Between “Once upon a time” and “happily ever after,” each fairy tale presents a brilliant metaphor for one stage of life.

In the course of a fairy tale, the protagonist leaves a state of innocence to navigate a path through territory dense with risks and challenges. With courage, integrity, and persistence, s/he prevails to reach the goal. People forge such paths in each stage of their lives, too, and they complete the stage successfully only if they display the same qualities. Psychologist Erik Erikson describes the Stages of Psychosocial Development as: Infant, Toddler, Preschool, School Age, Adolescent, Young Adult, Middle Adult, and Mature Adult.

Fairy tales speak most strongly to persons in the same stage of life as the protagonist. When they don’t seem to “work,” it is often because they are being told to the wrong age or stage of listener. Writer Libby Copeland recently complained in Slate magazine, “I hate reading [fairy tales] to my young daughter. The classic versions are too violent; the Disney versions have bad values.” Aladdin, Snow White, Cinderella? Too violent for her 2 1/2-year-old? Of course, they are! Those classics are for teens and young adults, not toddlers! And the Disney version holds the younger crowd not because the story enchants them but because the production dazzles them.

However, the Disney versions fail with teens. In contrast, teens are awed to discover, for example, Grimm’s original Rapunzel: an abused teenager who finds herself pregnant, an unwed mother who searches for years for her beloved, the father of her twins, only to find he also had suffered as a result of their lust and love. Like Rapunzel, teens feel captive in a prison of their parents’ design; they, too, are dealing with issues of sexuality, love and loneliness. They long for a deep, passionate relationship. “Rapunzel” affirms that such a love can happen, that fulfillment can take a long time, and that love and lust are closely tied–just as teens suspected!

So, how can we determine which fairy tales speak to which audience? The best clue is the protagonist’s age. Listeners in the same life stage will find comfort and hope in that story. Is it about a beautiful princess? Tell it in middle and high schools, where beautiful princesses abound. “Hansel and Gretel”? Tell it to elementary children, sheathed in their nuclear families. Does it begin, “Once there was a King…”? Tell it to middle adults. To craft your tale for its appropriate audience, explore the elements of the story which resonate with that stage in life. Consider the protagonist in light of the conflicts, questions, and virtues Erikson describes for his/her stage in life.

And, what about that “happily ever after”? More than just “The End,” it means the protagonist has accomplished the task for his/her stage in life and is ready for whatever comes next. Isn’t that what happiness is?

While we cannot deeply understand fairy tales set in stages of life we’ve not yet journeyed into, we can certainly enjoy tales from the stages we’ve survived. At my stage, I can appreciate all of them!

About Mary Grace

Mary Grace was hooked on storytelling when she learned you get more hugs for telling stories than for talking on the radio or writing a book. A Texas Commission on the Arts Touring Roster performer, she tells fairy tales and other stories at schools, festivals, and events in San Antonio and south Texas. Her book Ganzy Remembers was a Banks Street College selection, and her CD “Ghostly Gals and Spirited Women” received a Storytelling World Gold Award. Mary Grace and Megan Hicks serve as Principal Simpletons at the Fairy Tale Lobby, an NSN Discussion Group and communal blog.

Contact Mary Grace

Website:  www.talesandlegends.net
Blog: http://fairytalelobby.wordpress.com
Email: mgk@talesandlegends.net

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DavidLabarron

About the Story

I had so much fun at the NSN conference and was glad to be able to perform this story. I was nervous about taking my own spin on a classic, which has always been my thing: including setting Othello in the basement of a gang’s meth lab (oddly that went well too), but my fellow storytellers were so kind afterwards.  I think this story resonated so well because, as most of us work with children, we see war equaling the loss of young lives: a price that can never be taken lightly.  Sorry with the heavy, but it is the message of this story…the gifting of grief…whether it be a Goddess or an “official,” the powers that must know – own the price you are asking us to pay.

