Storytelling in Urbana

For dinner I did a shrimp fettucine alfredo and a nice salad. I used no fat half and half, two percent mozzarella, and parmesan, with a little chicken stock. We heated up a baguette and had some zinfandel. Kimberly is giving the baby a bath and Paige is reading her new book in the living room. We have a movie, Garden State, for later.

This afternoon Paige and I went to Pages for All Ages, a locally owned bookstore in the barnes and noble mode. Dan Keding was doing a storytelling gig there, promoting his new book, Stories of Hope and Spirit (August House). Dan did three stories to a very appreciative audience. Paige and I enjoyed it immensely. Dan is a great storyteller (www.dankeding.com), and probably should be after doing it for thirty years. He's sort of a cuddly pirate, to quote Paige. He knows just how to deliver his material.

What is interesting to me is his insistence that every time out the story is a little different. As someone who spent many years toiling in the printed word arena and then did a lot of acting, I have a slightly different ethos. For me every word holds possible value and thus must be chosen. But I have great sympathy for his approach. It is like jazz; the tune stays the same, but the places it takes you can be anywhere at all. Now Dan doesn't roam too far afield, but he does let the audience become part of the performance and he tells stories appropriate for who is actually there. Like the Grateful Dead shows, it is an organic thing. To be appreciated.

It is not theatre and no one should go to a storyteller looking for a performed piece. They perform, but more like the musician, using the story as the basis for what they and their audience feel at that very moment in time.

Very inspirational. I tell a lot of stories, but I usually stick to the basic story line. Still, you do tailor your material for your audience. That is why this blog is so very strange. I have no sense of the audience, so I am mainly writing for myself. Much of it a cautionary tale. Some of it as an old testament prophet. I recognize that almost no one is paying attention. To me that doesn't change the character of the communication. These things need to be said.

And like all good storytellers, I bring the story back to my original subject: myself.