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... Publishing Emerging Writers
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In This issue... The Art of Oral Storytelling, by Marcia Gutiérrez (USA)
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I always liked the idea of writing. Making up stories, creating another world to share beliefs, philosophies, ideas of life. ... (continued below)
Note: As of May 30, 2025, this newsletter ("Publishing New Writers") has 15,367 subscribers on Linkedin.com
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The Art of Oral Storytelling
by Marcia Gutiérrez (USA) - quiltedtales@gmail.com)
I always liked the idea of writing. Making up stories, creating another world to share beliefs, philosophies, ideas of life. When I started to write though, it all came out wrong. I did better in the visual arts of photography. When I was living in Costa Rica, I read an article in the Smithsonian Magazine about oral storytelling in the U.S. I thought, “Wow! I would love to do that, only I’m not good at memorization.”
A few of years later I moved to Illinois and went to the Folk Music and Storytelling Festival in Geneva, Illinois and saw my first performance of storytelling. I was hooked, joined the local storytelling guild, and learned how to hone this ancient art.
For over ten years I worked as a professional storyteller in the Chicago area. I performed in schools, museums, and libraries as well as offering workshops. I specialized in bilingual storytelling: Spanish and English. My stories were based on life experiences and reworked folktales. I also performed for a few years at the Ghost Stories in the Park in the Dark in Naperville, Illinois where under the guidance of Diane Ladley I learned the craft of telling a good tale of horror.
Creating an oral story worked well for me. Once I found a folktale that I liked, I would recreate it in my mind allowing the characters, their story, and the target audience to develop a tale that both entertained and taught a point. For many tales I needed something dynamic in order to work in both languages, and some were created for audience participation. Telling a tale in two languages for an audience where only some understood English or Spanish was a challenge. Performing with voice, movement, sound effects, and expression added to the understanding of the tale told going between both languages.
To develop a new story I first worked it out in my mind. Once I had the story locked in my mind, I would type it out and then I would find it stagnated on the page and needed to reset it again in my mind. Telling a tale orally is seeing the story unfold in the mind like an internal TV set and the words that come out are just telling what is seen. On stage, the storyteller is not alone, rather the characters surround me, using me to tell their story.
There were times when developing a story I was not satisfied with - how something was coming out, but nothing better would develop. On stage, as I told the tale, it would begin to develop in its own way and those areas of concern would work themselves out. At one time I did a story about how people came to be different, a Yoruba tale. I was not satisfied with the ending but left it and proceeded to translate it in Spanish. Once I was done I looked at the ending in Spanish and liked how it came out so I retranslated it into English and there it was!
Working on stage is interesting. The brain becomes compartmentalized. The presenter, the storyteller, the characters, the developer, all standing there in one body looking out at an audience of adults and children. There’s an energy with audiences that the storyteller takes advantage of. It makes the tale told more powerful. It creates a community. The Ancient Art of Oral Storytelling is all about community and what brings us together in commonality. Today’s oral storytelling has a wider community with folktales and true stories that cross cultures and borders.
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Publishing New Writers,
May, 2025 (vol. 26, no. 5)
Publisher:
Dr. Bruce L. Cook
1407 Getzelman Drive
Elgin, IL 60123
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