For our Assignment #2, that of critiquing three professional storytellers, I watched the live performances of Lawrence Howard telling "The Adventures of Huckleberry Howard," Antonio Sacre telling "Burning Feathers," and the video of Scott Baumgardner telling "Uncle Bill & OMO: A Western Tale."
Since I'm not brilliant enough to figure out how to provide a link to my Word document for this assignment, as we've been requested to do by Jenine (though if anyone can tell me how, I'd be grateful), here is my Assignment #2 in full (there's a lot of repition from my initial post below about the first two performances, but hopefuly it's more polished...I'm only sorry I had to leave so much detail out...I could've said so much more, but was already over the word limit):
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For this assignment I watched three professional storytellers tell their tales: the first two in a live setting, and the third on video. Lawrence Howard, performing “The Adventures of Huckleberry Howard,” and Antonio Sacre, performing “Burning Feathers,” both presented their stories at the Portland Story Theater’s 2009 Solo Performance Festival. The third storyteller, Scott Bumgardner, told “Uncle Bill & ONO: A Western Tale,” a performance found online as I followed links from the Multnomah County Library’s website of storytelling resources.
The third storyteller’s tale was eight minutes in length, while the two live performances were each about one hour long. Therefore, while it is impossible to compare the third storyteller in terms of the depth of story allowed in such a comparatively short time, I did intentionally seek out a much shorter piece so that I might gain an appreciation of the differences inherent in the short form. The other key difference I identified between the first two and the third performances is that the latter was videotaped without an audience present, which for obvious reasons, also presented a much different dynamic.
Both Howard’s and Scare’s performances were the relation of their own personal stories from particular eras in their lives. While their approaches and styles were completely different, they were both able to convey to the audience those aspects of their lives that helped to shape them into the men they have become. Howard told his coming-of-age story in a trilogy format. It began with his seventh-grade year – ranging from the bullying he endured to the lasting and seminal friendships he formed – and it culminated with his moving west at age 22. Through his folksy and comical telling he guided the audience through his adolescence, reminding us of the often painful trials of that age, as well as the ability to later in life look back on those experiences with humor and wisdom gained.
Howard began his storytelling by coming onto the stage and playing the harmonica. I felt this was a great way to capture the attention of the audience, as well as providing for a creative segue into his story. Howard also used his harmonica to transition between the first and second parts of the trilogy, but then used a series of raunchy limericks put to tune, that his family had told in attempts to one-up each other, to connect the second and third acts.
Howard’s story had a consistently conversational style about it, and he was skilled at taking his audience with him as he travelled from his New York Jewish-suburban upbringing to his early adulthood in Oregon. Howard brought his characters to life as he revisited those times; skillfully deploying the accents of, among others, the Eastern European grandmothers of his boyhood friends, the inner-city African Americans he encountered in Cleveland, and the laid-back hippy Oregonians of the 1970s he befriended at the end of his tale. Interestingly enough, Howard used one sole prop in his story, at the tail end, which I felt did nothing to enrich his story, and I wondered why he felt the need to utilize this.
Sacre's performance, while also a story from his personal life, was profoundly different from Howard's. Sacre's story was basically his recounting of his great love and the devastating demise of that relationship. His story was intertwined throughout with myth and poetry in a most powerful way, and while the audience laughed through much of his telling, there was a heavy bittersweet tone underscoring his story. Sacre did not involve the audience in his performance, nor did he utilize props, but he did engage his audience in a singularly reflective way, as he asked us at the very beginning of his tale to ponder the question: If we were given the chance to have one great love in our lives, would we take the chance knowing that this love might end? Sacre ended his tale with the same question; but the second time he asked, the impact of the question was profoundly different as we viewed it through the lens of his story.
Sacre’s style also included a great knack for finding the tone of those whom he spoke about. As the bilingual son of a Boston Irish-American mother and a Cuban-immigrant father, and as someone who has worked with inner-city kids in L.A., Sacre has an ear for the language and speech patterns of a wide variety of peoples, and I really thought this made his story stronger, as we could "hear" the people he was talking about in their own voices. Sacre had a gift for relating his empathy of others, and he was adept and sharing the desires and fears of others as he told us about their lives, and how they intertwined with his own.
