Part Four

                                               Telling to Teens to Adults

As the listener progresses through the various stages of development –so does his ability to grasp certain stories that before were too difficult or beyond his/her social development. This age opens a wide-range of stories that challenge and entertain. Of course, choosing the right story is only half of the equation. There are performance techniques that also play a heavy hand on how well this group accepts storytelling. One of the biggest hurdles, when telling to this age group, is to let them know that storytelling is for all ages. The teller will not be talking down to them – no, au contraire! They will be challenged to keep up with the story. It can be disheartening for a teller to walk into an auditorium full of 13 & 14 year olds and hear an audible moan and see the rolling of eyes – a storyteller… that’s for babies. The teller has his/her work cut out for them. The amount of work that goes into learning stories for this age group could double and even triple in preparation. This group will not be as likely to forgive as the younger listeners. But, having said that, the rewards you get from the “right” story told well is insurmountable. To watch that same group of young teens being drawn into the story, to watch the story have an impact, to hear them walking away talking about the stories is Holy Grail which tellers’ seek.

Adult listeners, at least, accept you as a storyteller. They are respectful of your craft. But, the teller has to come through with a program that serves the objectives of the group. It’s not just one story. It’s a program of stories that allows the listener to ride the “roller-coaster of emotions.” Elizabeth Ellis, a master storyteller has a formula…First, tell a Ha-ha story –  get the audience laughing, then go for a story an  Ah-ha! This story has a trick surprise ending. Then, slip in an Ahhh story – something that touches the heart. Finally (and it may never come to this) tell an Amen story – a story that makes the listener sit back and mull the story over and over and see the greater implications this story has on life. But, of course, the building blocks to telling to Young Teens to Adults are the stories…

                                                          I. Earmarks of a Good Story For Young Teens to Adults

• For the most part some of the earmarks for younger listeners no longer apply: avoid -  repetitious plots, participation, simple language, one-dimensional characters, talking animals or inanimate objects.
• Tell stories that are character-driven with real personalities both the good and the bad. Especially for young teens and teens - stories that include metaphors that, as Lorna Czarnota says, “speak to issues in their lives and often are strange in content.”  This idea alone is a workshop. Many fairy and folk tales include these metaphors.      (Ex. The Buried Moon, The Magic Brocade)
• Metaphors are also excellent in stories for Adults. They are making leaps with well-placed metaphors, and that keeps them active in the story. They make the story “smart.”
• Especially for teens and young teens – coming of age stories. They are at this crossroads  themselves, and the stories really speak to them. These include stories of making choices  with consequences and empowerment (Ex. Dame Ragnell, White Bear Whittington)
• High Adventure stories with complicated plot lines. (Ex. Beowulf, Sherazade, King Arthur, Irish sagas, Norse and Native American legends)
• Mythology – stories that deal with why we are here, how we got here, what it all means (Ex. Greek myths, Native American, Norse). To even tell these stories means that the storyteller has to have a certain knowledge and respect of their importance     and sacredness within the culture.
• Personal stories. For teens it opens the lines of communication for telling their own stories. For adults it allows them to take a stroll down memory lane and see their story in the teller’s story.
• Stories from Literature that introduces the listeners to an author’s exquisite words and brings them to life that, otherwise, may sometimes languish when read. (The Raven,  The Gift of the Magi, selections of Huckleberry Finn)
• Stories that don't follow the standard, linear plot lines and often have unusual or surprising endings.
• The folktales and stories that are told to young audiences can be told to Young Teens and Teens, if you framework it by telling them that this is a gift from you to them to use when they need to baby-sit or to keep a younger brother or sister quiet.
• It’s a common mistake to think that all adults love folktales. Many do not. However, they can also be told to Adult audiences when you are using them as an example of a point you are trying to get across in a themed program.
• Ghost stories – now they can be both ghostly and ghastly. They are better able to handle the realities of true horror (Ex. Mr. Fox) and ghostly fantasy (Ex. Mary Culhane and the Dead Man) In either case, the audience is facing the “demons” of their ordinary life – drugs, murder, suicide, alcohol, etc. When the story ends with the “victim” becoming empowered, they have not only faced, they have beaten the “metaphorical demon.”
• Ghost stories for adults don’t have to be so graphic. They enjoy a good yarn about witches and devils and most especially true ghost stories.
• Urban Legends – Especially teens. They buy into these recycled stories because they are present day, they happened (really!) to a friend of a friend (FOOF), and the circumstances are those that they could realistically find themselves in.
• Fractured fairy tales, stories with a twist at the end, stories that make leaps as to the conclusion, tall tales, shaggy dog stories.                                                                                                                     
• Wisdom and Spiritual stories from a variety of beliefs (esp. for adults) – Zen, Jewish, Christian, Islam, Buddhist, etc. These are usually very short but a have a strong metaphor (Ex. Hasidic, Bible parables such as the loaves and fishes or stories collected in Anthony deMello books)
• Hero tales – historical and biographical tales of heroism and greatness; saint stories, baseball heroes, WWII stories, etc.
• Warm-hearted stories like those in the Chicken Soup for the (…..) Soul series.

