By: Rosie Cutrer

Rosie Cutrer — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:03:41 +0000

Wonderful ideas on how to work with others to develope new stories.
So great to know that a professional/national teller gets together with others on a monthly basis to work on new material. I’m grateful that Jackson is willing to be so open about his private work and processes before he has a piece ready to present to a paying audience.
It’s funny, How the Whale Got His Throat was one of the fist pieces I atempted as a beginning teller. The first year I did it it totally flopped with the kids (the adults seemed to like it OK but not the kids. I couldn’t understand why. I had a theatrical background. I had it memeorized and was using great voices and physicality my delivery was great (like some self ingrossed Shakespearean actor)…. I finally gave up doing it.
Years passed and this past Feb. I was looking for new material for a show I had been hired for and came across How the Whale… I reread it and thought, “I love this piece. I’m going to try it again.” By this time I had a lot more experience as a teller and realized that connecting and looking your audience in the eye…inviting audible responses from them…inviting them on to join you on this wonderful voyage with the whale…was the key to really good telling. It was amazing the response I got from the kids this time. The delight in their faces when I’d single out someone to ask “Have you forgotten the suspenders?” Like Jackson said. The storyteller must not get so ingrossed in his own narcissictic attitudes. Thinking that you are only up there to try and impress people with how wonderful you are is death knell for any performer.

Comments on: Jackson Gillman – Refining your performance Using Outside Critique.

By: Rosie Cutrer