Today, I thought I’d let you in on my most recent project:

As some of you may know, one of my classes is formed around examining the Jewish Scriptures, also the Old Testament in the Christian Bible, as folklore; we have been exploring the book as a collection of stories.  This has been an exciting process for me and has opened my mind/ears to the wonder and beauty in these ancient stories.

As part of this, I have been reintroduced to the story of Moses, the Exodus from Egypt, and the parting of the Red Sea.  This story is incredible; as I’ve been exploring it, I am discovering a thousand twists and turns in the plot and character motivations that I had never been aware of before.  I’m excited to share this story (hopefully one day soon) with you and present a new look at the ancient epic of Moses.

Until next time, may all the best stories tumble your way.

Lethan

Tonight, I was hit with a revelation.  It’s a revelation that’s been creeping toward me for the last two days, but it finally sunk in tonight.  I realized how spiritual storytelling is for me; the almost religious experience I have when I am in the middle of a story.

It began to sink in yesterday: I performed at the University School (where I work as a graduate assistant), and I feel it was the best performance I’ve done since the semester began.  The performance was for the 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grade as part of a career day, so I was able to dust off some stories I’ve told countless times, but are some of my favorite to share.  I was expecting a fun performance, but I had no idea just how fun it would be!

Together we traveled on several grand adventures; I felt a complete unity with every person there.  The teachers and the students were all great listeners and they added to each of the stories at just the right moments, often unexpectedly.  We were all working together to create brand new stories that’s been told since near the dawn of humanity.

I left that performance basking in the beauty of storytelling, and have held onto that all through yester eve and today, and tonight I was working on an imitation of a piece by Lord Buckley that I intend to learn when the revelation hit.  The piece is titled “The Hip Ghan,” and it is about Mahatma Gandhi.  The piece concludes with a bebop scat session that Gandhi dives into, and in this moment, as a performer, I like to close my eyes and simply let the rhythms of the sounds wash over the story.

While doing this, a thought I’ve often heard attributed to Lord Buckley (and some other places as well) popped into my mind: “The theater is the modern-day church.,” and I realized that storytelling is much the same.  When stories are shared, everyone joins together for that time in a community, working together to create beauty.  Both joys and sorrows are shared in stories, but always, when those present are open the event, we become a community and support one another in the creating a story, and that is beauty.

I recognize that the words above don’t quite explain the sense I got this evening while rehearsing, experience is ineffable (cannot be described), but I’m going to continue to explore this thought, and work to – not understand – but, articulate why I feel a new spirituality with storytelling and what struck me this evening.  As for now, I don’t know, but I do like it.

A bit of news I found exciting, I finally choose a name for my new car:

Poseidon

Hello friends,

It’s been a while – lots of exciting events happening down here in Tennessee: summer tours being planned, new stories being put together, a time of self discovery, trying to keep up with my homework… But there’s one exciting moment in particular that I’d like to relate.

As you may know, I’ve been affording school by being a Graduate Assistant.  I was also fortunate to be hired as assistant for the University School – a K-12 school run on campus that university students are often active with.  As an assistant for this school, I have been working to teach Tennessee history to the 3^rd and 4^th grade through storytelling and to help the students put together their own stories about Tennessee history.  It has been a wonderful experience, but it is hard at times.

Today, it was beginning to get difficult working with the group I was focused on today – one child was upset because we had to trim the story he wrote, involving Tennessee history, so that it could be performed.  The upset child began to throw a temper tantrum and refused to listen as I tried to explain that we weren’t destroying his story, but trying to work to make the best project possible for the entire group.  This child refused to listen, and, becoming unsure of the situation, I was preparing to approach the teacher and ask her to intervene when one of the other children, a child who typically seemed to have trouble focusing, stepped in and explained to the upset child how they would work with his story – and it calmed the upset child down.  After nearly half-an-hour of trying to calm this child and get him to work with the group, the second child saved the day with remarkable wisdom, peace, and efficiency.

I can’t give the names of the children, for protection of privacy, but I ask you all to hold both children in your thoughts.  The upset child so that we can hope that he will find ways to work with other people; and the negotiator child so that we can remember to praise children when they show a maturity that too often eludes adults: a maturity to recognize that the peaceful way is best and that, by listening and talking, we can work out difficult arguments.

May your day bring similar joyful surprises.

Best,
Lethan

Hello friends,

I’m writing today to announce an exciting new beginning.  At the University Elementary School at ETSU, my friend and fellow storyteller Marjorie began our workshops about presenting Tennessee History through Storytelling to the 3rd and 4th grade classes today.  We each told one story, and presented one tandem tale successfully.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this project progresses.  We have two more days of storytelling and then will lead the students in creating their own stories about early Tennessee history.  This is the first stage in a project that will take at least two years and is hoping to validate the importance and benefit of storytelling in the classroom setting.  While some of the constraints we are forced to work with are difficult (these must be short stories PACKED with information), I am learning a lot about working within these constraints as well as the history of my current state of residence.  I’ll continue to keep you informed of the progress of this project/study as we continue with it, but today is a day of celebration for a good beginning.