About David

David LeBarron is a storyteller in a variety of medium and media. His last play The Sex Life of Achilles got excellent reviews at Hollywood Fringe. He is proudly working on Stories to be Told, a collection of LGBT stories for children; a CD fresh off pro tools Stories from a Magical World which includes the Story of Evolution; facilitating a project called Any Given Day, cultural exchange between students in Echo Park, Los Angeles and in Banda Village, Rwanda; and he’s shooting a terribly funny webseries called Wicca Please.

Contact David

Websites:
www.talesofthetribe.com
www.davidlebarron.com

For my contribution to the NSN Blog, I am much too lazy to offer anything different than what I am already working on, which at this time is a book on humor theory.  E.B. White wrote, “Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.”

I am out to prove him right.

When you were casually browsing through your Aristotle, I am sure you came upon this: “Only the human animal laughs.”  Whatever your philosophical bent, let us all agree to agree on that, please, for I know there are those of you who take a Scientific/Evolutionary approach to the origins of humor, and others of you insist on a Creationist view.  But just to keep everyone happy, (or equally offended) and in the spirit of fairness, I will flip a coin to determine with which presupposition to begin. The coin I have chosen for the flipping is a 2005 Commemorative Quarter honoring the State of Kansas. This coin has an American Bison embossed on the back – it is the first appearance of our nation’s official bovine on U.S. currency since the phasing out of the Buffalo Nickel in 1938.  I have chosen this quarter because it is the first one I found in my pocket.

Here goes the flipping: *flip*…

The quarter has come up tails.  Oh, I’m sorry; this is an NSN Blog:  The quarter has come up tales. (Insert favorite emoticon here.)  Therefore we will begin with the Scientific/Evolutionary theory.

Comedic anthropologists agree: minor pains or mishaps befalling one person or a group of persons witnessed by other persons brought on all primitive human laughter. The earliest, most basic language had not reached a sophistication necessary to form a verbal joke; early conversation was elemental, structured merely around the three rudiments of survival: (1) protection, (2) alimentation, and (3) shelter.

Such as…

1. In times of danger:  “Run!”
2. Regarding sustenance:  “Here, try this.”
3. Making shelter:  “Hold this stick while I pound it into the ground with this rock tied to another stick.”

The above number three (3) gave rise to the occurrence of the first intentional laugh, which came in the form of, what we would now call, a practical joke. Administered by a primitive farceur, it was an act of physical comedy, designed to create a situation conducive to an individual coming close to being seriously injured (funny), but not quite to the point of death (not as funny). Anthropologists concur that within the Paleolithic Cave paintings of Lascaux, France, a scene is depicted wherein one person – let’s call him Iocus – is altering the primitive hammer of his friend  – we’ll name him Plumbus.  In the first panel of what may be the first comic strip, Iocus is untying the knot in the rawhide string holding a rock on a stick.  The tying of an object requires tension in the cordage; untying brings about release.

Tension and release. Please hold that blatantly foreshadowed thought. Thank you.

Iocus had gathered all the people in the village to watch Plumbus in anticipation of his attempt to use the altered hammer.  Those who were witness to the event were rewarded for as Plumbus made his upswing, the rock came free. As the empty handle struck the ground, the previously skyward rock began its descent.  Plumbus, astonished, raised the empty stick to his eyes and within a second or two the rock struck him on the head.  All who witnessed the rock flying off the handle fell into laughter, except, of course, for Plumbus, who, himself, flew off the handle. Allow me to confirm your supposition; in the advancement of language beyond its aforementioned elemental-survival form, many linguists feel this event brought about the advent of the metaphor.

Furthermore, when the rock came to rest on the ground, after bouncing twice on Plumbus’s head, the sound it made can be best described as, badda-boom. It is the opinion of this soi-disant socio-lexical acoustician that the retelling of this event saw rise to the use of the onomatopoeia.

