Using her storytelling skills to touch others, Vanessa Potter (right) conducts a class for adults who want to become better storytellers. Juan Carlos is a student in her class. Potter will offer Storytelling in Texas this weekend at the Fredericksburg Theater Company. Photo by Phil Houseal
Details:
Fredericksburg Theater Company will present two performances of Storytelling in Texas on Saturday, November 28 - a 2pm performance ($15 for adults and $8 for kids under 13) and a 7:30pm performance ($20 for adults and $8 for kids under 13). Guest Storytellers are Tim Tingle, Mary Grace Ketner and Donna Ingham.
For tickets and information:
Online: www.fredericksburgtheater.org
Box Office: 306 E. Austin Street
Phone: 830-997-3588
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Telling tales
by Phil Houseal
Nov 25, 2009
A man who lived a long time ago believed he could read the future in the stars.
Everyone thinks they can tell a story. But it takes a special talent and drive to be a “storyteller.”
Vanessa Potter did not realize she was a storyteller until she started working on an assignment in seminary school.
“Our professor asked everyone to tell an Old Testament story,” she said. After she finished her tale, the professor stood up and applauded. “He said, ‘You are a storyteller - you ought to be a professional.”
Inspired, Potter started taking workshops, honing her techniques and learning more about the history of the art form.
One evening he was walking along the road. His eyes were fixed on the stars.
As long as man has been able to vocalize, he has told stories. It was the first way to convey events, preserve culture, as well as to educate and entertain. These days, storytelling is more popular for its entertainment value.
“My style is for performances as well as education,” said Potter, whose dream is to have her own theater where she can do concerts and teach year round. “I want people to get excited about storytelling again.”
He thought he saw there that the end of the world was at hand, when all at once, down he went into a hole full of mud and water.
The ordained minister and Christian educator believes in the benefits of storytelling that go beyond just being entertained.
“Storytelling raises consciousness,” she explained. “When people hear stories, it is a right brain action. It can impact lives in the way that listeners become changed; they then go out and change other lives. It is transformational.”
Potter also teaches the art of storytelling. A lot of that class covers the nuts and bolts of better ways to prepare for and perform your stories. KERV radio talent Juan Carlos was one of her students.
“I like to consider myself a populist storyteller,” the deep-voiced DJ said. “I try to appeal to the feelings and emotion of people, telling stories in song, life, and love. Vanessa gave me tips on how to relate to people even more in person. There are things you can do to make it a better story. She gave us fabulous information to embellish and bring it more to life, to make it more vivid so people will respond to it.”
There he stood in the muddy water, madly clawing at the slippery sides of the hole in his effort to climb out.
Those techniques not only make the story more interesting, they enable the storyteller to touch the audience.
“For so long we learned through stories,” Potter said. “But stories reach deeper into the soul of the world. We can tell many styles - traditional, personal, Native American or other ethnicity. Sometimes we mix in music. But always, basically, it is one person performing stories.”
Potter will present a storytelling “concert” at the Fredericksburg Theater Company on November 28. “Storytelling in Texas” will feature three internationally recognized guest storytellers.
One day she hopes to offer such concerts five days a week year round. Potter knows she can capture some of the million visitors to Fredericksburg, tailoring her stories to the audience or event, for example telling traditional tales for a German festival.
“Storytelling creates communities, builds relationships, heals, restores, and redeems,” she said. “I want to do that.”
His cries for help brought the villagers running. As they pulled him out, one of them said, “You pretend to read the future in the stars, and yet you fail to see what is at your feet! What use is it to read the stars, when you can’t see what’s right here on the earth?”