All the Best,
Lethan

Patriots what?  Tom Brady who? Booyah!

Today was a snow day!  Now that I’m down south, a little snow goes a long way, and all my classes were canceled.  This allowed me to work on several side projects today, including a new piece I am particularly excited about: Woe is Me (working title).

This piece is heavily influenced by his lordship, Lord Buckley, and I believe it is my funniest work to date.  To give a brief summary of this piece, Woe is Me is a tall-tale (of sorts) that looks at a helpless romantics emotional journey after he is dumped.  I’m excited to share this piece because of both the sudden tone changes throughout the piece (moving from romantic to satirical in one sentence) and because this is my first work with the tall-tale story structure.  I’m also curious to see whether other people will find it as funny as I do.  We shall see…

I intend to premiere this piece at the Acoustic Coffee House, Johnson City, TN at the next ETSU Tale Tellers performance (Next Tuesday), but if not at this near date, expect the piece at the same event occurring next month (I believe it will be February 26th at 8pm).  Well, I’m done sharing my excitement with you.  I look forward to being able to share this piece with you and I hope you are all having equally exciting times.

Best,
Lethan

So, here we go.  My first day where I actually have classes!  I’ve been back in Tennessee for a week, and already my schedule is starting to fill up with projects, and already I’m excited by them all, but now I get to begin the actual school work - the reason why I’m here.

I begin this morning with a class on story dramatization, we will be looking at stories from the Old Testament in the Christian Bible.  Perhaps we might slip in a little Lord Buckley’s ‘Jonah and the Whale’, and a whole lot more.  I’m excited to be approaching the Bible as a story source, not focusing solely on the religious content.

Well, now I must move on to continue getting ready for class.

Talk to you soon,
Lethan

Hello friends,

It’s the first day of classes today!  I don’t think I have any today, but the official start of the semester is today.  I’m excited.  I’ll be sure to keep you informed of the events that come about - as of now I can already see that it’s going to be a hard, but fun semester.  Booyah Fantastico!

Hello friends,

The official holiday season has come to an end, but it’s always fun to view every day as a holiday, so happy… we’ll call it Warf-Pickelopoligal day. Sorry, no extended break for this holiday, it’s not popular enough….YET!

As for myself, I’m excited to be back in Tennessee and continuing with my scholastics, not to say I didn’t enjoy the break: it was a wonderful holiday season for me: I got to see some of you at my performances, made some new friends, saw lots of old friends (including one who is currently staring in a Broadway play – bravo Jimmy Simpson), and had the privilege of traveling to Boston with a new friend in the international storytelling community. Speaking of Boston, while there I had the pleasure of watching the Blue Man Group perform…and it was one of, if not the, most nonsensical thing I have ever seen. I highly recommend it to everyone! They have permanent troupes in several cities (Boston, New York, Las Vegas), a touring company, and if you can’t make it to any of those performances, look them up on YouTube. I don’t want to give too much away, but the performance involved taking an audience member, covering him with paint, and throwing him against a canvas – hey, it’s art. Words cannot do this justice. It is Extreme Nonsense, much like Extreme Sports, except more EXTREME!

But that has moved on. Thank you to all my friends and family that helped to make the break an enjoyable time.

And now, as mentioned before, I’m in Tennessee again. And already I’m getting settled into my new groove. While I learned a lot last semester, and I did well in all my classes, I’m looking to dive into storytelling even more this semester. I’m placing myself on a new schedule that will be intense, but, assuming I hold to it (which I will!) I believe I will be able to explore storytelling in a variety of new ways and get even more from all I am already learning. I’m excited to see what the new semester brings.

I’m also in the process of arranging a Pennsylvania tour for this summer. I’m excited, because all the bits are beginning to fall together, and it looks like I will be performing in Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas) for about a week and a half and then I will be tumbling back to the Eastern side of the state for some spots around Bloomsburg, Lewisburg, and Kutztown. I will be performing a new set of stories specially collected for the Summer Reading Program: Catch a Bug at the Library. My program is titled: Bugs and Bugs and Bugs! Talk to your local library about bringing Traveling Tales to them this June. Events are still being arranged, so be in touch soon and we’ll get you on the schedule.

That’s my bits of information for now. As part of my schedule, I’m trying to make sure I get a post in nearly every day, so keep in touch and find out what adventures are happening with Traveling Tales. All the best and I hope to see you soon in my travels.

Best,

Lethan Candlish