Walking in a Graveyard

The phrase "somebody just walked over my grave" is a superstition about when a person gets a creepy chill.  Various sites give a dry explanation but U.K site, The Phrase Finder, gives a slightly fuller look at its medieval legendary origin, an American variant I'd forgotten, and a scientific explanation.  (It's an interesting site to prowl for sayings you may wonder about their origin.)

If you are in my area, please join me for yet another cemetery walk.  That's why I'm sending this out as yet a second early message.  A storyteller's life is filled with a calendar dotted with individual programs -- or at least it was before the schedule canceling caused by Covid.  Things have become end-of-warm-weather hectic as we stand on the brink of another winter once again unpredictable as to how storytelling, theatre, schools, libraries, museums and so much more will be affected.

I love doing what I call "running my mouth for fun and profit!"  Storytelling is my main focus with added bits of time substituting at a nearby library because I didn't want to lose my skills at another profession I love.  Covid has moved storytelling into the virtual world and caused me to look at what I do and why I do it.

Earlier this week I mentioned my undergraduate degree in Theatre Arts.  Theatre for me is addictive.  For many years my library schedule prevented returning to it.  The first time I was able once again to return, I found it sucking me back into its world.  Nowadays that means Community Theatre as most professional commitments would require more than my storytelling time permits.  Even that is limited to involvement within a half hour of my home.  At one point Michigan began offering more film work.  I confess to considering it, but never "got around to it."  Why?  My reluctance to convert my storytelling to a virtual platform revealed the reason.  

For several years at my first library job I had a weekly radio and later cable television program.  My theatre training permits my imagining an audience when performing alone, so why don't I seek virtual opportunities?  When a venue wants me to come and be filmed for presentation virtually, I will do it, BUT find even the smallest of audiences makes the process so much more rewarding.  Why?  Why do I do what I do?  Examining those questions revealed a need for audience response.  Even the less direct  (and slightly less satisfactory) involvement of directing a show still can give audience response.  Similarly doing online reference work lacks the public response a librarian receives over the desk or, at least, on the phone.  I require public contact and response in my work.  Movies, for example, lack that.  They give, at best, a delayed response.  

This blog is called "Storytelling + Research = LoiS", but I would hate to lose all interaction with an audience.  It's why I've never really followed through on switching to writing as a profession.  So if you're able to catch my storytelling, it probably will be a live performance.  Yes, I have some recorded programs, but, like snowflakes, each live performance is different.  The audience interaction in them makes a difference in how I present it.  When done just before a videographer it will differ somewhat from what I offer to an actual audience.  

A perfect example of that occurs this month in "spooky" programs offered to families possibly bringing preschoolers up through older children and still another to disabled adults touched by Covid deaths.  I must judge each group avoiding inappropriate material and present what is most likely to be what that audience can enjoy.  Former president Bill Clinton made famous the phrase "It's the economy, stupid" to explain what he saw as the critical deciding factor in elections.  For my storytelling it's the audience which is critical.  It would be stupid for me to eliminate their response in my work.  

That's the end of my self-examination and next week I will return to a story fitting this month's spooky nature.

Death of a Dowager and the Legend of the Ghost Light

 This article appears early for a special partially time-sensitive reason.

Lakeland Players brings back live theater in the spacious community hall at Central United Methodist Church in Waterford.  There's plenty of room for distance seating, especially if you fall off your seat laughing at this spoof of British mysteries.

Because a room this big is in demand, there will be only four performances: October 8, 9, and 15 at 7 p.m. plus one matinee on Saturday, October 9 at 2 p.m.

Yes, I'm among this crazy cast playing a Cockney housekeeper who claims "I can only say what I see!", but her husband, the butler, keeps cautioning her to not say quite so much.  

Did the butler do it?  

Come see and laugh along at this murderous ensemble who want "Mummy", the old dowager, dead.  

As the playbill proclaims: Only 2 Rude Words per Thousand!

Also since this is October and I try to include something spooky each week, it's the perfect time to talk about the Legend of the Ghost Light.  Not having their own playhouse, Lakeland and certainly CUMC are unable to honor this superstition.  One of my favorite articles on it appears back in 2013 (how appropriate) on the blog of local Birmingham Village Players.  Unfortunately I was unable to reach anyone there to grant permission to reprint it here.  I've been there to see their "Playwrights @ Work" in the past because my friend, Jacqueline Salter, is active in it and is also a member of the same nearby community theatre groups where I am active.  Jackie did a series for Clarkston Village Players on theatre traditions and superstitions, including the Ghost Light.  She has graciously given permission to post it here.  

