/reddeerartscouncil
Featured Member
Red Deer
Storytelling Group Creates ‘Magic’ and Social Links
Once upon a time, a couple of years ago, a group of Red Deerians decided to forge new personal connections through storytelling.
Twice a month, seven to 18 people get together to form a circle in the offices of the Red Deer Arts Council. They tell each other tales— both true and fanciful.
“You can tell any story you like,” explains group member Peggy Freeman — “family stories, fairy tales or folk tales…You can make something up or tell stories about what happened to you or somebody else.”
The Red Deer chapter of Storytelling Alberta revisits an age-old tradition from “when people would sit around a fire and tell each other stories,” Freeman adds.
This is a purely oral exercise, so no reading is allowed. Instead, some mental preparation is necessary, says Freeman.
She believes it’s a memory challenge to compose a story in your head and rehearse how to tell it to others without leaving crucial points out. “You need to start off with a bang, have an interesting centre and then wrap it up” with a punchy ending.
Most of the stories told in the group run from three to five minutes. While the narrator holds a “talking stick,” everyone else in the circle remains silent and listens.
One memorable tale was the true story of a woman who helped save the life of a car crash victim, recalls Freeman. A more whimsical story concerned the rescue of a kitten from harassing magpies.
Freeman recounted to the group the dramatic 1964 Alaska earthquake, “the worst North America had ever seen.”
She and her now late husband, Don, were living in Yukon, some 1,500 miles from the epicentre of the quake. But the shaking that caused landslides in Anchorage still knocked books off shelves in Yukon, and “our lamp that was hanging from the ceiling with a chain was swinging.”
Younger listeners are bound to learn a few things when older people reminisce about the way things used to be. Freeman says one member’s father was a veterinarian — a source for great animal tales.
“Stories can get lost in families,” she adds. But retelling them keeps them alive.
As group members re-learn the old-fashioned art of entertaining themselves instead of waiting to be entertained, they are also forming friendships.
“Families used to be closer, and people used to meet more often, but we’ve lost some of that” through our busy schedules and reliance on electronic entertainment, says Freeman.
She feels the revival of oral storytelling is a wonderful way to bring people of all ages together. Newcomers are always welcome to the group that meets on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month at Unit 6, 4919 49th Street.
According to Storytelling Alberta, there’s “magic” in interactions between the teller and the listener.
Aside from holding “Tellaround” story circles, the provincial group with other chapters in Calgary, Edmonton and Strathcona, hosts open mic nights, story cafes, concerts, workshops and retreats.
For more information, please visit www.storytellingalberta.com.
