Liz Warren | Storyteller

Participation: Listening and Beyond

            What makes a good participation story?  Storyteller Donald Davis says that if your audience is listening, they are participating.  Engaging our listeners’ imaginations is surely the essential participation intended by most of us.

Taking the activation of imagination as our foundation, storytellers often find it effective to engage the bodies and voices of listeners as well. Participation brings focus, inclusion, and playfulness to a program.  This is especially true for younger listeners, but adults like to participate, too.  The right participation story can change the mood of an adult or family session; it opens the space, changes the pace and flow, almost like a breeze blowing through the room.

Telling an effective participation story does take preparation.  Here are some steps to consider:

·        Pick a story you really like, that you find fun and compelling.

·        Make sure it will be a good fit for your audience’s age and experience.  Older people can tell a simple story like Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggle, but toddlers wouldn’t be able to manage a more complicated story like Fat Cat.

·        Explain what the participation will be – rehearse if necessary.

·        Explain how to begin and end the story.

·        Congratulate your co-tellers upon completion of the story.

I know there are many of you with lots more experience than I have telling participation stories.  Would you share your favorite participation story with us?  I’d also love to hear your tips for successfully leading /telling a participation story.

The image at the beginning of the post is of Irish storyteller Niall de Burca leading a group of Athlone school children in a very complicated enactment “A Drop of Honey.”  Every child was involved and highly engaged.  He led them in a mock war with the instructions to fight in slow motion as if they were in a Matrix movie, but with absolutely no contact.  They did exactly as he instructed; fists and arms glided by chins harmlessly.  He led them through the story from the moment the honey dropped, through the ensuing war, and finally to the restoration of peace. It was masterful! 

7 responses to “Participation: Listening and Beyond”

  1. Sharon Gilbert Avatar
    Sharon Gilbert

    Thank you for posting this–it sent me to two books I already have on my shelf!!

    Reply
  2. Paul Larson, aka "Gusty" McCabe Avatar
    Paul Larson, aka “Gusty” McCabe

    Hello Liz and Friends,
    Speaking of participation stories reminded me of the audience response to a story I did at the Timpanogos festival in 2005. I have a tale I tell from an Indian legend about Ol’ Man Coyote and the Rooster on the first day that ever was. I have written the tale in verse and in the story the Coyote tries to wake the sun. When I got to that portion of the story and said
    “Then takin’ in another breath, he faced the eastern sky and he yipped”
    (I cupped my right ear then, and everyone on my right, young and old ‘yipped’)
    “and yapped”
    (I cupped my left ear then, and everyone on my left ‘yapped’)
    “and he wailed and he bayed”
    (I cupped both ears then, and everyone wailed and bayed veying with one another who could do it best and loudest.)
    “that erie coyote cry. And soon a mellow light appeared, he thought his work was done, but it was just the rising moon and not the morning sun.
    “And so he tried and tried again, he howled with all his might.”
    (And here the whole audience howled with glee, especially the kids)
    “He yipped”
    (again they yipped),
    “he yapped”
    (and again),
    “he wailed and he bayed” (and here again they joined in lustily) “throughout the long dark night.”
    Then a few lines later when the rooster takes his turn,
    “into the sky he hurled his cry, oh he raised a hullabaloo. He crowed and he crowed, and he crowed again that wonderful cockadoodledoo”
    Well there were more than three hundred people in the audience and all of them crowing and crowing together and enjoying doing it was as much fun as I’ve had in telling stories. The kids especially were active, some standing up and holding their hands to their mouths and crowing, wailing, baying, yipping, yapping at the top of their lungs. And this was done by my simply cupping my hands to my ears, thus inviting them to join in.
    Regards to all.
    Gusty

    Reply
  3. Liz Avatar
    Liz

    Great example, Paul! Thanks for sharing it and I hope I get to hear you tell it someday.

    Reply
  4. Janet Means Avatar
    Janet Means

    Being the serious person that I am, I must admit I am not fond of being asked to participate in a story unless it is a serious kind of participation. Yipping like a coyote would definitely fit the bill. I hope I get a chance to do that one of these days. I am not so sure about crowing like a rooster. I guess, since I have mixed feelings about participation stories for adults, I am going to have to develop one to tell

    Reply
  5. Gigi Avatar
    Gigi

    I’ll bring Cecil the Catepillar with me to EVTOT this month. It has been a really long time since he’s gotten to go anywhere, but I did a run through the other day with that story and I still do remember it.
    Gigi

    Reply
  6. Liz Avatar
    Liz

    Oh, thank you! I used to tell it – or at least I did for awhile after Jim taught it to us. I looking forward to learning it again.

    Reply
  7. Sharon Gilbert Avatar
    Sharon Gilbert

    After LynnAnn told “Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggle’” in class one day I’ve considered it a story to keep in my back pocket. It really comes in handy when you’re caught off guard and asked to tell when you haven’t planned it.

    Reply

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