It is always nice to hear and watch a professional storyteller and Laura Sims is a very talented individual. As I learned the craft of storytelling, tonight’s event, presented a wonderful opportunity to learn from professionals. The following are some observations of her abilities.
– She began her concert with a warning to the audience that there would be a story coming up that would not be appropriate for children. She warned families for them to be prepared when she indicates that they should take a short break.
– She confirmed with the audience that they could hear her, and if they couldn’t she modified the distance between her and the mic.
– Laura is very good in using her hands and body language to help emphasize the emotions of her stories. When there’s a tense moment in a story she will clutch her hands in her fingers to help emphasize the tension. Another example was when she was indicating distance. She extended her hand away from her for far away in about a closer until finally the third time it was close to her body indicating that the situation was happening at that time.
– She is also very good in different voices for different characters in her stories. She was very upbeat and smiled to us.
– Laura started her set with a personal experience of having dinner with a Tibetan monk and of when a man asked the monk to describe his culture in one word. The monk responded with the word: rejoice. That seemed to set the theme of her concert.
– She wore very stylish attire of a pretty dress with an elegant jacket thing-y loosely draped about of her frame. She wore large colorful earrings and bracelets to accept her attire.
– Laura did a very good job in involving the audience. For example, in one story of a woman stealing a bowl from a pond of water and different objects about the woman began talking to her, accusing her of thievery. There’s one point of the story where she asked the audience what did the bowl say and then the audience answered.
– Good job in modulating her voice to represent various characters.
– She would often introduce her stories by indicating what country they originated from. I think one of the advantages of having her as a storyteller is because of her having traveled to multiple countries. Those experiences added and adventurous tone to her telling. An additional benefit is with the stories being from other countries, everyone learns a new cultures.
– Laura says the stories have secrets.
– There are surprises in stories.
– Some humor was interspersed throughout some stories by surprise events. For example, when two son-in-laws went to go get some leaves to heal the King, they failed. They knew they could return back to the kingdom. So they suffer a bed-and-breakfast as an occupation. Another segment of the story had the main character writing a three legged horse.
– She came prepared by having a watch and she glanced down from time to time to ensure that she remained on schedule.
– When the audience made a mistake, she responded to it in a smart way. She would pause to give the other part of the audience time to respond with the correct answer.
– Another section of her telling. She asked the audience questions and their answer insured their participation.
– She received advice from another storyteller. While she was performing in London. He said: A storyteller must know their audience and be inspired by God. Otherwise it’s just entertainment.
You may have seen the performance of a very talented storyteller or the presentation by an excellent author or a musical presentation. When you recollect their performance, you probably saw some techniques that they employed to ensure a good performance. What observations do you have on what they did?
