Remembering Syd

I facilitate a column in The Storytelling Magazine called Remembered Voices. It’s a place where our community of storytellers can honor those who have passed on but who have left an indelible mark on our world. I’ve been doing this for years and many people have been remembered in the column — many I didn’t know — a handful I knew a little or may have been well acquainted with their work. Regardless, it’s been rewarding work.

Syd Lieberman died this year.  And for the first time, I wanted to say something in the column. I didn’t — I left that to those who knew him better, but I had the chance to talk about Syd for a few moments last weekend as I emceed an evening concert at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival and it did my heart good.

I had met Syd on a number of occasions, but we did not know each other well. But I was deeply affected by his work. Syd’s body of work is astounding and you can listen to all of it online for free at www.sydlieberman.com. I am inspired by so much it, but more than that, I am inspired by how he lived.

I’ve been to years of storytelling workshops and conferences. I’ve read stacks of storytelling books and articles, but the best piece of storytelling advice I ever heard, came from Syd. He simply said, “If you want to be an interesting storytelling… live an interesting life.” Syd lived by those words and now I’m trying to live up to them.

Thank you Syd! You live on so beautifully in your stories and in the personal and professional legacy you left behind!

Lost, Broken and Banished Stories

For the past year and a half, I've been heavily involved in developing Suzan Zeder's new play, The Milk Dragon, as dramaturg and now as sound designer. The UVU Theatre Department/Noorda Children's Theatre will be premiering the play on March 5-21, 2015. One of the play's rich themes explores the nature and value of things that are lost, broken or banished. We are exploring this through collaborations with area museums, arts organizations and the community at large.

We are looking for true, personal stories about the 
lost, broken or banished things in your life.

You can join our project by sending us your stories:

• What has been lost, broken or banished in your life?
• When was this a bad thing? When was this a good thing?
• On your way to find, fix and restore, what was discovered?

Your story can be written, recorded or filmed and sent to:
milkdragonuvu@gmail.com. We'll add it to our website.

You can share your stories live at our Story Slam
Thursday, March 19th
7:30 pm
Enliten Cafe
Center Street, Provo, UT
This event is sponsored by Speak For Yourself and the UVU and BYU storytelling classes.

You can view the website at: www.themilkdragonuvu.com

A Whisper in the Wind

Have you heard it? A whisper as faint as the wind? Something so soft, it’s impossible to prove it’s really there. Was that it again? So vague… and yet so persistent.

Some changes in life have to be made on faith. I’ve been getting these little nudges for over a year now: It’s time to go back to storytelling. “Really?” I answer back, “With what time am I working on story material?” I haven’t blogged for the past year and a half because I’ve been so busy with theatre work - writing plays, dramaturgy and on and on. I’ve loved what I’ve been doing and yet…

There were those whispered nudges again. The idea of storytelling fills me with joy, but I just couldn’t see how to fit it in. By this fall, the nudges were feeling more like pushes and there was a growing unsettledness - a feeling of being stuck. So I gave in. I still didn’t have the time, but I started telling people I was storytelling again. That was the leap of faith. And sure enough, I got booked in some schools and had a month to prepare.

Working on story material takes an enormous amount of time! As I was in the midst of toiling away, I would ask myself, “Is this really how I want to be spending my time?” I thought perhaps the purpose of this whole exercise might be to show me that storytelling wasn’t really my path anymore and it was time to let it go once and for all. But each time I checked in, I felt energized - I was loving the work!

And then came the first performance. I was watching the elementary kids march raucously in - and I mean raucously! It was the end of the day. It was the whole school, not half at a time. They  were laughing and screaming and filling the entire gym. It felt like a tsunami wave of energy. I thought, “What am I doing? These kids are going to eat me alive! Do I even know how to do this anymore?” I calmed my nerves by focusing on the stories - I trusted that they would be powerful enough even if I wasn’t. And then I began…

It was like taking all that energy and shaping it and harnessing it and letting the story ride it. I watched it unfold and wondered at it. Hundreds of kids were still as stones, leaning in and caught in the web of the story. The storytelling wasn’t perfect, but the moment was. We played, the stories danced, and I was home.

Keep whispering, wind. I’m a little slow on the uptake, but I’m listening…

Letters to Myself

Here's my latest theatre project, helping Dave Tinney and Rob Moffat put together a new show:

Letters to Myself

If you could say one thing to your 17 year old self, what would it be?

The UVU Department of Theatrical Arts is gathering letters from people world-wide to be made into a play called Letters to Myself. The Black Box Repertoire Company will tour the show to area middle schools and high schools during the Spring 2014 term. We want to hear from you! 

What makes a good letter?

• Confronting an honest, real-life issue that you feel passionate about
• The use of story
• Strong emotional content:  anger, laughter, despair, surprise
• A moment of clarity or hope
• A time when you were proven wrong or your world just got bigger

Be sure to include your contact info, if you want us to let you know if we use your letter.

How do you submit a letter?

• Email:  letterstomyselfUVU@gmail.com
• Mail:    “Letters to Myself” c/o David Tinney  FA 719 UVU  

    800 W. University Parkway, Orem, Utah 84058

• Post:    https://www.facebook.com/letterstomyselfUVU
• Text:     801 633-4918
• Tweet:  @LettersUVU

Come share your wisdom, your folly, your story...

Reaching Into the Void - The Healing Story Alliance

When I was at the National Storytelling Network’s conference, I also attended the Healing Story Alliance Pre-Conference. I’ve never done any sort of healing story work, but I’ve always watched with fascination those who did work in detention centers, hospitals, homeless shelters and a myriad of other places. I’ve always wanted to try, but never knew how. Did I need a counseling degree? How would I know how to meet another’s needs? There always seems to be a void between my background and skills and the needs I see all around me.

