Beowulf Retold, Gary Whitaker , Storytelling - Recording for Youtube

I will be the first to admit that I have to do things before I can see what works what doesn't work. I can plan what sounds and looks good on paper but until I actually do it I am at the mercy of what appeals to me. Last night I spent over 5 hours working on a video for youtube of my intro to Beowulf Retold. My original idea for this specific video was to film it in my backyard. I have an area back there with a fire-pit. I figured build a fire, use the dark as a back ground and the sounds of the night. Shoot the performance across the fire and use my wireless sound system to make sure I am heard. What I did not anticipate was the battery life on the camera nor what it would look like trying to handle my lyre in between passages and the wider camera shot. After about 2 hours and 4 shootings I decided that it wasn't gonna work. I doused the fire-pit and put everything up. Previously I had made a three minute recording for my facebook site of a portion of the Beowulf intro, in my library, and so I decided to try it back there again

So eventually I went back inside the house to my library and took a another shot at it. Still trying to minimize the light but have enough to illuminate the performance (I had loved the look that the fire outside had given my face and so I lit some candles and put them on the book shelf and came away with a similar look) . After a couple attempts with the sound system I eventually decided to drop it and go for a closer approach and see what that looked like.I continued to go through the batteries like fire on old wood. Finally with the camera about two feet from my face and keeping body movement to a minimal, I let my face tell the story. I finally ended up with what I thought was the best I could do on my own and loaded it onto youtube. When I began this process I had given a lot of thought to how I should dress and in the end it didn't matter except for the fact that I kept my clothing dark to add to the effect. So this was how all this came about.

In the end I was happy with the final product (and yes that was all done in one take- I hav eno editing systems at the moment). My video is in no means meant to be a professional recording. My purpose was truly quite simple. When I tell people that I have done a version of Beowulf or that I am a professional storyteller they look at me like I'm crazy. Well besides that fact, I want people to be able to see and hear what I sound like, especially those who will never come to one of my programs or for the fact to any storytellers program). Also when I storytell I become a very different person, kind of the Jeckel and Hide thing, I literally transform into a different person. So this is a way for them to see me in action. In many ways I am a unique storyteller and my approach to some material is quite different than other tellers. I will do typical material in typical storytelling fashion when it calls for it but some material requires a different tack as far as I am concerned and Beowulf is one of these programs. I will eventually add a link to to my youtube site from my website.

My intention is to do a few more recordings once I work out the camera issue (Batteries). I plan to do a portion of my Legend of Sleepy Hollow and I have some other complete stories I might add but now I have a better idea of what I am dealing with. I had given this idea thought for some time now (posting some of my work on youtube) but was not comfortable with doing that during that time frame. Why I finally changed my mind I can't say but I think in the long run it will pay off.

Beowulf Retold

I started working on a Beowulf Storytelling Script several years before I finally came up with the version that I am using now. It was quite a learning experience for me. Mostly because I ended up trashing a lot of work that didn't suit me. I had been studying this ancient work for nearly ten years when I finally decided to try and tackle it. I also had listened to several other storytellers attempts at bringing this great tale alive and all were good but I felt that something was missing. Whether or not my final version is any better or succeeds in a way that I had hoped for is purely up to the audience.
My basic desire was to create a version that somehow reflected the sound and feel of the original and yet be wholly original in creation, Beowulf Retold. I eventually ended up mimicking the sound of the Alliteration poetry by created a phrasing sound to my storytelling or in other words by breaking the sentences into phrases. I also did a little alliterative phrasing in the process. It was never my intention to do poetry. I just wanted to mimic the sound because I felt like that was imperative to the sound and feel of this great work. I also wanted to capture how some of the story was told, the language and the feel of it. All very important to what makes Beowulf such a great masterpiece.
As in all things it all came together with a phrase. "It Dwelt in the Darkness" and from there it grew. Even though the poem does not go into great detail about the initial attack by Grendel of Hrothgar's Hall, Herot. I needed a way to draw my audience into the story, so to speak, to set the stage. And so I enlarged on Grendel's first attack and established this creatures motives and blood lust and hate right off the bat.
The final script was over ten pages long. It was so exacting, so specific in language that I decided that I needed to learn it word for word. Something I had never done before. So over a six month period I memorized the entire script (memorization is not my thing). The thing is that this is not how a storyteller normally learns their story. Instead we learn key elements of a story and then depending on setting, audience and other factors we literally reinvent the story right in front of the audience. Sometime the story stays the same and sometimes it will change quite a bit.
But with Beowulf I decided to take a different tack and for the first couple years that was how I presented the program in a variety of fashions which I will not discuss right now. The first time I ever did it at a school was for a teacher at Haltom High School, Connie Sanchez. The kids seemed impressed with it and so did she. I remember her saying something to the effect 'I guess that this will change and grow with time like the rest of your work' and I responded ' that it was not my intention to do so. '
Well I was wrong.
She was right.
the story has not changed a lot but like every story it has taken on a life of it's own through me and because of that it has changed quite a bit in other ways.
Stories are never static. They are meant to grow.
Even the surviving script of Beowulf is just one version of this great story. I have little doubt that there were many other versions that were told. The Druids of old use to say that the written word killed the story and in some ways that is very true but what I have found is that the storyteller keeps the word alive.
I am now trying to bring my version of Beowulf into Irish and Celtic festivals. If things work well I will get a chance to do so at the North Texas Irish Festival in Dallas Texas in 2009. I have been a regular in the childrens area for over 5 years now but Beowulf needs and an adult audience. So I am hoping to get my chance with a decent audience at this festival. I have not had the success with the schools that I had hoped for but Beowulf is my passion and I will do what I have to do to give it life. If I do get the chance to do the program at NTIF I will advertise it on my blog and on my facebook page. Thanks for taking time to read my thoughts.