Ah, yes:  the retelling of the event, or more is to the point, the telling of this or any event brings on the ability to relive the event.  Retelling, reliving and finding the wit within – by creating tension and release – that is this storyteller’s main gig.

About Andy

Andy Offutt Irwin is a storyteller, whistler, comedian and arts educator who lives in Covington, Georgia.

Contact Andy

Website: www.andyirwin.com
Email: andy@andyirwin.com
For booking call Kay:
336-269-3489
kay@andyirwin.com

WillyClaflin

My dad got this all started – he told me stories every single night from about age 3 to 10.  This is my favorite story about my dad, told at the 2010 National Storytelling Conference in Los Angeles; he would have loved participating in it with us.  Hope you can join us for “A Conference to Remember” at the 2012 National Storytelling Conference in Cincinnati, June 28-July 1:  www.storynet.org/conference/index.html.

About Willy

Willy will be sharing the work of the influential storyteller, Gamble Rogers at the 2012 National Storytelling Conference:  “Hard Times Don’t Scare Me None: Remembering Gamble Rogers.”

Willy Claflin, a 2010 NSN Circle of Excellence Award recipient, is a favorite at storytelling festivals. He tells original and traditional stories, sings his own songs and ballads from the British Isles and Appalachia. Willy is also the speaking mouth person for Maynard Moose, another famous storyteller and kids author, whose second book, “Rapunzel and the Seven Dwarfs” won a NAPPA 2011 Gold Award.

Contact Willy

Website:  www.willyclaflin.com
Email:  claflin@willyclaflin.com

After a recent storytelling program for bullying prevention, a boy broke out of the line exiting the school gym, ran up to me with a smile, and said, “Mrs. Black, thank you! Maybe this will make a difference! Maybe kids will stop picking on me now.” Then he adjusted the oversized glasses lying crooked across his nose and ran back to his place in line.

Yes, our stories can make a difference. They can be valuable, memorable tools in bullying prevention. Stories can be used to start a conversation or move the existing conversation forward. Our stories’ characters can be a touchstone for future discussions.

As storytellers and teaching artists we can develop stories that highlight bullying prevention strategies – folktales and true stories that focus on:

• Tolerance
• Empathy
• Inclusion
• Working together to solve a problem
• Celebrating our unique selves
• Bystanders who do the right thing

But be sure to know before you go:

Effective bullying prevention is long-term, consistent, and integrates the committed efforts of individuals, classrooms, schools, communities, and parents. We can be part of that community commitment – but know that our single storytelling program will not solve the problem.

So consider asking these questions when you receive a call for a storytelling program that focuses on bullying prevention:

• What is the corporate, school, or district policy regarding bullying?
• What bullying prevention program and accompanying vocabulary is used at this venue?
• What can I do to help you?

Ask yourself these questions before you accept the offer:

• Have I done enough research and do I have enough experience to know I’m doing more good than harm?
• What stories will clearly communicate the message I want my audience to remember?
• Is there anything I might suggest and/or leave with my audience to carry the message forward?

Then, present a storytelling program that will be part of the community solution to long-lasting bullying prevention. Know that your focused stories can:

• Build community
• Confirm community commitment to bullying prevention
• Identify and define vocabulary
• Let those who are targeted  know they are not alone
• Inspire and empower bystanders to act
• Teach youth and adult strategies and interventions for bullying prevention
  • for details visit my website at www.youandme-bullyfree.com
• Aid in individual and community healing

As I was packing up after a You and Me – Bully Free storytelling program earlier this year, individual students stopped to talk to me. They couldn’t identify what it was, but something in the stories had resonated with them and they were grateful – maybe even hopeful. Some whispered a quiet thank you. Others offered a hug without saying a word. The last to speak to me that day was a 4^th grade girl. “I found this today, Mrs. Black. I thought I was so lucky to find a nickel. I want you to have it.” Then she held it out to me.