Baumgardner’s short story, in deep contrast, was a western “tall-tale,” and he told this humorous tale while in cowboy dress in front of his horse corral. He had the Texas drawl and swagger necessary to tell such a story convincingly, and he was adept at giving the audience the details necessary to make us want to continue on to hear the conclusion. His story had all of the great elements of a short story; including the theatrical build-up, the dramatic details, and the sudden “punch-line” of his ending. While listening to Baumgardner’s story I appreciated that it felt less rehearsed and polished than those of Howard and Sacre, and perhaps this was part of its appeal. Since I believe that this was meant to be a folksy tale, the type to be shared among friends, Baumgardner’s informal telling was a strength in my opinion.
As a final note, I should add that I had the opportunity to speak with Howard after his performance and I asked him how long he had taken to put his story together. He told me that he spent about six months each on the three individual parts of his trilogy (which he initially told separately), and about one month putting them all together. Interestingly, he said that he just added the harmonica-segue part two days prior to the performance that I attended. While I did not have the opportunity to speak with Sacre, I did learn in his introduction that this story was one he has been telling for many years. I also noted that he added a new element to the piece, as he read from his papers for about ten minutes during the latter part of his story. I emailed him afterwards to ask him about this and he said that this is a piece that has gone through many transformations over the years, and he confirmed that he had added something new during this telling. This brought home to me the importance of fluidity in the art of storytelling, and the ability for stories to change and grow along with their teller.
Sources:
Scott Baumgardner’s “Uncle Bill & ONO: A Western Tale”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bqRnkHUFoM
Scott Baumgardner’s personal website:
http://www.texaslegacies.com/
Lawrence Howard’s personal website:
http://www.lawrencehoward.name/
Antonio Sacre’s personal website:
http://www.antoniosacre.com/
Multnomah County Library’s “Storytelling Websites”: http://www.multcolib.org/events/tales/links.html
Portland Story Theater’s 2009 Solo Performance Festival:
http://portlandstorytheater.com/
Since I'm not brilliant enough to figure out how to provide a link to my Word document for this assignment, as we've been requested to do by Jenine (though if anyone can tell me how, I'd be grateful), here is my Assignment #2 in full (there's a lot of repition from my initial post below about the first two performances, but hopefuly it's more polished...I'm only sorry I had to leave so much detail out...I could've said so much more, but was already over the word limit):
-------------------------------------------------------
For this assignment I watched three professional storytellers tell their tales: the first two in a live setting, and the third on video. Lawrence Howard, performing “The Adventures of Huckleberry Howard,” and Antonio Sacre, performing “Burning Feathers,” both presented their stories at the Portland Story Theater’s 2009 Solo Performance Festival. The third storyteller, Scott Bumgardner, told “Uncle Bill & ONO: A Western Tale,” a performance found online as I followed links from the Multnomah County Library’s website of storytelling resources.
The third storyteller’s tale was eight minutes in length, while the two live performances were each about one hour long. Therefore, while it is impossible to compare the third storyteller in terms of the depth of story allowed in such a comparatively short time, I did intentionally seek out a much shorter piece so that I might gain an appreciation of the differences inherent in the short form. The other key difference I identified between the first two and the third performances is that the latter was videotaped without an audience present, which for obvious reasons, also presented a much different dynamic.
Both Howard’s and Scare’s performances were the relation of their own personal stories from particular eras in their lives. While their approaches and styles were completely different, they were both able to convey to the audience those aspects of their lives that helped to shape them into the men they have become. Howard told his coming-of-age story in a trilogy format. It began with his seventh-grade year – ranging from the bullying he endured to the lasting and seminal friendships he formed – and it culminated with his moving west at age 22. Through his folksy and comical telling he guided the audience through his adolescence, reminding us of the often painful trials of that age, as well as the ability to later in life look back on those experiences with humor and wisdom gained.
