Hello, fellow storytellers,
I’m looking forward to my keynote at Sharing the Fire and to heading out of isolation in New Hampshire to mingle. Just tell me there’s no snow in Rhode Island. I just snowblew another six inches on top of what must be fifteen storms’ worth up here. The end of my driveway looks like a closing heart valve.
Anyway, Healing the World One Story at a Time couldn’t be a better topic for a keynote, at least for me, since I’ve just published online a project years in the making, one that attempts to heal with a story. I guess you could say it works to heal the wounded empathy of young Americans. Big item, I know. Still, I think I have a good story for it with a workable approach and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. Plus I’ll play some Celtic harp and 12-string for your enjoyment during the keynote and try to fit our craft into the context of revolutions, from the ongoing digital one to those in the Middle East, as well as into the context of human evolution, highlighting the timeless touch of the spoken word.
See you there.
Odds
PS: check out my new YouTube video, just up, about the empathy project. A
quick 8 minutes.
Odds Bodkin
Storyteller, Author, Musician
Rivertree Productions, Inc.
PO Box 410
Bradford, NH 03221
(603) 938-5120
rivertree2@tds.net
Monday, February 28, 2011
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
So, step up to the plate, strap on your skis, saddle up your steed, take your mark, get set, and represent your state on the Tellerphone! Four minute stories in any genre (appropriate for all ages) are welcome! Vandy is signing tellers to record in November and December, but don't wait for the late-season craziness to hit; contact her now! areaarts@yahoo.com - she'll give you all the info you need. To hear this week's story, call 617-499-9662. Thanks for supporting LANES!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Profile: Diane Edgecomb in one act theater piece...
Dian Edgecomb's alternative theater piece Restraints is making a rare return visit to the Boston area. Restraints is a One-Acter, sharing the stage with a companion piece by the International theatre artists from Poland and India who helped me develop Restraints. They are holding a Boston area workshop Sept 24th-26th on this process.
Check out their companion BLOG on the tour complete with a Share Your Thoughts section-- Feel free to Share away!! http://livingmyth.wordpress.com
"RESTRAINTS, my solo work strongly influenced by the Grotowski Theater tradition, will have a four show run Sept 16th-19th (Thurs-Sat at 8; Sunday at 4) at Charlestown Working Theater, 442 Bunker Hill St, Charlestown, MA http://www.charlestownworkingtheater.org/ along with a companion piece: PASSAGES featuring Jola Cynkutis of Poland and Khalid Tyabji of India. Hope you can come to see this other side of my performance work.restraints_passages.cfm Further details are below but... PLEASE don't miss our TOUR BLOG now online at http://livingmyth.wordpress.com Bi-weekly updates on all the crazy things that can happen in rehearsal and on the road Plus: In -depth descriptions of the shows, The complete itinerary of our Boston- New York- Baltimore tour and a SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS section. Please do share your thoughts!! And if you have seen Restraints before or met Jola and Khalid at one of the workshops I have hosted in the past please leave us a note about that also."
This double-bill offers a rare opportunity to see three international theatre artists in a richly imaginative evening of theater. Jola Cynkutis of Poland, Khalid Tyabji of India and Diane Edgecomb of Boston will present two one-act pieces strongly influenced by Zbigniew Cynkutis, one of the principal members of Grotowski’s Teatr Laboratorium of Poland. The Teatr Laboratorium created a revolution in theatre by eschewing narrative text and scenic elements in favor of startling physical and vocal imagery rooted in the actor’s psyche. Through evocative images, movement, text and songs Restraints and Passages enchant and challenge audiences while exploring universal themes.RESTRAINTSConceived and performed by Diane EdgecombRestraints boldly explores the ultimate struggle between God and daemon; the dark night of the soul.“Restraints swings soundly into the next world. ...Edgecomb’s juxtapositions prove inspired; she’s aware that fairy tales, the gospels and great drama all come from the same tormented place." Boston GlobePASSAGES
A theatrical poem with Jola Cynkutis & Khalid Tyabji
Passages occupies a space that is everywhere and nowhere, a landscape of dream or of concrete foundation - a stage. It is an exploration of themes that connect us as pilgrims endowed with the gift of passage from birth to final departure. It takes place in both worlds: the earthly and the heavenly, the juxtapositions of life in death and death in life, waking and dreaming, love and lack of love.
"...Sensitive, humble, ardent, conscious, full of passion and distance... two people write themselves into the cosmos' and 'universe'"
- Gazeta Wyborcza, Poznan
Making the public personal -How Jay O'Callahan helps us understand "our" stories
A person might think that the 50 year history of NASA could be pretty dry but even so, likely to be of some interest to any of us who have dreamed of space travel. By making the public personal, Jay O'Callahan helps us understand how our personal stories are "written" in relation to the public stories that we all share. Here are some excerpts and video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FScYB1dDJg from By Kaitlin Keane's, Patriot Ledger story about the process.
"For O’Callahan, understanding the people behind NASA was the key to telling a story that celebrates their achievements.full story at Patriot Ledger
His subjects ranged from Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, to a nutritionist charged with planning astronauts’ meals.