Tamlin, The ballad

I have been trying to put together an oral storytelling version of the ancient ballad Tamlin that I would be happy with for several years now. Tamlin is a very unusual ballad especially for the time in which it would had been conceived, similar versions of what we today call Tamlin are referred to as early as the 1500's but the first written version appears around 1776.
The elements that make Tamlin unusual is that this is a story about a young girl (Janet) who decides to take her fate into her own hands and defy her parents (more specifically her father) and the culture that pervades their lifestyle.
This is in a time when young women were used like cattle to barter better lands and power for their fathers own status. Sometimes these deals worked out well between bride and husband. Since women had little power they were at the mercy of men and if the brokered deal was a good one (with a decent man) then she would at least be taken care of but in most cases they were horrid arrangements.
I have done research off and on regarding Tamlin but it was while reading a blog at Sarah Beth Durst blog site that I finally found what I had been missing before.
Sarah is a youth writer and has her 1st book out called, "Into the Wild" which I am looking forward to finding and reading. In her blog she called Janet a' Kick-butt heroine' and goes on to justify her perceptions of Janet, making some very insightful remarks about the kind of person she is. I had read similar reviews before or interpretations but somehow what Sara said and how she said it got through to me. Anyway something clicked inside that dark corridor that I call my brain. A light came on. AllI had to do was find that stupid switch.
So after doing more research ,either in my books or on the net, I finally put down a version of Tamlin for oral storytelling. I will have to refine it, play with it and tell it several times before I get it somewhere in the ball park of a fianl version but now I have something substantial to play with. Also keep in mind that a storyteller seldom has a FINAL version. It is a thing of growth and reinventing. It will always be changing as I see more of the story in my mind with each telling but the cruz of the tale will remain the same.
I decided to go with the version I have in the 1902 Oxford Collections of Ballads by Arthur Quiller and Couch ( there are actually many versions of this ballad and some with quite different takes on the story). I stuck to there version fairly faithfully but took took the liberty of filling in some gaps that would had left a modern day audience in the dark.
The trouble with trying to do material like this is how to convert it in such a way that a modern day audience, (youth or older), would get the crux of Janet's delima and what kind of being Tamlin had become.
It is my personal opinion (though I did not exercise it in my version) that Tamlin is a dog. When he describes to Janet how he came to be with the Faery folk he says he fell from his horse while riding one day.
If I was to interpret how that sounds; it sounds like he was doing what he pleased how he pleased with whomever he pleased and got caught by the fae folk in the process. In truth Tamlin is pretty much a scuzz. He gets Janet pregnant. ( but I think this is her ultimate desire) as he has many others who have come to Carterhaugh and then uses her to save him.
Of course in the end, it all ends well because when he was human he stood to inherit his grandfathers lands. So Janet is not only saving Tamlin but herself and her child. Pretty smart little girl. She has broke away from her father's power over her and taken care of herself and her child all in one fell swoop. In her day and time this would had been unheard of and that is why this ballad is so important.
In every since of the word, it was different. It told a different story about entittlement and power and the system. Though the ballad is called TamLin it is in truth about the girl, Janet.
This just goes to show that the concept of equality has been hanging in the shadows for a long time. If you were to go back even further , to the dark ages, you would find that in some cultures women were worshiped and highly respected.
When I deal with material like this I try to keep an open mind as to what kind of audiences I would tell this to and how I would present the material. Often it just depends on how the audience itself reacts to what I am doing and saying. My goal is always quite simple. to share, to open minds and to make people currious. The Balllad of Tamlin offers all of this.

