Storytelling Starters ~ Repertoire refreshment
Nice to be asked back. New stories required. This will be the third time – or maybe the fourth, I must check my notes – that St Stephen’s School in Shepherds Bush has invited me to come to tell stories. This visit will be for a day in their Arts Week in March and I’m thinking fresh stories would be a good idea – for me as much as for them. Even as this thought occurs, I’m also thinking that the process of preparing new stories could be a good subject for a new series of blogs. So here goes: Repertoire Refreshment (for humans rather than pigeons)! Let me know if my approach appeals. Maybe you have a different perspective.
Step 1 – choosing a story
I’ve already started thinking about a story I read in a book. Now which book was it? It was ages ago. One I reviewed for School Librarian? Was it Middle Eastern tales? Palestinian perhaps? I’ll check my shelves. Meantime, I’m asking myself why this story in particular has come back to my mind. I’m trying to remember what it’s about.
A young woman with two brothers. Her brothers disappear. There’s evil in the air and also magic. The young woman must get those brothers back, she loves them, they’re an important part of her life. There’s a mountain she’s going to have to climb – it’s literal and symbolic and a big risk. But she sets out with courage and passion. First she succeeds in saving one brother. Then she manages to save the other. Despair and determination give way to joy.
Step 2 – the personal angle
Now why, I ask myself, am I thinking about that particular story right now when it’s been at the back of my mind for a very long time? My question makes me realise what personal feelings may be making me reconnect with it this week. On Friday last week, my own old secondary school – Ysgol Dewi Sant in St David’s – was told that Pembrokeshire County Council was going to close it. Different sets of education plans for the county had been in the air for some while. The axe had fallen everyone felt. The announcement brought tears, anger and disbelief. Huge protests ensued. Action plans began to be made. Judicial reviews, press campaigns, demonstrations: I felt myself to be very much part of it all. Then on Thursday at the County Council meeting where the plans involving St David’s were put forward for approval a complete turn-around occurred. What accounted for the change I don’t know. But in the plans as presented – and I was anxiously watching the meeting on web-cam – no mention was made of closure for my old school. Ysgol Dewi Sant, it seems, is spared. It is going to survive.
Despair followed by passionate determination followed by jubilation: that was the story for me this week and, of course, for many others in the community in which I grew up – parents, teachers, children, old pupils. The story has some additional force for me: my father was head of that school for years. At the heart of my passion, however, is my love and commitment to the St David’s area. It’s a unique area, rich in history and community. It needs its school.
Step 3 – find the story
So now I know why I want to find that story in that book right now. It will not be hard to connect with its underlying emotions. I like the fact that it’s got a female protagonist. The journey theme is one that appeals. And as I recall, it’s a chunky story that has unusual substance to it.
Even as I finish writing this blog – it’s today’s determination – I’m going to start looking through my shelves. Next week, if I manage to find the story I’m thinking about, I’ll report on whether I still like it and, if I do, how I shall set about the business of making it into a story I tell.
See you next week.
Tags: closure, jubilation, Ysgol Dewi Sant