The result is thousands of pages of handwritten notes and “Love Letter,” a story that follows two young scientists – an engineering student at Northeastern University and a doctoral candidate in astrophysics at MIT.
“My job, I think, is to make it personal,” said Callahan, who will perform the story at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., on Sept. 3.
“Love Letter,” which has a whimsical storyline, follows the characters’ personal and professional struggles and draws audiences into the inner workings of the space agency
“I make people care about the characters, and through them, NASA,” O’Callahan said.
Once his research had been completed, O’Callahan spent hours fine-tuning the characters and testing his story before audiences of friends and scientists."
| Jay O'Callahan |
| “Love Letters,” the story that O’Callahan wrote for NASA’s 50th anniversary, begins in Boston on Oct. 27, 2007. Kate DeCordova, an engineering student at Northeastern University, has recently broken off her engagement to Jack Carver, a doctoral candidate in astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The two are reunited when Jack needs Kate’s help making a presentation for NASA, where she worked as an intern. The ensuing story follows the history and future of NASA through the lives of the two students. |
| During his decades of storytelling, Marshfield resident Jay O’Callahan has been commissioned to do stories for many groups. The stories include: “The Myth of Billy the Kid,” for National Public Radio,“Peer Gynt and the Háry János Suite,” for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, “The Bread and Roses Strike,” for the Massachusetts State Department of Environmental Management,“Pouring the Sun,” for Lehigh University and Touchstone Theatre, “Father Joe,” for the College of the Holy Cross |
Monday, August 23, 2010
great post from Laura Packer at massmouth blog
Telling topics - scary stories
In the context of this blog post scary story means a story with some kind of supernatural or horrific element (haunted house, movie-style killer) rather than a story of real-life horror (bank foreclosure, natural disaster, real-life murder). These stories are meant to give your listeners a delightful chill, not a lingering dread.
Whenever I tell stories with kids and ask them what they'd like to hear, they always ask for a scary story. It seems to be what kids are most familiar with in a "storytelling" context, maybe from camp or from other media sources. Because these stories have such deep appeal for children I'd recommend that you have several in your repertoire that are appropriate for younger people. You can always tweak details to make them more appropriate for adults. Read more here :
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Why every story is important. The Final Story Slam of the Season April 20th
We want to say just how good all the stories at the grande finale were. Each teller contributed to putting storytelling as a performance art back on the cultural map of Boston. Each story represented a unique experience and view of the world. We all were a bit richer for hearing those stories and we want to thank the tellers. Each one of your stories was essential to the success of our project. In fact, all the stories in all the slams were essential to the success of our project.
- Norah Dooley and Andrea Lovett
Below we recognize the tellers, individually, in set order ( 3 groups of seven as on the program) but not necessarily order of performance: Jim Stahl's My Beautiful Handpainted Iris, was one of our personal favorites. Jim writes his stories and his precise and evocative language brought us into the brain of a 13 year old boy where we could see clearly through his "eyes" and then, later, his one eye. Laura Packer brought embarrassment to new heights with her Bad Date story that started out bad and then, only got worse. We went on that cringe-worthy ride home with her and could actually see her feral movements, flying lobster and red face. Amelia Kimball won the "it’s relative" slam with her wry take on communication between the Easterners (who knew?) and effusive Westerners. Her East and West added to our multicultural lore and her observations at a cross cultural wedding were New Englander succinct and very funny. We loved how Jackson Gillman expressed the theme "it’s my job" with his fun and crazy logic. He was so serious about Working the Room, and had such great pacing, that Rabb Hall was rocking with laughter. Bruce Marcus charmingly represented the foibles of parenthood connected to "it’s relative" with his story, Backwards Day. Although he learned his lessons about glib parenting the hard way he told his story with ease. Joan Cousins brought Ambush á La Carte to the "it’s relative" slam but won a place in the slam through the People’s Choice Contest. She was new to the move from "page to stage" and brought memorable insights including that someone would find homosexuality so...threatening ? that they would seek conversational relief in the mass murder of 6 million Jews. Diana Wiesner had roared "in like a lion" with her The Back Story and we would have Skyped her entry in from DC where she was at a work related conference but communications broke down.
In the next set of stories, Doug Lipman did a bang up job with his story of a brief folk music career and adventure gone outrageously wrong. He lived to tell the story because Singing at Gunpoint did not end with a bang. Michael Anderson never looked back and took 2nd place with an audience favorite from the theme "so embarrassing". Michael went to hell and home again bringing infidelity to a new low point with his The Myth of Orpheus. His masterful performance brought us into his private Hades. Joanne Piazzi came and conquered at the "love and lies" slam. Hers was an ebulliently told story. Dreams of romance never crumbled so sweetly as in her Random Acts of Confection. 3rd place winner Nicolette Heavey showed how fruitcake can be an essential ingredient in setting family limits. Her Fruitcake story won at "dining disasters” and while we always knew fruitcake was heavy, she made it funny too. Elsa Zuniga "it’s relative" revealed to us how her music lessons and minimal success at them brought her new appreciation of the power unconditional parental love and support. Her engaging style brought the Piano Story, home. At the "it’s relative" Ilene Fischer tossed her name into the hat and was immediately thrown on stage as the first storyteller. So she knows from chutzpah. And if you didn't know about what to eat when sitting shiva in Miami you did at the end of this story We could see each one of her eccentric relatives as they acted out a family drama told with wit and style in Shiva. Judith Black told Welcome Home for the first time at "in like a lion" slam in March. Lionesses are known to be intensely protective and no one wants to be in between them and their young. Judith portrayed this ferocity and showed how it feels to be helpless in the face of the suffering of a child, a deep and human pain. Judith’s range of human emotion and skillful telling about welcoming her son home from war, won 1st prize.
