Tuesday, May 25, 2010

A Tale of Two Frogs


Spring has finally settled in here in New England, and we at massmouth have finished up our wildly successful first Story Slam season! That means it is time for a summer of MouthOffs and other storytelling delights. Our first MouthOff of 2010 was held at the Brown-Rhone Park in Central Square, Cambridge, on the evening of Monday May 17, and I had the privilege of telling alongside of some talented newcomers and my able MouthOff co-host, Stu Mendelson.

I decided on the spur of the moment to try out a story that I've been itching to tell for a while, about two frogs, a lot of cream, and the power of perseverance. One of my favorite variants of this tale can be found in Elisa Pearmain's "Once Upon a Time... Storytelling to Teach Character and Prevent Bullying". This is my first attempt at telling this story in public, and naturally, I had to give it my own personal twist and take on it. Perfect timing, since this coming Friday I have a frog-themed storytelling activity hour planned for my classroom of kindergartners at the Gardner Pilot Academy! Let me know what you think of both the story and my telling of it, I'm always interested in getting feedback.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Jackal calling


I'm working on a jackal-themed Storytelling class, and doing some research - boy do I love youtube! I am fascinated by the strange high howling sound that these animals produce. Naturally it takes practice to make a jackal call, so I'll be wandering around town working on that today......
Along with sounds, games, songs and rhymes, I will be telling a story from India called The Jackal King, also known as The Blue Jackal. This tale has a strong - even harsh - moral lesson about the importance of loyalty and truthfulness, but it's also about what happens when an opportunistic jackal falls into a vat of blue dye.

This story has many variants, but its origin is to be found in the Panchatantra, a collection of animal tales originally written in Sanskrit and now lost.