Tales with a Bit ‘o Irish
| March 8, 2010 |
At: HW Mountz School, NJ
Time: Throughout the school day
Lethan will be presenting some tales from Ireland along with some of his favorite stories as he makes his first trip to HW Mountz School.
Archive for January, 2010
Who Am I, Again?
| May 3, 2010 | ||
| 8:30 am | to | 9:30 am |
At: 22nd Annual Wisconsin Conference on Brain Injury, Wilderness-Glacier Canyon Lodge, Wisconsin Dells, WI
Lethan will be the speaker at the morning sessions for the conference. He will present his storytelling Who Am I, Again?, a story about the experience of Traumatic Brain Injury from multiple perspectives.
Who Am I, Again?
| May 29, 2010 | ||
| 8:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
At: Jonesborough Repertory Theatre, Jonesborough, TN
Lethan will be performing the latest version of his storytelling, Who Am I, Again? This is a piece that looks at the story of Traumatic Brain Injury from multiple perspectives, using Lethan’s personal experience with brain injury as a structure for the piece. This piece was first performed at the International Storytelling Center on April 25th, 2009.
My current artistic status
I’m writing today to begin getting myself in the habit of writing in this blog, so we’ll start today by giving an update of where my artistic status.
Having finished my work towards a master’s degree at East Tennessee State University, I’m now looking to make a positive mark upon the performance world as a storyteller. I’m currently trying to do this in four manners.
1) Family performances at schools and libraries. While working as a graduate assistant at ETSU’s University school, I gained a lot of experience in this sort of work. With these performances, I work with traditional folk tales and present them in a manner that is easily understandable by contemporary audiences. Adaptations of Appalachian Jack Tales and the Grimm Fairytales have been some of my favorites to work with, though I have had great success with other tales from cultures around the world as well. Some of my favorite multicultural tales include the Anansi stories from West Africa, Native American folklore,and some of the adventures of Till Eulenspiegel.
2) Historical Storytelling. History is filled with exciting stories. Unfortunately, often times the excitement of these stories is lost by the dull, dry nature of many scholastic text books. While working at the University School (above), I had the pleasure of helping students find and tell the stories they are supposed to learn as part of their history curriculum, and we had FUN doing this. I intend to continue to pursue this avenue of both performance and workshops throughout my career. It’s fun and educational for both the students and me.
3) Work with Traumatic Brain Injury. In 1999 I was in an automobile accident and received severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Fortunately, I had an recovery process that surpassed medical expectations, and since that incident, I received a bachelor’s degree with honors and a master’s degree. As part of my work toward a master’s degree, I was revisited the story of my accident, as well as looked at what is the story of TBI. What emerged from this exploration is the storytelling piece Who Am I, Again? This is a verbal collage of stories about the experience of TBI from the perspective of survivors and care givers. As a storyteller, I hope to use this piece as a way to raise awareness about TBI and to provide hope for fellow survivors. I’m also beginning to explore the possibility of finding ways to collect more stories from TBI survivors as a way to help share information and experiences with a disability that is more common that many people recognize. I have a few opportunities to share this story coming up, but more on that in future posts.
4) Psychedelic Humorist: This is a side project I’m exploring as a way to introduce myself to the stand-up comedy scene. My former storytelling professor suggested the title, and I believe it appropriately describes the work that I do. This material is a series of humorous pieces, heavily influenced by the late Lord Richard Buckley that satirizes different parts of the human experience. The pieces are composed in a rhythmic manner intended not only to for a humorous effect, but also a musical experience. The term humorist is used because, while the pieces are intended to bring about laughter, I don’t aim for the laugh line every ten seconds. Instead, these pieces are intended to touch a deeper, extended form of humor, allowing the audience to become enveloped by the humor as it sinks into their soul. The conscious attempt to pursue this style of performance was inspired just about week ago when I was out with several friends and I was recognized and praised by five different groups for my humorous performances, often performed on the street whenever I can grab an unsuspecting audience. That night inspired me to begin looking at this work in a slightly more formal manner.
All these styles of performance are shows that I love to do. Ideally, I will be able to pursue all these venues of performance, but what will be will be. And for now, I can and will continue to develop all these performance styles, and try to put my material out there the best that I can.
I will also try to post on my blog with more regularity, so you can all stay informed as to the path of this work. It’s gonna be a wild trip, so hold on.