Jess Sutich was our first ever Audience Choice winner at the "it’s relative" slam. She told a coming out story that spanned quite a bit of family relationships in under 4 minutes. In What Happens at Beerfest…we were right with Jess up to and including the deeply ironic ending where her outgoing dad needed a guy to talk about his acceptance of his daughter. Chris Osborne style is low key and powerful at the same time. The theme" it’s relative" was well examined in his story of how he and his wife reacted to the same event in his urban tale, The Neighbor. He mused and wondered and we were right with him. Kevin Brooks told from the theme "dining disasters " and he had all the right ingredients and moves to show how cooking can make a relationship sizzle. His telling in Tomato Paste showed great timing and pacing. Paul Hlebowitsh won the first ever massmouth slam with his first ever performance of a story at "scared to death". He delighted us with a well-crafted story of childhood terror and lasting scars in Chocolate Milk. Paul also became the first ever massmouth Story 2.0 Award that goes to the teller of the next “generation” in the story slam season, with the best story. From the theme "it’s my job" Lani Peterson told about something familiar to any good teacher; often we learn as much or more from our students than they do from us. In Facing My Fish she bared her soul and let us know that she is still looking for the right fish to take her personal bravery to the next level. Her genuine, unaffected style was right up there and level with the best. The mistakes of love are there to teach us and Rowan Meade "errors of eros" entry won our hearts. Rowan learned the hard way in A Man in Uniform that there is no easy road to love, but then, does anyone learn things about love the “easy” way? Robin Maxfield is an "outrageous" performer and had the stuff to tell all in Standing In Line Stinks. She drew the last slot and that can’t have been an easy wait. You wouldn’t know because she ended the night with a high energy performance. ‘Pride goeth before a fall’ and Robin set herself up and then took us all down with élan.
We were deeply happy to listen on Tuesday and more than satisfied to know that we helped to bring these stories to the kind of audience they deserve.
Please buy a DVD and support massmouth and tell a friend about storytelling! Thanks
Thursday, April 15, 2010
April 20th Slam of all Slammers BPL 6PM
SLAM OF ALL SLAMMERS! THE BIG MOUTH OFF is the final contest in Boston’s first story slam season, produced by massmouth and will be held. 6PM on APRIL 20th 2010 at in the Boston Public Library’s Rabb Auditorium, Copley Square, Boston MA .massmouth has hosted aan exciting series of story slams on the following themes: scared to death, dining disasters, it’s my job, so embarrassing, it’s relative, errors of eros, love and lies, outrageous, and in like a lion. In each slam ten contestants told their real life stories and two winners became finalists.
Come hear the winners of the monthly slams plus one People’s Choice entrant compete for the grand prize – a week at a medieval Tuscan townhouse. There are more prizes for the winners chosen by the distinguished judges; including Jay O’Callahan (master storyteller), Charlie Pierce ( Boston Globe, panelist on npr's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" npr) Brian O’Donovan ( host of a Celtic Sojourn- wgbh-fm), Josna Rege ( English professor, and writing stories at Tell Me Another ) and Jay Allison ( NPR journalist and independent producer for radio, including This I Believe ) alternate judge, Ruth Henderson. In addition there will be 1 Audience Choice winner chosen by the audience at the end of the evening. In between sets of judged stories, the audience and People’s Choice entrants will participate in a mini-slam of stories on the theme - “ the first time”.
Rabb Auditorium is in the new wing of the Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Boston, at the Copley T stop. We start at 6 pm sharp on April 20th. Come to a virtual marathon of storytelling! massmouth presents a program of stories that highlight the human experience in all its darkness and light. Seasoned professionals and fledgling storytellers strut their stuff, share their experiences and reveal their insights in this epic competition of 21 finalists. Any one of them can win the grand prize – it all comes down to the winning story. So… if you ran the Boston marathon, come recharge with us! If you didn’t run April 19th and want a different kind of marathon, come experience massmouth‘s 26+ story marathon! After Slam at Kennedy’sMidtown.com – see massmouth.com for details.
Twenty 1st and 2nd place winners + one People's Choice contestant from all the Cambridge and Boston slams will face off in a fabulous concert/contest at the Rabb Auditorium in Boston Public Library in Copley Square. Celebrity Judges, music and amazing stories at
700 Boylston Street, Copley Square, Boston,
MA 02116 Tel: 617-536-5400
Be sure to come to the Copley Square Library early - there are no bad seats but also no reservations and no admission fee! Tell everybody about this fabulous free event. Check out the grand prize -
Sarteano, Italy, where the grand prize lives.
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