第136章 EXPERIENCES IN STORYTELLING

Groups for storytelling are usually assembled in separate rooms in the libraries and are made up by an approximate but variable age limit,dividing the children under ten or eleven years old from the boys and girls above that age.In the settlements the group is usually determined by the club organization.On the playgrounds,the experience of a storyteller in Providence is probably typical of many other workers and is quoted as suggestive for group formation in playgrounds.

"During the summer of 1909the stories I told on the Davis Park Playground were costly fairy tales and folk stories.'Grimm's Fairy Tales'was the favorite of both boys and girls and through the summer I told every story in the book.The boys also liked 'The Merrie Adventures of Robin Hood,''The Three Golden Apples,'

'The Golden Touch,''The Golden Fleece,'and all the old Indian legends.While the girls,if offered a choice,always called for a fairy tale with a Prince Charming in it.Neither boys nor girls would listen to historical stories saying they were too much like school.

"The first day to gain an audience I went up to a group of children who were playing together and asked them if they would like to hear a story.Four or five replied that they would,while some fifteen or twenty disappeared as though by magic,and Idecided that they were not interested.I then took the children who wished to listen,over to a large tree in one corner of the grounds,and told them that for the rest of the summer that tree would be known as 'the storytelling tree.'They would,I told them,find me there every day promptly at half-past one,and that I would tell stories for a half hour to the whole playground.

Then from half-past two until three I would tell stories to the older girls.The first day I had a very small audience,the next day it doubled,and then increased daily until I had from eighty to a hundred children in a group.As to forming a group,I think it is impossible in playground work,for a group worth having must form itself,the reputation of the storyteller being the foundation of its formation,and this reputation can only be gained through constant systematic labor,and a thorough knowledge of your daily audience.That is why I think a professional visiting storyteller would be a failure in playground work,as in visiting each playground once or twice a week it would be impossible for her to gain that intimate personal knowledge of her audience,which is so necessary to the playground storyteller,as she must appeal to a different class of children on each playground.

"The experience of a professional storyteller with a group of boys,already assembled as a club,is also quoted for its valuable suggestion and independence of method in gaining the interest of boys who had been much experimented upon.

"The most interesting experience I have had in a developed series of stories was with the Boys'Club of Greenwich,Connecticut,last year.The club is supported by the wealthy women of the place,and is an outgrowth of a rather serious and perplexing boy problem.A number of picture shows,pool rooms,cheap vaudevilles,etc.,have crept into the town,and life on the street is most attractive.

"The head worker of the club wrote that they had failed to hold the boys in everything but manual training and baseball;that the boys were insubordinate and unresponsive,and that their school reports were very poor.I found the conditions even worse than Ihad anticipated.It was necessary to train eighty boys to listen,as well as to interest them,and so,I told very short stories at first.I chose the ones that were full of dramatic action,that had little or no deion,and a good deal of dialogue.The stories were strongly contrasted,and there was no attempt at literary or artistic finish.I used a great many gestures and moved about on the platform frequently;it is the quickest way of focusing laggard attention.To be absolutely honest,I had to come very close to the level of the moving picture show,and the ten-cent vaudeville,at first.

"The fourth night I eliminated all but a few gestures,and told the stories sitting down.I also used less colloquial English;and from then on,until the end,when I told the stories from Van Dyke in his own words,there was a steady growth in literary style.I append the programs in the order they were given:

STORY PROGRAM

1.Irish Folk-tales.2.Stories from Scandinavian Myths.3.The Rhinegold Stories.4.German Folk-tales.

5.Arthurian Tales.6.Stories of Charlemagne and Frederick Barbarossa.7.Tales of American Indians.8.

Negro Tales.9.Stories of the Carnegie Heroes.10.

Kipling--Captains Courageous,Jungle Stories.11.Van Dyke--A Friend of Justice,The Keeper of the Light.12.

Irish Folk-tales (Requested).

"The practical results were very satisfactory.The books in the club library were used more,the boys'composition and recitation work at school improved,and they acquired the habit of polite,attentive listening."