Beginning in childhood and never stopping, we make sense out of our lives by hearing and telling stories. We find our place in the world through shared experiences and seek our individuality through our own specific quirky details. Jennifer's mother put me into adventures with Cinderella and had Little Red Riding Hood come visit me at my house. No surprise then that at age three she told her mother her own version of the Three Bears. "Once a time, there were bears. And one morning the oatmeal was too hot so they went for a walk in the woods. And, and Goldilocks didn't come. I did. And I ate all the papa bear's oatmeal and all the mama bear's oatmeal and all the baby bear's oatmeal but I didn't break the chair or fall asleep in the bed. I ran home and the bears never knew it was me! The end."
We're storytelling beings. A few years ago at one of Jennifer's workshops, a woman began telling about her favorite children's book and suddenly she switched into first person. Instead of telling us the doll fell into the well she said; "I began to lose my balance. I could feel myself slipping and then, so slowly at first but faster and faster I fell down the well into the dark and the cold..." She had everyone on the edge of our seats but wasn't conscious of having slipped into first person. First person exercises can get right to the heart of things. Jennifer often asks workshop participants to tell a familiar fairy tale from the point of view of some character or object in the story. One of her favorites was a woman telling Little Red Riding Hood from the point of view of the cottage door. "I'm a good door. I'm solid and do my job well. I open easily when people knock respectfully." Everyone was heartbroken when the woodcutter crashed through her with his axe. "He didn't need to chop me down. I wasn't locked. He just had to ask."
Stories ask us to tell them. By paying attention we find our own unique
voice and style. Jennifer weaves songs, tunes and poetry through her tales
in a natural way because it's her way. One workshop parcipant said, "I
can't carry a tune in a bucket. I could never tell stories like you do,"
but at the end of the workshop he said, with a big smile, "I still can't
tell stories like you do but I can tell stories like I do!" Pre-schoolers,
young folks, teenagers, family groups, women's groups, and seniors are
hungry for stories, and there's an unending supply. Be prepared! Come to
Rowe with an open mind and heart, ready to dance and play and tell stories.
Jennifer Armstrong is a professional storyteller. She tells Celtic, Appalachian, and personal stories playing the bagpipe, fiddle and banjo and her song spun stories delight and enthrall audiences across the country. Her autobiographical one-woman show WomanSong was a highlight of the National Storytelling Festival where Jennifer was one of the featured tellers in 1998. She has four CDs of music and four story tapes to her credit as well as a new recording with Yellow Moon Press called Open the Door: Celtic Stories and Songs. Please join us.