Sorry I am posting a little later than usual in the day, but I have been very busy today! I've just got back from seeing NT: Live's The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. It was very very good. I heartily recommend it to anybody who likes a well told story. Which brings me in nicely to today's topic! Today I wantd to talk about stories and story telling.
Sometimes, I have trouble reading. Not because I have any learning difficulties (that I know of) but because I have poor focus on tasks that require me to sit still for a very long time. As a concequence of this, I much prefer doing physical tasks. Growing up, I always preferred to be read to from a book, usually by my mum, than read the book myself- right up until my early teens. But I have always loved stories.
I expect that this is the reason that I so enjoy films, and theatre in particular. To me, the best way to be told a story is to be shown a story. And that is why I had such an enjoyable time watching The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time this evening.
For a number of years now, I have been involved in making theatre. And one of my favourite things about being a theatre maker is that in the end, we get to share a story with our audience. And hopefully, they would leave the theatre, having enjoyed the show and go and tell their friends about it, and then they would come and we would get to share the story with more people. I love to share stories with people (which is probably why I suck so badly at devised performances that don't have narrative or characters).
But I think back to how people told stories before the theatre existed. And we know this must have happened because we can see back to forms of storytelling as far back as cave paintings. This makes me think that it must be a very human thing to do, to be telling stories to each other. Not so long ago, I went to see a professional storyteller tell The Epic of Gilgamesh (here's the storyteller's website, incase you were interested: http://benhaggarty.com ). The man telling the story was absolutely phenomenal. The way he could hold the attention of the room, tell the details of the story, remember more than three hours worth of story, was extremely impressive. I hope some day to be as good at my job as he was at his.
And yet, it seemed to me that this was different from acting. He was not playing a specific character, nor was he reading lines. There was no music, or sounds and no scenery. Just a man, in a room with a few small props. But there was definitely a performance telling a story there. And I'm glad to think that this very raw form of storytelling has not died out completely, even though we have films, and tv and theatre and radio and the internet all vying for our attention. But to sit in a room, and listen to a story is like nothing else.
What do you think about storytelling? Have you ever been to see a storyteller? Let me know in the comments :)
Today, this is me:
(Don't worry, it's stage make up- I'm not dead!)
See you tomorrow,
- Rosa
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