Theater Traditions and Superstitions: The Ghost Light

This is one superstition that has proven itself helpful in the modern theater.  A ghost light is a single light bulb left lit on the stage when the theater is dark. When leaving for the night, a ghost light is brought downstage center and turned on. The reason for leaving the light is purely practical. It’s a safety thing. Light ensures the first person back into the theater will not fall through a trapdoor, fall into an orchestra pit or just tumble off the edge of the stage. 

Superstitious thespians say that a ghost light will chase away mischievous  spirits.  Others say that it lights the way for ghosts that are around every theater.  The origin of this superstition might be that a "dark" theater is a theater without a play.  No play results in no work and no money.  Leaving a light means the theater is not really "dark", but awaiting the next production.  At any rate a ghost light supposedly helps ensure the theatrical spirits stay happy and contented.  A good thing, because who needs an irate spirit or two lurking in the wings.

Thank you, Jackie, and we have had "dark" theatres for too long.  There is certainly a likelihood that any theatre still contains ghosts from all the intense effort expended there.  I have one other link which gives a few additional ideas.  Theatrecrafts.com in its Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms opened the topic up for comments.  The first comment by Stephen Litterst, gives an urban legend with a humorous look at how it might have proven useful.  Bringing it back to Metropolitan Detroit, it is certainly a union center, so the fourth and fifth comments spin an Actor's Equity possibility on yet another practical reason.

However you want to think about it, you may notice the various spellings of "theater" and "theatre" here.  When I worked for another employer they required the Americanized "theater", but there was one place where I could always spell it by my preferred "theatre" -- my undergraduate degree was in Theatre Arts.  Those roots run deeply and inform my storytelling.  

Maybe that's why I've been in demand for two local cemetery walks.  This year and last year's earlier walks at Oak Hill Cemetery have appeared here.  This Sunday, since The Death of a Dowager goes dark before one final Friday performance of Dowager, there's yet another cemetery walk here in Clarkston.  In this busy time, I'll post that information here later this week.

Transitions

E-books may be an alternative, but I'm delighted Michigan's libraries now are in the stage where curbside service has opened up.  Next I look forward to inter-library deliveries!

https://nemoshirt.com/product/thank-goodness-book-finally-arrived-almost-started-cleaning-house-shirt/

Added to that, this longtime librarian/storyteller agrees with author Neil Gaiman saying "Google can bring you 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you back the right one."

I still substitute in libraries.  I wasn't ready to abandon my skills even though my freelance focus is on storytelling.  The main problem with storytelling right now is I must either do it virtually or in large areas where the audience is spread out, wearing masks.  To continue as a storyteller, I have begun offering virtual storytelling programs.  Back on March 4th, as I was about to be in the opening of the musical, Grease, things already were starting to shut down.  The difference was it came without an official Executive Order.  I stand by what I said then:

I strongly believe there's a HUGE difference in the impact of LIVE performance and recorded shows or storytelling.  It's because of this I'm taking seriously some of the ways Coronavirus is starting to impact our travel and gatherings in theatres, schools, churches, athletic events, and more.  I really don't want to indulge in scaring people, but even the Olympics may be affected.  Digital conferencing is taking the place of meetings and conferences.  The stockmarket, always reacting to any potential impact on business, has magically transformed Bulls into Bears. 

The Olympics and much more were indeed affected.  Digital conferences are now so numerous they compete with each other.  Prophetically I said, "minimal exposure  may affect the live and in-person aspects of storytelling and theatre.  A videoconference or YouTube performance does not equal live productions."

"Social Distancing" really should have been called "Physical Distancing", yet it's true the social distancing of the current pandemic affects programs.   Everybody loses when audiences are distant in so many ways.  I sincerely hope this "new normal" eventually becomes the "temporary normal."

UPDATE:  This video from Guthrie Theater's director says it all and it encompasses storytelling, too.  

Aesop - The Actor and the Pig (Jacobs - The Buffoon and the Countryman) - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Here's a bit of a visual update:

Note the foot under that blanket...Mrs.Kirby doesn't!

and then

As mentioned last week the theatre has had my attention this week performing in the delightful comedy, You Can't Take It With You, with Pontiac Theatre IV.  (I have greatly enjoyed being the drunken actress, Gay Wellington, and made Mock Rumballs for the AfterGlow for our opening night.)  Because of that I went hunting for a theatre-related story and found it right away as an Aesop fable.