I accepted her lucky nickel. As I slipped it into my pocket I felt very lucky to be in that place, on that day, with those kids, sharing stories I was confident could be part of the solution. As we move forward with stories for bullying prevention, may it be so for all of us.

About Sue

Sue Black is an Olweus certified Bullying Prevention Trainer. She brings energy, enthusiasm, and experience to her unique, well-researched bullying prevention programs. Sue uses stories to communicate and illustrate bullying prevention strategies. She challenges her listeners to become part of the solution in programs that are fun, focused, and fast-paced. Sue’s work covers a wide range of venues and audiences – keynotes, conference presentations, teacher training, parent workshops, classroom meetings, and school assemblies.

A storyteller and teaching artist, Sue’s telling and writing residencies combine her passion for storytelling with her delight in teaching students and their teachers. It’s an awesome combination.

Contact Sue

Bully Prevention Website: www.youandme-bullyfree.com
Storytelling Website: www.sue-black.com

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RichHuddle

I really appreciate that, when I’m working on a story, I usually learn something about myself. For this one, it was how much self esteem that I got from being a “good kid.” Funny how, no matter how much I grow and learn, that’s still true for me.

Rick will be presenting the workshop, “Always Say Yes: Improv for Storytellers,”  at the 2012 National Storytelling Conference.

About Rick

Rick just released his latest CD. “Arrrr! Pirates Have Feelings Too” is a collection of fun songs that also explore tough situations that everyone faces, pirates or not.

rickhuddle-aargh

Set off on a pirate ship with comedian-musician Rick Huddle and get marooned on a desert island. We’ll sing shanties, swab the deck, and come up with new answers to the age-old question, “What Would You Do with a Grumpy Sailor?” Weʼll have to band together to avoid the blues, or maybe we’ll just sing our way out of them.

Contact Rick

Website: www.rickhuddle.com
Email: rickhuddle@gmail.com

One fall I requested permission to perform Truman Capote’s “A Thanksgiving Visitor.” The representative agreed with the proviso that not a word be changed – an impossible request. The text required editing. In this case the editing was particularly important because of the age of the audience and the time available to tell it. That same week, a local newspaper advertised a theater company’s production of – you guessed it! – Truman Capote’s “A Thanksgiving Visitor.” I’d bet the production was neither word for word, nor any more “faithful” to the short story than my adaptation. Adaptations that strive to interpret stories faithfully for film and theater do not reproduce material word for word because they employ additional “languages” to communicate – so does storytelling.

Recitation and reading are not story-telling. Storytelling is a performance medium and a departure from the grammar of print. Live storytelling is primarily an aural event with physical components that serves a story most effectively by using all the verbal and nonverbal cues available to performers.

When I tell a story penned by an author, my goal is to communicate the appeal of the author’s unique storytelling, language and style. Yet adaptations occur, when I:

• differentiate characters more easily by placing taglines like “He said” at the beginning of a quote, instead of halfway through or at the end of it;
• indicate characters vocally, which allows me to communicate “she said” and/or “he said sadly” effectively without actually saying those words;
• replace words like “she pointed” with a simple gesture;
• utilize a range of facial and physical cues to communicate more complex emotions like “disappointment overwhelmed him”;
• repeat a word or line for emphasis, as people naturally do in conversation;
• avoid words that are problematic today;
• edit because of time or age constraints; and finally,
• interact with listeners during a performance.

Lengthy descriptions, which can be delectable to read, can also become numbing in performance. But not always. Audiences let storytellers know when the narrative thread is lost to them. Responding to audiences recalibrates stories. Middle school students might respond to Ray Bradbury’s story of a boy losing his best friend as Douglas does in “Dandelion Wine,” but middle schoolers are not a nostalgic audience. Details that send adults into dim recollections can be an impediment to younger audiences. Forty some years of interacting with audiences might have led me to more informed decisions about editing material, as well as when to – and when not to – respond to cues from an audience, but it is a learning curve that never ends.