Storytelling at Longhorn Council 100th Anniversary Campore

This weekend I had the honor of telling stories for the cubs and weblos scouts at the Longhorn Council Campore which was held at Texas Motor Speed Way near Fort Worth Texas. I want to thank Scot Lindgren for setting me up and John Parks for accommodating me in this 100th anniversary cellebration of the Boy Scouts. I also want to offer special thanks to Troop 336 and their scoutmaster Steve Grady for sharing their food and camp with me. Though I have not been physically active with the troop over ten years they continue to keep me as a n active member and as the troop storyteller. I try to make a few camp outs a year and I have not missed any of the troops Webloee's that they have every October. I also want to thank the adults who were there this weekend and their kind attentions and friendship. All of you guys and gals are awesome, thank you.
We had WIND. ALLLL WEEKEND!!!!
If there had been no wind or a light wind it would had been a perfect weekend for this celebration. And yet some how it was fitting. The boy scouts continue to maintain a steady path against many difficult struggles and why should they not during there 100th anniversary celebration be faced with a horrendous wind. And yet, the celebration went on.
Father's and mothers and scoutmasters and volunteers hunkered down with their boys and fought their way through the wind and still had a great time. The Marines had parked this huge truck over by where I was set up and it was an absolute blast watching those kids go crazy all over and in that monster. I think they ought to park one in every school and get rid of the playground. It was just awesome. Thanks Marines!!
Fortunately I had brought my sound system and wireless. Without it I would had been pretty much worthless. I was impressed with the kids and adults staying and listening to my stories. It was tough in particularly where I was set up was like a wind tunnel in itself and the wind just howled though there mercilessly. Yet the boys came and stayed and listened. The first group I managed to snag was about a 100 strong but the rest of the day it was 5 or 10 at a time.
Unfortuneately I was unable to do any boy scouts because where I was set up was primarily in the cub scout area so maybe next time I will get a set up for the boy scouts. I met a lot of nice people and had some interesting talks with others. I met one scoutmaster who sat and traded stories with me for a while. I was glad to see that I wasn't the only one who beleived in the importance of storytelling.
The wind got colder as the day went, not warmer as I had hoped. I had to slip into the OA tent a couple times to warm up. That wind was wearing me down. Around 3:30pm ( after being out there since 9am) I finally gave it up collected my gear and took a short nap in my warm windless truck before going to eat supper with my troop. I stayed with them till around 7pm and though I really wanted to stay and talk some more because I was having a great time I decided that I better get before the big show started at the camp grounds. I really hated going. But I was exahusted and knew that I needed to go but all the others, the socutmasters, mom and dads, they all stayed even though they knew that when the wind stopped it was going to get really really cold that night.
The reason I am telling you all this is pretty basic. The system still works, it is not broke. There are a lot of great people out there still trying. Despite a bogus economy and other challenges that we face in our personal and daily activities there are folk out there helping, caring and giving and not giving up. I was only one of hundreds of volunteers out there this weekend. Every scoutmaster and adult involved out there this weekend were in truth volunteers. They gave up their weekend, they gave up there money, they gave out concern and love. They took care of their and other people kids and did it with passion. A passion for giving kids a good time. They did it because they knew that it mattered and IT DOES. Thank you all. Thank you for believing.