Howard began his storytelling by coming onto the stage and playing the harmonica. I felt this was a great way to capture the attention of the audience, as well as providing for a creative segue into his story. Howard also used his harmonica to transition between the first and second parts of the trilogy, but then used a series of raunchy limericks put to tune, that his family had told in attempts to one-up each other, to connect the second and third acts.
Howard’s story had a consistently conversational style about it, and he was skilled at taking his audience with him as he travelled from his New York Jewish-suburban upbringing to his early adulthood in Oregon. Howard brought his characters to life as he revisited those times; skillfully deploying the accents of, among others, the Eastern European grandmothers of his boyhood friends, the inner-city African Americans he encountered in Cleveland, and the laid-back hippy Oregonians of the 1970s he befriended at the end of his tale. Interestingly enough, Howard used one sole prop in his story, at the tail end, which I felt did nothing to enrich his story, and I wondered why he felt the need to utilize this.
Sacre's performance, while also a story from his personal life, was profoundly different from Howard's. Sacre's story was basically his recounting of his great love and the devastating demise of that relationship. His story was intertwined throughout with myth and poetry in a most powerful way, and while the audience laughed through much of his telling, there was a heavy bittersweet tone underscoring his story. Sacre did not involve the audience in his performance, nor did he utilize props, but he did engage his audience in a singularly reflective way, as he asked us at the very beginning of his tale to ponder the question: If we were given the chance to have one great love in our lives, would we take the chance knowing that this love might end? Sacre ended his tale with the same question; but the second time he asked, the impact of the question was profoundly different as we viewed it through the lens of his story.
Sacre’s style also included a great knack for finding the tone of those whom he spoke about. As the bilingual son of a Boston Irish-American mother and a Cuban-immigrant father, and as someone who has worked with inner-city kids in L.A., Sacre has an ear for the language and speech patterns of a wide variety of peoples, and I really thought this made his story stronger, as we could "hear" the people he was talking about in their own voices. Sacre had a gift for relating his empathy of others, and he was adept and sharing the desires and fears of others as he told us about their lives, and how they intertwined with his own.
Baumgardner’s short story, in deep contrast, was a western “tall-tale,” and he told this humorous tale while in cowboy dress in front of his horse corral. He had the Texas drawl and swagger necessary to tell such a story convincingly, and he was adept at giving the audience the details necessary to make us want to continue on to hear the conclusion. His story had all of the great elements of a short story; including the theatrical build-up, the dramatic details, and the sudden “punch-line” of his ending. While listening to Baumgardner’s story I appreciated that it felt less rehearsed and polished than those of Howard and Sacre, and perhaps this was part of its appeal. Since I believe that this was meant to be a folksy tale, the type to be shared among friends, Baumgardner’s informal telling was a strength in my opinion.
As a final note, I should add that I had the opportunity to speak with Howard after his performance and I asked him how long he had taken to put his story together. He told me that he spent about six months each on the three individual parts of his trilogy (which he initially told separately), and about one month putting them all together. Interestingly, he said that he just added the harmonica-segue part two days prior to the performance that I attended. While I did not have the opportunity to speak with Sacre, I did learn in his introduction that this story was one he has been telling for many years. I also noted that he added a new element to the piece, as he read from his papers for about ten minutes during the latter part of his story. I emailed him afterwards to ask him about this and he said that this is a piece that has gone through many transformations over the years, and he confirmed that he had added something new during this telling. This brought home to me the importance of fluidity in the art of storytelling, and the ability for stories to change and grow along with their teller.
Sources:
Scott Baumgardner’s “Uncle Bill & ONO: A Western Tale”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bqRnkHUFoM
Scott Baumgardner’s personal website:
http://www.texaslegacies.com/
Lawrence Howard’s personal website:
http://www.lawrencehoward.name/
Antonio Sacre’s personal website:
http://www.antoniosacre.com/
Multnomah County Library’s “Storytelling Websites”: http://www.multcolib.org/events/tales/links.html
Portland Story Theater’s 2009 Solo Performance Festival:
http://portlandstorytheater.com/
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