Balancing the literary tradition’s value of exact replication with the oral tradition’s more fluid definition of faithfulness to a text is like standing in the middle of a seesaw – balance is maintained by risking imbalance. There are those who would argue that great authors like Ray Bradbury and John Steinbeck do not need storytellers. Fair enough, but students do. Children, teens and adults need to hear their lyricism, power, and art out loud. The words of fine writers are not what most folks plug into iPods, yet most of us know a deep hunger for stories and the feast fine writers offer is without compare. So I will continue to try to establish connections with authors, and those who represent them, that allows penned literature to flourish out loud.

About Carol

Recipient of National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence Award, Carol Birch’s style revels in metaphors that rock, making literature conversational and compelling again. Adults want her to stay and kids want to know when she’ll be back. At the Baseball Hall of Fame, one man yelled, “That lady knows her s…!” – echoing the kid who said long ago: “She knows that story ’cause she was there.”

Join Carol Birch at the National Storytelling Conference Conference in June, where she’ll delve further into how storytellers can effectively prepare aurally satisfying stories from written texts. The workshop will offer information on clearing copyright through an examination of editing and ethical issues.

Contact Carol

Website: www.carolbirchstoryteller.com
Email: carolbirch@earthlink.net

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RandelMcGee

About the Story

In Western Culture, the story of “Sir George and the Dragon” is THE quintessential dragon tale of a daring knight, a lovely maiden in distress, and a monstrous dragon. Since Groark, my “friend”, is a young dragon, we are naturally drawn to dragon tales as he seeks to find his heritage. This tale is loosely based on the versions of the story told by Edmund Spenser from the time of Shakespeare and Margaret Hodges’ abridged version (1985 Caldecott Award Winner). I enjoy sharing this story, with Groark interjecting his feelings and insights into it, for many reasons:

1. It is a classic tale that everyone should know as part of our cultural heritage.
2. It fits so well into my “act” with Groark, a lively little dragon.
3. It has what I call “the magic 3” situation, there are 3 different days that Sir George and the Dragon fight, with 3 different results. A pattern of  3 seems to be a magic formula in stories and comedy to establish a pattern for events (and punch-lines) to build on.
4. Its theme is bravery in the face of formidable foes or problems. “You shouldn’t give up when you’re doing what’s right.”

About Randel

Around the world audiences are stunned when Randel appears
on stage holding a lively, talking dragon on his right hip!
Adults and children alike claim, “That dragon is real!”
And they wonder, “How is this possible!”

Randel McGee & Groark, the incredibly funny and endearing comedy storytelling duo, have performed at storytelling festivals and concerts all around the USA and Asia. Visit their website to see more examples of their outrageously humorous stories, songs and video productions! Also see Randel’s amazing portrayals of Hans Christian Andersen and Santa Claus in storytelling performances that will leave audiences craving more.

Contact Randel

McGee Productions / Randel McGee
P.O. Box 1723 Hanford, CA 93232
Telephone: (559) 582-5307
Email: randel@mcgeeproductions.com
Website: www.mcgeeproductions.com

I spend most of my professional life in the classroom. Storytelling allows me to work with kids of all ages and skill levels, in a huge variety of settings, for a multitude of purposes. Each classroom offers its own set of challenges and potential rewards. Among the most challenging – and the most rewarding! – is the special needs classroom.

This week, in addition to working in Kindergarten, first grade, and fifth grade, I had three sessions with the kids with severe learning disabilities.  There were nine children in the group, ranging in age from seven to ten; their comprehension and linguistic skills ranged from ages two to six.  My assignment was to help them learn to predict, infer, and create stories with a beginning, middle and end.