Attending the pre-conference was like taking the first step into that void and what I found was beautiful. Elisa Pearmain is a counselor who presented her work on forgiveness. She uses folk tales to get her clients to accept and overcome their past wounds and find a new way to rewrite their stories. One of my favorite things she said was, “Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having a better past.” She talked a lot about what forgiveness is, what gets in the way of it, how to grieve, having empathy for ourselves and finally, how to tell a new story. It was very powerful. You can learn more about her work at: http://www.wisdomtales.com

The Garden of Exile, Jewish Museum Berlin

We also heard from Pati Hernandez. She’s a fiery Chilean woman who works in the prison system in Vermont. I’ve heard of a lot of people doing story work in prisons, but what I loved about Pati’s Telling My Story program is she trains and brings a group of ivy league students to facilitate the program. These two very different worlds collide and begin to break down barriers. As they share their stories with each other and create a performance piece, both groups are changed. Pati brought along Kim, an alumni of the program who now serves on the board of Telling My Story. Kim’s involvement in the program was a turning point for her life. She now owns her own business and is attending college. You can see an amazing movie about Pati’s work, here: http://tellingmystorymovie.com/home.php

I learned that I didn’t need a specific degree to do healing story work, although it might not hurt to partner up with someone who does. One good place to start getting experience is to speak with an organization’s program or volunteer coordinator. I think the main thing is to be observant, listen intently, and as Pati’s says, “Be willing to be profoundly uncomfortable and to not know what you’re doing - yet wanting to be there. That’s beautiful; that’s courageous.” As I tentatively step further into the void, I’m going to keep that in mind.

To learn more about healing story work, visit the Healing Story Alliance at http://healingstory.org

A Fool's Errand

I haven’t done a lot of performance storytelling in the past couple of years as I’ve been finishing up my degree and developing my playwrighting, but attending the National Storytelling Network’s conference this past week reminded me, once again, that storytellers are my primary breed - my clan.

We’re a diverse group, but I would say the biggest commonality between us is a passion for crafting and telling stories in a meaningful way and a willingness to take the road less traveled. Armed only with story (our sword) and an open heart (leaving shield behind,) we are the Don Quixotes of our era, titling at the windmills of the world. Often we get knocked off our horses, but consider it a worthy part of the journey if it leads to the discovery of Dulcinea.

The conference allows us to be each other’s Sancho Panza, dusting each other off, raising our glasses and sharing a song. While I attended many amazing classes and events, it was the people that made the conference for me - the new ones I met and the acquaintances that deepened into friendships. Thanks to all who took time out to spend with me. It’s good to know I’m not the only fool on the road and I’m honored to share the journey with you.

“Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.”  Miguel de Cervantes Saaverda, Don Quixote

Tell It To the Walls - My Year of Growing Graceful

I grew up in a society that values journal writing, but besides a few spurts here and there, I have never been a consistent journal keeper. I’ve had this running dialogue in my head telling me (in a rather disapproving tone,) “You should be passing down your stories” or “You’re never going to remember all this stuff!” or even, “You call yourself a writer? You don’t have a daily writing practice. You don’t have a way to capture all your creative thoughts!”  Yet all these “shoulds” never motivated me to get started.

Then at the beginning of the year, I read The Artist Way by Julia Cameron where she sets forth a practice called Morning Pages: Three written pages first thing every morning. Beyond the reasons given above, she uses journaling as a way to process your life. A place not only to explore what you think, but shape what you think. At the time I was trying to get past some heavy emotional issues, so I decided to give Morning Pages a try. What happened changed my life.

Tell It To the Walls - A Tamil/South Indian Tale

A poor widow lived with her two sons and two daughter-in-laws,

All four of them scolded and ill-treated her all day.

She had no one to whom she could turn and tell her woes.

As she kept her woes to herself...

She grew fatter and fatter.

Her sons and her daughter-in-laws now found that a matter of ridicule.

They mocked her for growing fatter by the day...

And asked her to eat less.

One day -

When everyone else had gone out somewhere -

She wandered away from home in sheer misery...

And found herself walking outside of town.

There she saw a deserted old house.

It was in ruins and had no roof.

She went in -

And suddenly felt lonelier and more miserable than ever -

She found she was unable to keep her miseries to herself any longer

She had to tell someone.

So she told all her tales of grievance against the first son...

To the wall in front of her.

As she finished...

The wall collapsed under the weight of her woes...

And crashed down to the ground in a heap.

Her body felt lighter as well.

Then she turned to the second wall...

And told it all her grievances against her first son’s wife.

Down came that wall...

And she became lighter still.

She brought down the third wall with her tales against her second son...

And the remaining fourth wall too...

With her complaints against her second daughter-in-law.

Standing in the ruins...

With bricks and rubble all around her...

She felt lighter in mood...

And lighter in body as well.

She looked at herself...

And found she had actually lost all the weight

She has gained in her wretchedness.

Then she went home.

This is exactly what has happened to me this year. I filled stacks of notebooks, I toppled walls, I unburdened mountains... and I am lighter. Over the months, the change has been remarkable; even miraculous. 

I have a friend who went to Africa with Richard Leider’s Inventure group and there around a campfire during a story, Richard said, “And as they told their stories, they grew graceful.” That phrase has become the theme and goal for my year.

I don’t know if I’m graceful yet, but hey, I’ve still got five months to go. I do know I still write my three pages every day, and you’ll find much more light and joy there. So with all the story work we do every day, let’s not forget the most important story: our own. The more we write it, the better we’ll live it.