Phoebe Perry on Storytelling
Storytelling is as old as humanity itself—older even than theater. Tens of thousands of years ago, stories were one of our primary ways of passing on knowledge. And even now, in a world where information is available at lightning speed, stories remain essential. We spoke to a few of the Storytellers, who answered questions about their how's, where's and why's.
Where does the power of a story lie?
The power of a story is that, while it has a directed aim emotionally or with subject matter, it seeps into each person's psyche through a different vein and they have a take away that the teller of the story has no control over.
Does a story always have to be urgent, or can it be found in a small, simple detail?
Ideally the urgent issues are told through small, simple detail. Often when a piece is created to speak about a macro, global, urgent issue they speak in broad generalizations that sound more like a town crier we all tune out. My favorite stories are the ones told so intimately, so microscopic that they inevitably touch on larger issues.
Where do you find the stories you tell?
The stories I tell are often cobbled together from bits and pieces from a character I meet, dialogue I overhear or funny moments that snowball into a bigger story. Most of stories I spend the most time with start with questions that I don't know the answer to -- but I think that might be everyone's starting point.
Phoebe Perry performs The Visitor // A STORK SHOW on Thursday the 2nd of April.