I used  a variation of Cathy Ward’s wonderful lesson plan (“What Do You See? Visual Literacy and Story Structure”in Literacy Development in the Storytelling Classroom, Libraries Unlimited, 2009). We began by looking closely at a print of a Norman Rockwell painting — young boy sprawled in an overstuffed chair, blasting on a trumpet while his dog cringes below.  I explained that I find stories in books, and by listening to other people tell stories, and sometimes by looking at pictures, then I told the story I “saw” in the picture. Lots of laughs. Total engagement. Everybody in anticipatory mode, eager for whatever was going to happen next.

I explained that I created the story by thinking about what might have happened before the event in the picture, and then about what might happen next. This is inference and prediction, the essential comprehension skills with which these kids were struggling.

But they were ready to try.

The first session ended with all of the kids able to describe a picture (that’s the middle of the story), and predict a possible outcome (that’s the end). But nary a soul could infer what might have happened before the pictured event; they could not create a beginning for the story. To minimize frustration and to model the process, I told them the story I “saw” in the picture. Lots of laughs.

I went away to think.

The next day, they came in with eager anticipation. We began with the “picture” of me sitting in a chair in their classroom, then worked backwards step by step to the alarm clock awakening me that morning. We had inferred!  So… we did it again, moving backwards from a Norman Rockwell painting. Then again, creating beginning, middle, and end – an entire story – about still another painting.

Success! But would they retain the new-found skill?

On the third day – YES!! – they were each able to tell, then write, their own story with a beginning, middle, and end based on a Lee Stroncek print. The joy in that room was palpable – and only half of it was radiating from me! The other half was radiating from those triumphant kids, proudly reading their stories to their teachers and each other.

I spend most of my professional life in the classroom. It’s a wonderful life!

About Sherry

Sherry Norfolk is an award-winning internationally acclaimed storyteller and teaching artist, performing and leading residencies and professional development workshops nationally and internationally. Co-author of Literacy Development in the Storytelling Classroom (Libraries Unlimited, 2009), The Storytelling Classroom: Applications Across the Curriculum (Libraries Unlimited, 2006), and Social Studies in the Storytelling Classroom (Parkhurst Brothers Publishing, forthcoming 2012), she is a leading authority on integrating learning through storytelling. Sherry received the NSN Oracle Award for Distinguished National Service as well as Tennessee Arts Commission’s Outstanding Teaching Artist award. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Integrated Arts in Learning program at Lesley University.

Contact Sherry

Website: www.sherrynorfolk.com
E-mail: shnorfolk@aol.com
Phone: 404-627-2737

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KarenGolden

Was published in Nice Jewish Girls: Growing Up In America in 1996 and is one of my favorite personal stories to tell. All the characters have passed away with the exception of my dear friend Diana. We still laugh about this day so long ago and reminisce about our teachers, the Rabbi, my mother and our introduction to our Jewish heritage. Even Temple Beth El has a new building and the long hallways of the old building only exist in stories. The tale really shines a light on my mom’s wonderful sense of humor. I always feel her smiling down on me when I tell this story. This telling of the story at the 2010 conference was a highlight for me as the audience was amazing. I felt as though this was my come back after a 14 year absence from the conference. I have been deep in the adventure of motherhood, coming up with my own explanations of the workings of the world for my daughters much like my mother explained things to me in Big White Pushka.

About Karen

USA today said, “Karen Golden’s  mesmerizing stories marry age-old values with rollicking saxophone and amazing sound effects. You’ll find the tunes, tastes and traditions of Jewish people from Eastern Europe to the Santa Monica Pier”. Karen is a performer, published author, teacher and award winning recording artist. Funny, inspiring, outrageous and real! Karen’s CD’s can be ordered at karengolden.com. She is currently a teaching artist with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and a favorite at adult gatherings and conferences. Karen is also the founder/director of Creative Learning Place (creativelearningplace.com) an innovative hands on learning center catering to homes schooled students.

Contact Karen

Website: www.karengolden.com
Email: kargolden@aol.com
Phone: 323-933-4614