Aesop has been retold by many people over the centuries and people often think fables are always about animals.  There's an animal in this story, but the people take the center stage.  Those re-tellings use different names for the Actor: Buffoon, Mimic, Clown, Mountebank, but clearly it's an entertainer taking the stage.  (As Gay Wellington likes to claim, "I've played everything!")  Similarly the challenger in this story is sometimes a Countryman or a Peasant, but through it all the Pig remains a Pig.

Then comes the question of stating the moral or not.  Most of the time, as a storyteller, I prefer to let the audience draw its own conclusions.  In this case while looking at various versions, I saw some strange ways of putting it BUT really liked the way Joseph Jacobs put it in his compact book of The Fables of Aesop.  While some of the versions do a good job of setting up the location of the story, he keeps it simple.  Similarly his version kept to the basics.

My only change to the book's presentation is saving the illustration by Richard Heighway until the end. (It precedes the story in the book.) That link is to an article on The Victorian Web by Simon Cooke which points out Heighway "was one of the lesser known illustrators of the nineteenth century."  While only three books are verified as being his work, even the binding designed by Heighway is described as "a small masterpiece."  I love the little book and, while this particular story omits the decorative title head and tailpiece used for many of the stories, I agree with Doctor Cooke's statement that it is "a faithful treatment of the original text, preserving and extending the sense of fun as the moral lessons are contemplated."

So however you choose to tell the many fables of Aesop, it will be your way and that's "the real thing."
***********************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

The Coming Week!

Be sure to look all the way to the end of this post for a video I hope doesn't match me by week's end.  I can't believe all that is happening next week!  For one thing I'm in a great musical version of the movie, Sister Act.  (I start out in one scene as a Hooker under arrest.  The rest of show I'm a nun -- just can't kick the habit of an annual musical!  This show is a lot of fun and the cast and all involved have been Outstanding!  Hope to see you there -- I'll be wearing my glasses.)

(By the way if you buy tickets, please "take my name in vain."  I don't give people a big sales job, so I never expect to be the top ticket seller, but I know this show is blessed whether the pope shows up at the end or not!)

O.k. that's one thing with the coming week of final rehearsals earning it the name of "Hell Week" among theatre friends.  Although one cast member, who also is a fine director -- had her a few years back in Aye Do! -- directs many youth theatre productions calling it "Heck Week"!!! WHATEVER!

Monday February 12 is Lincoln's Birthday, celebrated as a holiday in some states, while the whole U.S. tends to lump it together on this coming February 19 as Presidents Day to give an annual three day holiday on the third Monday in February to include our first president, Washington, born February 22, and Lincoln, and beyond.  I'll celebrate the twelfth doing one of my current six school residencies, but then on to rehearsal that night for He** Week.

Tuesday is known as either Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday with Detroit metro area tending to turn Polish for a day buying up Pączki that Wikipedia link will tell you more, but I find it's pronunciation around here is Poonch-key with a "punch" to it just like I find this deep-fried jelly-filled seems to give me a punch to the stomach.  In New Orleans it's Mardi Gras time.  The idea is a last minute blow-out before Lent begins and that quick Mardi Gras link gives an international view of the day

Wednesday is both Valentines Day, which I've covered before in talking about Queen Victoria, and  Ash Wednesday.  While the religious aspect is certainly appropriate for me in Sister Act, I don't know if I'll be able to make it before any rehearsal since we must be at Central United Methodist Church -- that's the CUMC on the show flier -- by 5:30!  According to Wikipedia "Ash Wednesday is observed by many Western Christians, including Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics,^{[note 1]} and some Baptists.^[1]" Maybe they should have a service for our cast?  As for my own Valentine of a husband, I guess we'll take a day all our own.

I'm looking angelic in the front row, not counting our Deloris wondering what has she gotten into!

Thursday is that Lenten time I mentioned, but Friday is also the start of Chinese New Year!  A favorite mystery author, Anne R. Tan, the author of the Raina Sun mystery series, gives a view of the Chinese American life in her books and blog.  She says in her blog this week titled "Who Stole My Tangerines":

Most people associate red envelopes and dragons with Chinese New Year. The adults give their blessings to the children in the family in the form of a red envelope filled with money. You’re not traditionally considered “an adult” until you got married. I got red envelopes during Chinese New Year until I was 30.

In my childhood, a home isn’t ready for the holiday unless it’s filled with tangerines and small chocolate gold ingots. And not just any old tangerines, they must always have the stems attached to represent good fortune and abundance.

And after praying to the ancestors, my parents would stick a diamond shape red paper on the rice tub (the paper from last year would be discarded the night before). The tub holds 50 pounds of rice, so you can guess how big that red paper is. They would also stick diamond shape red paper on all the doors, and above every entryway, so we cannot walk through the house without our ancestor’s blessings. And last, the children get to play with firecrackers in the front yard to chase away all the bad luck from the previous year.

As I write this, I realized the only tradition my husband and I kept was the red envelopes. This is pretty sad…okay, I’m off to Amazon to see if I can get red paper and firecrackers delivered in the next day or two.

This will be the start of the Year of the Dog.  Hmmmmm.  Maybe next Friday I'll be able to post a story about a dog...or a president...or a Polish story...or Lent...but try not to be like this video of a little five year-old girl who reminds me so much of my own daughters.  I can't seem to get it to be easily clicked on here, so go to YouTube and, if that link doesn't take you there, put in When you're emotionally exhausted but the show must go on,  (It's there currently four times, but all have the same little girl.) 

It's worth seeing.  We've all been there, with or without HE** Week.  Next week I'll post a story as I presume I'll survive after I sub at White Lake Library on Saturday.  What a week!

Annual Foolishness? / Aye Do!

My current "Annual Foolishness" is the entertaining production with Pontiac Theatre IV of "Aye Do!" 

(I love that I even open the show with a bit of storytelling from India and dance.  This is before the actual play opens.)  Within the show I become a Scottish lassie feuding with her husband as one of many couples at the wedding reception for an Indian bride and Scottish groom.  The show also ends with a bit of Bollywood style dance, all of which drew me to this very new and funny play that has only been performed once before in the playwright's hometown of Three Rivers, Michigan.

Now what about that question of "Annual Foolishness"?  It originated with my storytelling friend in the Canadian Maritimes, Elinor Benjamin, who calls her annual message sent over the Christmas and New Year holidays her Annual Foolishness.  I've adopted (and adapted) it to describe my occasional returns to theatre, but am wondering if it might need changing to Semi-Annual Foolishness, since there's always the possibility of a fall show, or what if I have a way to slip in a bit more?  Would it become Now and Again Foolishness?

My background definitely includes theatre, although it had to be skipped while working a librarian's schedule.  Returning to theatre proves it's an addiction never cured.  Theatre skills also sharpen storytelling abilities skipped at the storyteller's peril.  No, storytelling is NOT memorization although the ability to memorize keeps your mind sharper and can be useful keeping track of a story's elements, including possible chants and names.  A perfect example can be found in the various jump rope rhymes in the lovely story, "Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep", by Eleanor Farjeon.  It's not a story I ever expect to tell for that very reason as precise memorization is critical to the story.  My appreciation for and training in improvisational theatre, plus a memory exercised mightily by learning lines in a play, makes me love the way storytelling is like a snowflake with each telling being a bit different.  Elsie can go to those showing off their memory.  I've seen too many examples, whether telling in poetry or otherwise, where storytellers who only memorize and are not up to extemporizing are caught unaware when their memories hit a speed bump in the telling.

Such theatre Foolishness, while useful to practicing storytellers, must be carefully scheduled to avoid storytelling schedule conflicts.  This is where the question of Annual, Semi, or Now and Again must be answered.  While I managed to meet last week's storytelling obligations, all my focus this week before the show opens has been on the show.  In theatre the week of a show's opening is known as "Hell Week" and while this show has gone wonderfully well, there have been final touches needing attention.  Even before this, I've seen where my focus has been on the show or split to the point of missing other things.  I thrive on variety and multitasking, but know storytelling remains where my focus belongs.  Rest assured it will return after this brief interruption.

Here's an interview I did earlier about the show on Facebook.  Oakland Press ran this article about the show.  (If you wonder where I am in this rehearsal photo, I'm the turquoise arm raised on the left -- love it!)  There's even a Facebook video of that rehearsal scene.  If you're in the southeastern Michigan area, I hope you come see the show.  I know you'll enjoy it.

P.S. By the second to the last paragraph I see Blogger finally accepts my spelling of "theatre", although I've worked in a place that didn't.  My undergraduate degree is in Theatre Arts and definitely is part of me and my work.