Exactly how does one become a professional storyteller, or even a good storyteller?
Renowned yarn spinner Donald Davis says telling stories is something he grew up around and absorbed, but he continues to work at it, even while he teaches workshops on how to tell and not to tell stories.
Davis — former chairperson of the board of directors for the National Storytelling Association — is the featured reader and workshop teacher at the Tampa-Hillsborough County Storytelling Festival, April 12-14. The festival features more than 400 storytellers, a book fair, a storybook character parade, puppet shows and free storytelling workshops.
The festival kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday, April 12, at the Lowry Park Bandshell, with a performance by Davis and the salsa/merengue band Infinidad.
The main day of the festival takes place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 13, at Hillsborough High School, with three workshops tailored toward specific aspects of storytelling. Amy Crane leads The Blossoming Beginner, an introduction to selecting stories, learning those stories and transforming them into a performance (10:30-11:15 a.m. and 12:30-1:15 p.m.). Gladys Varga illustrates how to pare a story down and then add flourishes in Dressing Up the Bones (10:30-11:15 a.m. and 12:30-1:15 p.m.). And Victoria Gregor, storytelling instructor at Booker T. Washington Middle School, teaches student tellers techniques for improving their performances in Making It Shine (11:30 a.m.-noon and 2:30-3:15 p.m.).
Davis teaches the final storytelling workshop, Watch Out: the Dangers and Pitfalls of Telling Personal Stories, at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, April 14, at John F. Germany Library. Davis will discuss the difference between public and private storytelling, the drawbacks of personal stories and what to do to make them more appealing and successful in a public setting.
Davis' wealth of experience goes back to growing up in a family of traditional storytellers who've lived on the same western North Carolina land since 1781, hearing everything from scary mountain lore to ancient Welsh and Scottish folktales. A retired Methodist minister, Davis has been a featured teller at the Smithsonian Institute and World's Fair, and a guest host for the NPR Program Good Evening.
Surely he has something to teach us folks who know little more than Once upon a time and The end.
All events are free. Lowry Park Band Shell, 7530 N. Boulevard, Tampa. Hillsborough High School, 5000 Central Ave., Tampa. John F. Germany Public Library, 900 N. Ashley Drive, Tampa. For more information, call 813-274-7741, or visit www.tampastory.org.
This article appears in Apr 10-16, 2002.