Telling a Story to a Live Audience

Description:

Over a 9-week period I participated in a storytelling workshop.  The culminating experience on the 9th week was a live performance.  I stood in front of about 30 people to tell a 10 minute story I wrote and developed in the weeks prior.

I loved making people laugh.  I loved the energy of the room before, during and after the performance.  I made new friends.  I relished in the art of crafting stories that could be told with universal themes, connections to people, and reflections on life.  I looked forward to each week because there were 6 other people that came prepared with their own bold, true, hilarious, sad, scary, and adventurous stories.

Skills Gained:

I wrote about six or seven true stories from my life.  I listened attentively to classmates as they told their stories.  I thought critically about each story I heard and gave constructive criticism to each storyteller.

I spent much time reflecting on experiences I had had through my life based off prompts provided or themes suggested (ex. A time when you were angry, you first job, etc).

An a-ha moment I had came later, after the class/performance.  I was listening to Melissa Peet talk about how lifelong learning which must include learning FROM life.  She described a process of deep reflection, meta-cognition, that can only happen after you have described an experience.  In the storytelling class it took 2 or 3 ‘tellings’ of a story for the REAL meaning to surface.  The deeper themes and higher-order thinking needed those re-tellings (and audience/peer feedback) to sus out how I felt about a story, how it relates to me know, and how others can connect to it.

Lessons Learned:

The story linked above is fun and chosen for that reason.  I wanted to entertain the folks who came out to see me.  But there were a couple stories I told in class that I didn’t want to everyone to hear.  After putting them through