Buddhist Storytelling Circle
Traditional stories of wisdom have guided humankind for millennia. Likewise, the stories of our families, cultures, and personal experiences shape our values and guide our actions. These stories connect us to our roots and provide direction and meaning to our lives.
Join us in an exploration of the ancient art of storytelling. Learn effective communication and presentation skills. Share your stories in this enjoyable and supportive Buddhist storytelling circle.
Join us in an exploration of the ancient art of storytelling. Learn effective communication and presentation skills. Share your stories in this enjoyable and supportive Buddhist storytelling circle.
The storytelling circle has been discontinued. Please see Videos of Previous Classes: Dharma Realm Live Playlist. Resources are also available below. |
Biography
Brian Conroy is a lifetime educator having taught for 35 years in San Jose public schools. He obtained his B.A and M.A. from San Jose State University, where he also taught Storytelling for nine years. He met Master Hua in 1976 and later took refuge in 1994. Bringing together his passion for storytelling with the wisdom of Buddhism, he wrote traditional and contemporary Buddhist tales and started a Buddhist Storytelling Circle. He has performed at the National Storytelling Festival, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the Buddhist Storytelling Festival, and celebrations at DRBA monasteries. His stories, e.g. “Captain Enlightenment!” bring together wisdom and humor that speaks to audiences of all ages.
Strategies for Preparing and Telling Your Story
Revision
Learning a Story
Rehearsing
Breathing
Physicalization
Characterization
Poise
Articulation
Capturing an Audience’s Attention at the Beginning of a Story
Pauses
Inciting Action
Climax
A Final Word
Practice! Practice!
You gotta practice!
Don’t get lazy!
Swo Pe He.
- Revise your story so that it is easy to tell and matches your style.
- Maintain the integrity of the story. It’s okay to make changes, as long as the essence of the story remains intact.
- Eliminate words, phrases, sections that sound awkward.
- Be consistent with any changes you make. If you modernize a story, for instance, make sure all of the references are updated.
- Retain cultural language: names, places, lines of dialogue, expressions.
Learning a Story
- Read the story several times. Let it soak in. Make mental observations.
- Outline the events of the story. This can just be simple list of the main actions.
- Visualize the setting and the characters.
- Use “ triggers” for the setting and characters: A place you’re familiar with, a person you know, or a character from a movie, or book similar to the character in your story, that can be used to trigger an image in your mind.
- Create a visual image for each main event in the story.
- Connect all of the visual images of the story together and let them play like a movie in your mind. Once you can meet the “movie” of the story it will be far easier to learn.
- Make note of the things that need to memorized: repeated phrases, the introduction, the ending, phrases you love or that are important to the story, specific details and descriptions, lines of dialogue.
Rehearsing
- Practice on your feet. Move around while you rehearse.
- Practice out loud so you get a sense of the rhythm of the story.
- Avoid looking in the mirror while you practice.
- Avoid recording yourself.
- Practice at different tempos—sometimes very slowly, other times at a faster pace.
- Try a “speed through” where you speak at a crazy-fast pace. This challenges your mind to process the story at a rapid rate, and simulates a performance setting when your mind tends to run a little faster than in the controlled environment of a practice session.
Breathing
- Breathe from your diaphragm.
- Take a few deep breaths before you get up in front of the audience.
- Sustain vocal power by having an even flow of breath as you tell your story.
Physicalization
- Be physically involved in the telling.
- Use gestures, movements.
- Use impressionistic (unspecific) gestures, rather than concrete gestures. Example of a concrete gesture: Making the shape of a house with your hands.
Characterization
- Use specific, animated character voices.
- Use different voices for each of the characters.
- Have a different posture, stance for each character.
- When two different characters are speaking back and forth, make sure there is a strong physical/vocal contrast between the two characters. One voice could be high; the other low. One body could be upright, while the other has a lower center of gravity.
- Pivot and position each character to a different direction (one right; one to the left)
- Avoid turning so far to one direction that the audience can only see part of your face
- Be economical with speaker tags ("she said” "said the rabbit"). If you character voice and body movements are vivid enough, you won’t need to continually say, “…said the Wolf.” Include speaker tags only so that the audience isn’t confused.
Poise
- Nervousness is a natural and usually a welcome feeling. It means you care enough about the story to risk the energy it takes to tell an effective story. You can convert nervous energy into the adrenaline it takes to make the story engaging. Use nervousness to your advantage.
- Get control of your breathing before telling your story. Take a few deep breaths.
- As soon as you get in front to the audience, get settled quickly and economically.
- Plant your feet. Don’t pace, unless it’s part of the story.
- Maintain erect, formal posture.
- Have a stance that will allow you to be relaxed and that will afford you the opportunity to move while telling your story. Feet should be spread about a foot apart. Have slight bend to your knees.
- Avoid shifting your weight, swaying back and forth, or any distracting movements while you tell your story. Excess movement that is not part of the story distracts from the telling.
- Don’t fool around with your hair, clothes, watch, jewelry, glasses. Again, this distracts from the telling.
- Don’t make excuses about how you feel, whether you’re sick, how nervous you are, the fact that you’re not good at speaking in front of people. Just do your job of telling the story.
- Make real eye contact with each member of the audience. Try to share a little bit of the story with each listener.
- Include everyone in the audience, but don’t scan the audience superficially. Look directly at people.
- Be real. Establish a rapport with each listener.
- Wait briefly at the end of the story in silence. Allow the final words of the story to sink in for a few seconds before running away. Allow audience members to reflect on and “digest” the meaning of the story.
- Don’t say “The End” or “And that’s the story.”
- After waiting briefly at the end of the story, consider a slight bow, palms together, or a smile.
- Make a graceful exit.
Articulation
- Pronounce words precisely.
- Look up words that are unfamiliar to make sure you’re pronouncing them accurately.
- Pronounce consonant clusters (th-, sl-) at the beginnings of words precisely.
- Articulate word endings crisply and clearly. Don’t forget about a final consonant.
Capturing an Audience’s Attention at the Beginning of a Story
- Wait before beginning to capture the audience's attention.
- Scan the full arc of the audience before you say your first word.
- Lean in slightly as a way of drawing attention.
- Establish the mood or tone of the story with your opening words.
Pauses
- Find appropriate places in your story to include pauses.
- A pause before a word or phrase builds suspense and makes the audience anticipate what’s coming next.
- A pause after a word or phrase gives the audience a moment to reflect on what was just said, or allows them to form a visual image based on your description.
- A pause can also give the audience a brief rest, especially in a fast-paced story.
- Pauses are necessary when an audience laughs. If the teller speaks over the laughter, the laughter generally stops. A pause allows an audience time to laugh and enjoy the story.
Inciting Action
- Locate the inciting action in your story.
- The inciting action is the single event or action early in the story that determines the specific direction of the story. Without the inciting action, the story could be potentially a very different story.
- Since the inciting action determines the direction of the story, draw the audience’s attention to it through emphasis, tone, a tempo change, a volume variation, or movements (or any combination of these strategies).
Climax
- Locate the climax in your story.
- The climax is the point near the end of the story in which the characters or forces come to a point of final conflict. A crisis ensues, a showdown, a battle, good triumphs over evil, the hero succeeds, the bad guy is defeated.
- Since the climax is the “payoff” of the story, it’s critical to draw the audience’s attention to it. This can be done by increasing the tempo, volume, intensity, tone, or through physicality (or any combination of these).
A Final Word
- Practice! Practice! Practice!
- Then, practice again.
Practice! Practice!
You gotta practice!
Don’t get lazy!
Swo Pe He.