Legend of Sleepy Hollow - storytelling

A couple weeks ago I performed (storytelling) for the 3rd year in a row for Elizabeth Ellis at the Denton Scare on the Square Ghost Story Concert. This is an annual event and usually each year different tellers are invited to tell. So to be asked three years in a row by one of greatest tellers of all time is quite an honor for me. I feel quite fortunate to even be on the same slate as her in a program. Any program.
One of the reasons Elizabeth ask me back is because I am generally ruthless when it comes to storytelling ghost stories. I am not a blood, guts and gore teller. I rely mostly on good arrangement of material in presenting the story and intensity of telling. In other words lots of drama, suspense. I use my voice (modulating intensity) and pauses to effect and with a good sound system you can literally get away with murder when telling a good chilling tale.
In this specific program we do a free concert outside that is family oriented (little kids can come) and then starting last year we did a paying concert inside the courthouse. It is presented inside one of the courtrooms and OH!!! what a great place to tell spooky tales. I fell in love with it last year.
This year I decided to take a crack at telling one of the all time great ghost stories. Something that all of us has grown up with but I have never heard a professional teller tell. I had tried to tackle the Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving once before for a program in west Texas and I hated the final product. That was about two years ago when I had done that program. I had come a long way even since then and took the proverbial bull by the horns and started working on it again.
My problem was that one of the reasons Elizabeth keeps asking me back is because I usually do really scary material and I just didn't know if I could pull this off the way I saw it. And of course I would be doing this in the courthouse where the really good material is told. This story is treated as a children's classic and so that was my concern. How it would be recieved. I don't normally do new material in a paying concert. I like to work it out and play with it a while in non paying situations. So that I can develop the material.
So that was my situation.
Until the day before the concert I still wasn't convinced that I had the right approach to telling Irving's classic tale. I had learned a while back that some stories had to be reinvented in presentation of material. Especially older stories that are some what archiac in there writing and presentation (though Hollow is probably one of the best written stories of its time). One reason for this approach is that by restructuring the story it gave the teller more freedom in how to present it. The other reason is when storytelling a classic tale such as this one it gives the teller an advantage with his audience. They may know the story but are not quite sure where your going or how you plan to get there.
Then I went back to how I had structured my Beowulf material for Beowulf Retold. In my retelling of this great classic I had seized upon a dramatic event that was near the beginning of the story that had little detail and turned it into a detailed dramatic opening to draw my audience into the drama of the story.
So after beating myself over the head for nearly two weeks playing with the material I started over. I reviewed the story and picked a turning point. The part of the story where Icabod is about to enter the Hollow. It is a turning point in the story for Icabod. It is high drama in itself. Does he enter the Hollow ( the most haunted place in all of New York) or go back to the Van Tassels after being embarrassed by Katrina. Then as Icabod sits at the entrance of the Hollow I had him reviewed some of the details of the events that had happened earlier that night. Using that material to exploit the character of Icabod, Katrina and Brombones.
I intentional made the most of my characters and their extreems (could do more with more time) just as Iriving had. I tried to include all of the important facts relating to the area and his situation. How Icabod would had been viewed by the locals and espeically the girls. After Icabod reconsiders his issues he decides that he can not go back.
With this approach in mind I went to the concert. Outside on the courthouse lawn, for the non paying concert, I was last to tell. After listening to Tim Couch do a great story that had come from a youth tale about a wolf, I decided to do my version of the wolf woman legend. Lots of fun and it worked great.
Inside I was last to perform again and I was having quite an inner battle with sticking to doing the Hollow. I am basically a chicken at heart. I hate to do bad material or good material badly. I always want to come off as good as I can. This is very important to me. Finally my time came. I still hadn't made up my mind. I walked up to the mic with my mind saying ' do the tried and true you will make a mess of Hollow ' and then the other part of me was going, "Chicken!!"
In my heart I knew I could do this and really wanted to. I just don't get many opportunities to do material like this in a situation like this. It was perfect. So I did the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and it was great. I had a blast and the audience laughed in the right places and were terrified in the others. It was fun and the presentation felt like it worked the way I had intended it to. In fact I was so happy with it I have decided to make it into a special program on my website.
My point of all this is pretty simple. I need to listen to my inner voice more often. I think that we all need to.
I love to storytell.
It has been a huge part of who I am for the last ten years. It has expanded my horizons and given me opportunities that I would had never dreamed of ten years ago. I have been called by many a Master Storyteller and maybe I am. But Master or not I still have qualms, battles, within myself about how and what kind of material to do and how to do it. I know that every time I do program I am creating inside of someone's mind. I am instilling idea's and images. To me this is an important responsibillity.
In the courthouse at Denton a few weeks ago I won a battle. I crossed a line that previously had been restricted to me. The last time I did that was in 1993, when at my son's Boy Scout camp out at Worth Ranch. I told the tale of Hugo's Crack. That night I had a battle within myself as well. Whether I should tell the tale or not. I had never done anything like that before. I did not consider myself a speaker or a storyteller. But a voice inside me said do it and I did. It changed my life forever.
Before I sign off on the blog I want to thank my dear freind Elizabeth Beamon who I have known now for over ten years and was a member of the Tarrant Area guild of Storytellers. She came out to Denton just to see me tell. She could not stay for the Courthouse gig because she needed to drive home. A better and deary freind a storyteller could not ask for. Thanks Elizabeth, God Bless.

