From my new school
Hello friends,
A host of exciting and challenging events have been tumbling my way recently, so I thought I would take a minute and fill you in on them:
1) Last weekend (August 17th – 19th) I spent some time with several other storytellers and we were all studying under the deservedly well-known storyteller Bill Harley. There were five storytelling students, including myself, at this workshop and we were all treated to a challenging while equally supportive experience. Bill worked with us as a group and individually, being sure to critically dissect our work while allowing our own creativity to flourish. And what creativity it was: each of us told stories in a different style and the fact that I was exposed to such a variety of styles allowed my mind to begin exploring some new thoughts about how I might want to tell. Most importantly, however, working with Bill has helped me to bring a weakness in my storytelling into focus. I am a performer, and while that has helped me in my initiation into storytelling, this workshop has helped me to see how my theatrical presentations may create some limits in my ability to connect with the audience (all of you) on a deeper, personal level. I’ve been toying with this in my mind at times over the past year, but my time at the workshop has better defined the difficulty while allowing me to start discovering ways to work with it, and so it has become my primary goal in the next half year of my studies in storytelling: to allow my stories to speak directly to the audience and not to lose myself in the narration.
But where will I work on this? How can I find a way to keep myself to this goal? Well that brings us to the next exciting piece of news, my new location:
2) I am now at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN about to officially begin work on my master’s degree in storytelling. You might call me a Tennessite now, or you might not, but here I am. I have just about finished my moving in/setting up process and, for the most part, have had a splendid time. I’m living in an on-campus apartment with a my new housemate, Raynor. I will admit to some fears about him before I met him: who was this southern boy I couldn’t seem to get in contact with? Would he treat me nice, or was I just another Yank (a northern boy) to him? But my fears were quickly calmed when I moved in Monday morning and he removed his groggy self from out of his bedroom to great me. It was then that I began to discover what a kind and interesting man he is. I was soon there after acquainted with his girlfriend Samantha (not Samantha Jean, though Raynor and I believe the ‘Jean’ would be a good addition to her name) and she was quick to inform me that she and Raynor were the coolest people. Ever. While I hesitate to pamper her ego to that extreme, as of yet I have found no reason to doubt her. They are both open-minded, fun, interesting souls I feel lucky to have stumbled upon. While I will not attempt to predict the future, I would not be surprised to find all of us remaining friends for years to come.
And that’s not the end of the excitement. I’ve begun contacting the storytelling program in which I will be studying, and am pleased to announce that it continues to look appealing. I’ve spoken with both Dr. Joseph Sobol and Dr. Delanna Reed, and already ideas have begun to bubble between us. I’ve also met another storytelling student: Margaret, and have a feeling working with her will open a host of new ideas in my mind and new possibilities of where I might perform.
I will admit that there has been some difficulty with my assistanceship (how I can afford to attend this program), but with perseverance and friendly words, I believe I have almost worked through the difficulties, but only time will tell. And I suppose I will tell as well, for now that I have internet access in my room, I intend to keep the blog on my site (www.travelingtales.net) much better updated (daily, or at least close to daily) about the most recent tales from my travels, so please check the site regularly and I look forward to keeping all of you informed about the world I am becoming more and more involved with.
That ramble is all for now. I look forward to telling all of you about the adventures on the road toward stories, and if any of you feel like sharing an adventure, please feel free to email me (lethan@travelingtales.net). For now, however, I must depart, maybe do some reading, or maybe just do some sleep. But until next time, may all the best stories tumble your way and may you always walk with a smile upon your face.
Best,
Lethan Candlish
www.travelingtales.net