Storytelling...the profession

Just seeing Julia in her brightly colored skirt and purple scarf was a treat. She had the image of a beautiful giddy free true hippie and hat alone made me feel invited and ready to jump into the art of storytelling. Her vivacious attitude and desire to be silly was great to be around after a long day of stiff high school life.

The first thing we all did was introduce ourselves using a motion that went with the sound of our names. We did this not only to get her to know us but also to start activating our bodies. Julia said that our bodies are very important during storytelling because you need to be alert and animated to really grasp the attention of your audience. So we did some light stretching and wiggly with our bodies to warm them up. Then we started to excersize our IMAGINATIONS. She told us to view the whole workshop from the eyes of our inner child (which totally related to the Jim Bonnie workshop as well) because she says that not only are her stories normally directed to children, but also because the children within us are the ones who make us bloom with creativity.

We listened to her tell a story and the way she did it was jsut perfect. It had a great blend between animation, song, truth, and simplicity. I really enjoyed it from the perspective of young megan and old megan. Although I definitely did feel more of the sillies from the little me. Then she gave us the chance to share our own improvised stories which was also great. I loved watching Elissa and Molly make up their stories because I could totally see what they were like as children.

Overall the workshop was fun and interesting. I really just had a blast because of how free and giddy it was. I really hope Julia comes back in because honstly I am fascinated by the idea of someone making their living off of being a storyteller. What a life...A PROFESSSIONAL Storyteller!