bagels for the first time. He begs to learn how to make them and can't understand how the holes get in the bagels. The baker has heard of Chelm so he explains that he inherited a supply of holes from his ancestors and just forms the bagels around the readymade holes. In order to have bagel holes for Chelm, he provides his student with a few dozen bagels and advises him to tell people to eat carefully and save the holes so he will have a constant supply. Unfortunately, when the Chelmite returns home, there is an accident and the bagels fall to the ground, where the local dogs devour them. And those dogs are so greedy, they even eat all of the holes.

My version focuses on the crisis that comes about when the only baker in Chelm dies, meanders to the high price of bread at the fancy bakeries in the neighboring town and apprentices a Chelmite to a bakery in Warsaw before getting around to the traditional story. It worked very well and I got a lot of laughs.

I was followed by Audrey and Sylvia, wo both told coyote stories. Again, these were well-told but just aren't really my thing. Bill finished off the evening with an Armenian folktale that has become pretty much his signature story.

Overall, it was a nicely balanced program, though I would probably have ordered things differently in order to separate the coyote stories. One big change this year was that we gave everyone a six minute time limit, instead of eight, and that kept things flowing very well. Nobody seemed restless and I think it also made people more careful about timing their stories beforehand. Though, I have to admit, it's very hard to time things accurately in my living room, where I don't have audience reaction to factor in.

It also reminded me how much I enjoy performing. I haven't really been doing much storytelling lately, beyond getting to the monthly Community Storytellers swap. I haven't even been working very regularly on new stories. So it was nice to feel a bit refreshed, to be reminded of how wonderful it is when you do manage to connect with the audience.