Hello everyone!
I've just got back from Whitby Folk Week. Had a fabulous time. Told 5 stories and sang at 5 singarounds. Saw lots of wonderful performers.
Best news of all though is that I've got a mentor. An experienced, professional storyteller who will show me the ropes. I'm hoping to become professional myself one day but am currently still amateur. I'm thrilled to pieces about this! Woo hoo!!!
Storytelling - I've got a mentor
Congratulations Northerner! Best of luck!
Rannveig
Thank you Rannveig.
Well done Diane! I'm so pleased to hear that. Here's wishing you the very best of luck with your storytelling. There'll be no holding you now :)
Thank you Philomel. I also start some voluntary work at a local school next week; I will be telling stories to the children. This will give me much-needed experience.
I am still several months away from paid work but it is starting to look realistic now. Next year, sometime...
What good news :)
Storytellers TELL stories. We tell the stories from the images that are in our heads. We internalize a story and then tell it from memory. It's very demanding work. We don't use the printed page when we tell our story to the audience.
Which songs did you sing at Whitby Northerner?
There must be such a fantastic atmosphere at these gatherings
Hello Philomel!
OK. I sang "Martin said to his man", "The Recruited Collier" and "The shearin's no' for you".
I've just rung my friend Stanley and we had a nice little chat. I told him about Taffy agreeing to mentor me. Stanley was very pleased for me. He also gave me a little story to tell at the school when I start there soon. It's actually a little riddle referring to the star that is in the middle of every apple. Cut one in two horizontally and you will see it! I will certainly use it with the children and tell them how I came to find it.
So, the apple is:
A little green house, with no doors and no windows, and a star in the middle.
The way Stanley gave me it was to tell of a little boy who was bored and asked his mummy for a game to play. And she gave him a treasure hunt, to find the answer to this riddle. Well, the little boy doesn't know the answer but off he goes to ask all his friends and neighbours. Eventually an old man says, "Have you asked your granny?" No, he hasn't, so he goes to visit her. And she's busy baking an apple pie. And she gives him the answer. Here's the answer she says, and picks up a cooking apple. Green on the outside, with no doors or windows. She picks up a knife and cuts it in two. And there's the star in the middle!!!
That's a great riddle around the apple star. Amazing what a perfect shape that is when you cut an apple the right way.
I'm very glad you've found such genuinely supportive folk.
Thank you Philomel. Yes, a lovely little riddle isn't it? I tried it out tonight at the Stokesley Folk Club. Afraid they are not terribly good at riddles though, though they clapped me warmly enough and they seemed to grasp it once I introduced the granny and her apple pie - I could see the light dawning in their eyes!
I am very lucky indeed to have such supportive folk to help me. Both Stanley and Taffy are classed as Master Storytellers. I am still a bit in awe of Taffy and a bit shy of him, but he was kindness itself at Whitby.
That was a really lovely story with the apple riddle - I think I'll tell it to my girls! My older one loves riddles!
Hello rannveig. I think it might be "star in the inside" rather than in the middle. The story is called the Apple Star Story. Yes, feel free to use it! I gave it to a teacher at the folk club last night - I repeated it to her at the end of the evening. The whole wonder of stories is the way that they travel round the world. Stanley would be chuffed to think that his story is going to be told in Iceland!!
Hi Northener..........
Wow, i havent been to Whitby since i was a child......................... I counted the steps to the top of the hill!!! I remembered for years how many there were.............. but now i forget!! I must be getting old! LOL
Is storytelling something you have always done Northener????????????? (sorry, what is your real name....?? I cannot call you Northener, just doesnt seem right)
Mark
FYI: I did a bit of editing to help this thread stay on topic. You may find that some of your posts were edited or even deleted, as they were in response to other posts that were removed. If you have any questions, please let us know!
Terry
Hi Terry...................... Good!!!!!!
Northerner.............................. please please talk to me...............!!!
HI Northerner.
How lucky you are to have found a mentor. I wish you all the luck there is in you chosen 'careerer'. A Storyteller is one of the noble arts that not many people can master.
Years ago I learned to play Folk Music on guitar but have become so rusty that I struggle play a tune, I know its all my fault. Wish I was lucky enough to find some one to help me. We have a Hop Festival every year here in Faversham and a lot of the pubs have folk groups playing live all the weekend. One day I hope to be one of them.
Blessed Be.
Steve