Why Storytelling is Important

This is not meant to be a preaching blog about storytelling because I let my stories speak my heart for me.
I have created this blog so that others might understand how a performer like me operates and thinks when it comes to putting together programs. It will not be a daily blog but I will most likely post a weekly blog.
It will also serve to let others know of my new programs that I have created and also what I hope to achieve with these programs. Some of this will just be me as a performer and my ideas and some of this will be about storytelling and some of this will be about events that I have participated in.
I have been performing for over ten years now and I am considered by many other tellers in the field to be a master storyteller today. Yet I am not a regular at Storytelling Festivals (except at the TSA festival in Denton for the Ghost Story Concerts -thanks to Doc and Elizabeth Ellis) and that is okay.
There was a time when that was important to me but as I have grown as a performer and teller I have come realize that the most important thing about being a storyteller is to share the stories in such a way that is effective and inspiring. Of course not all stories are not meant to be inspiring but are meant to share ideas and morals. So it is important to succeed in this as well. For almost all folk tales impart some kind of moral idea or concept. So this brings me to the point of this specific blog.
WHY IS STORYTELLING IMPORTANT?
Our world, our history, our lives are all tied together by stories. Many stories are lost but somehow some stories survive and that is what we pass on from decade to century.
The reason some of the stories survive is because within them there is a truth that can not be denied. But what are those truths and why are they so important?
Let us consider that today we are surrounded by super hero tales and movies.
Why? because we need them.
We live in a time when our world is unstable and explosive and we would like to believe in a superhero who will go beyond our normal expectations and save us from ourselves.
Where does the idea of the super hero comes from. It comes from Mythology and the gods of the ancients; who were human and also gods. The superhero's of today are just new versions of the superhero's of ancient times (Greeks, Romans..etc.). So whether we realize it or not we are surrounded by the ties of storytelling. Through stories we find ties that bind us together.
There is a power in storytelling when a story is properly presented. The storyteller will propel you into their world of words and imagination. Like an author of a book the storyteller will allow your imagination to create pictures and scenes and actions. The storyteller will put you into the path of the main character's story and help you live their experience. The storyteller will help you past your disbelief and suspend reality. The storyteller will make their story live, breath, walk and talk. The listener becomes a part of the story.
Why is Storytelling important?
Because it enacts your imagination, it broadens your vision and challenges you views of life. It makes you think. It will make your laugh and cry. It might even make your reconsider some of your moral concepts. Yes, some stories are old fairy tales that we have all grown up with but modern day storytellers take the themes of many of these older stories (folk tales etc) and envision them in different ways. They create new stories out of the old or use old themes with a story about a person's life or struggles. In other words we update these old stories just like the superhero tales.
The stories of a storyteller whether they be folk tales or legends are all based on concepts that have survived throughout the ages. Basic themes and characterizations that have manifest themselves throughout history. Stories connect us with ourselves, past and present. They also help us to see ourselves and look at our actions from a different perspective.
This is why we need storytelling in schools whether it be elementary, middle or high and even college. This is why we need storytelling at churches (not just biblical storytelling) and in public events. This is why adults need storytelling. We need to recognize the value of storytelling. But the world is run by adults who believe that storytelling is just for kindergartner's and librarians.
I used to say that my goal was to convince adults that storytelling isn't just for kids!
I know that there are many adults out there that believe in storytelling and its value. I see them at storytelling festivals and a few other public events. But remember that our kids only find value in what their parents acknowledge as valuable. So if adults don't show value in storytelling neither will their kids. And one day we will loose site of who we were and are.
Storytelling is a bond. It is the stitch, it is the glue.
Why is Storytelling Important! Because it is what makes us Human.