                                    II.  Stories to Tell to Young Teens to Adults

Folktales, Myths, Urban Legends, Fairytales, Spiritual:

•  Jack Tales and Grandfather Tales by Richard Chase (Lazy Jack, Jack and the Giant Killer,   Jack and the Haunted House, Sop Doll) - Appalachia
• The Tiger's Whisker - Traditional Korean
• Selkie Tales - found in many British Isle Collections
• Vassalisa - Russian folk tale
• The Magic Brocade - Chinese Folktale
• Canterbury Tales - and variant tales showing the universality of folklore
• The Arabian Nights (Powerful themes of humor, justice, love and betrayal, etc.
• The Princess and the Vagabond
• Tale of the Mandarin Ducks
• Two White Horses (ghost story, Appalachia)
• Shadow on the Wall - Vietnamese love story
• Mr. Fox - an English folk tale, many variants

• Leopard's Magnificent Drum from Turtle Tales by Pleasant DeSpain

• Beyond the Bayou

• The Blue Rose Chinese folktale

• Brer Rabbit & Tar Baby – Joel Chandler Harris collections are steeped in dialect.                  Julius Lester has updated these old stories

• Coyote Dances w/Star - Cherokee Legend

• Curious Frogs  fable

• Dervish in the Road  Wisdom tale

• Filling the House  Wisdom tale

• Grandmother Spider (variants) Cherokee

• Hoja Stories - Elephant, Wife, Lost Key, Lost Purse - Mid-East Trickster and Sage

• Ma Lien and the Magic Paintbrush  Chinese Folktale

• Magic Doubling Pot  (variants) Chinese folktale

• One Wish  - Wisdom tale

• Pandora¹s Troubles  - Greek myth

• Possum and Snake also called Br’er Possum’s Dilemma – (variants) in The Knee-High Man by Julius Lester

• Sherazade  - Arabian Stories

• Smell of the Bread  wisdom story

• Stolen Child (variant) Irish or Scottish fairy-folk tale

• Stonecutter on Mountain – a Japanese folktale

• First Strawberries Cherokee legend

• Tante Tina  from Ruthilde Kronberg’s   A Piece of the Wind

• Turtle Flies South or Why Turtle Has a Cracked Shell  (variants)

• Two Polite Babies (joke story)

• Wide-Mouthed Frog (joke story)

• Wise Tailor

• Worry Bundles

• Black Bubble Gum originally a short story by John Steinbeck/ adapted by tellers

• Fire Ants and Snake Spit

• Golden Arm (variants) collected by Mark Twain

• Hitchhiker (Urban Legend)

• Trains - Ghost Woman in Cab (Urban Legend)

• Children push car – Texas (Urban Legend)

• Victoria on the Goldenrod

• The Monkey’s Paw (variants) collected

• Two Warriors version by Dan Keding

• Lady Truth – wisdom tale

• The Conjure Wives – American South

• The Foolish Man  Armenian folktale

• Wicked John and the Devil   - Appalachian folktale

• Whistling Tsonaquas – Northwest Coast Native American

• Skunny Wundy and the Stone Giant  and The Vampire Skeleton – Iroquois legends in Iroquois Stories Myths and Monsters by Joseph Bruchac

• The Piasa – Illinois legend

• The Three Wishes (variants) Swedish folktale

• The Blue Faience Hippopotamus - Egyptian folktale retold by Joan Grant

• The Woodcutter and the Bird from Cathy Spagnoli's Asian Tales and Tellers

Literary Suggestions:

• Richard Kennedy collections of short stories - Come Again in the Spring,

• Oliver Hyde's Dishcloth Concert, The Porcelain Man
  Learning to Write in the Sand --Malba Tahan [Julio Cesar de Mello i Sousa]

• Patrick McManus – esp. for adults

• Jane Yolen –  Stories in The Girl Who Cried Flowers and The Hundredth Dove

• Mister Death and the Red Headed Woman by Helen Eustis

• Middle Woman in Orson Scott Card’s Maps and Mirrors

• Blue Silver  and others in Carl Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories

• Erma Bombeck stories in many collections including If Life Is a Bowl

• of Cherries What Am I Doing in the Pits – The Chimes. (adults)

• Politically Correct Fairy Tales by James Garner

• Short Stories by -  Jeffrey Archer, Natalie Babbitt, Rudyard Kipling, Ray Bradbury. Edgar Allen Poe, James Thurber, Robert Fulgham, Anthony deMello,

Personal Stories:

The personal stories are told by individual tellers. They are an important part of stories told to Young Teens to Adults. The tellers wrote them about their own lives and yet connected the story to a universal theme. They make great listening stories, but, for the most part, are not for retelling. Some of the personal story collections by tellers include:

• “Me and Denny” – CD - stories by Mike Anderson

• “Fair Views from Old Fairview” – CD - by Marilyn Kinsella

• The Farm on Nippersink Creek by Jim May

• A Storyteller is a Soybean by Michael Cotter

                          III.        Tips for telling to Young Teen to Adult

                                    V.   Appreciations: