Two things you don’t want in your audience are yawns and wiggles! Flexibility is an important skill to in storytelling...no, I’m not talking about turning your body into a pretzel, but watching your audience and changing your program to fit your audience, so you don’t lose them.Coming from a theater background, I had to tear down that fourth wall and learn to watch the audience that’s watching me. It’s a good way to gage how your story is being received. When they wiggle, I add some action, when they yawn, I add some noise and pick up the pace. If they are all asleep I just say, "and they lived happily ever after, the end." I don’t really say that, but I may slide Jack back down the beanstalk and get to the end of the tale if the audience looks weary.
Aside from watching your audience, planning your program to fit your audience is key. In choosing my program I usually consider the type of stories to tell, meaning listening or participatory stories. When I work with children in grades K-3, each story I choose is under ten minutes and I usually alternate a listening story with a participation story. When choosing listening stories, carefully consider whether the content and characters will be interesting to your audience.
Audience participation is also great for K-3. To keep them engaged I have them clap, make sound effects, do motions, add songs or you can ask questions throughout the story to your audience asking them to relate by a show of hands. When watching the audience, I sometimes change the way I tell a story midstream to make it work. For example, I saw that I was loosing some first graders during The Emperor’s New Clothes, so I had them imitate the English accent I was using, simply by repeating phrases and instead of singing the songs solo, I sang the songs twice, once alone and once with the children, so they could join in the song. I know this was a hit because as I left the classroom the kids were still humming and singing the song.
Believe it or not flexibility can be planned. I always bring a list of filler activities and stories. I noticed early on in my career no event goes exactly as you hoped, but things will go smoother, if you have activities to fall back on. There is nothing worse than that dead air and the blank look of a teller scrambling in his head through his list of material. If you have a list in front of you ready to go, you will not only keep your audience entertained, but the people who hired will exclaim, "You were wonderful! Can I give you an extra $1000?" Okay, so maybe that last part is a stretch, but hey, anything’s possible. Jack did get the golden goose, right?
Your newfound flexibility in storytelling will allow you to watch your audience, adapt your program as you go to change your stories to fit your audience. Having that back-up list of stories and activities will also be that little extra insurance against yawns and wiggles. Schools and libraries may not pay in golden geese, but these tips may help you present yourself as the polished teller that gets hired again and again. Good luck and happy tales to you!
