Wild Storytelling

To view the photo-rich magazine version, click here.

Originally appears in the Winter 2019 issue.

ON MANY BEAUTIFUL spring days, I often find myself performing outdoors, especially at Earth Day, Arbor Day, or Migratory Bird Day events. More times than I can count, I have been distracted by a bird flying overhead and then my attention is drawn into the tree where it landed. A bee or a butterfly buzzes or flutters by; a spider in the grass excites a screech from an audience member — then, everyone is looking for the spider and not listening to the story I had rehearsed. This spring I decided to use these potential distractions as the fodder for improvisational or wild storytelling; to just go with it and step outside my comfort zone.

I often talk about how trailside storytelling is more spontaneous, but uses the same basic skills as stage craft storytelling. Now, I am gaining confidence in using trailside storytelling skills on stage. Like a jazz musician who has a few favorite riffs but is always exploring nuance, or the jazz song that provides melody and form along with endless opportunities for developing new chord progressions, I have countless organic vignettes of stories about birds and trees, bugs, and the bigger ecosystems that I can use when I am leading a hike. This depth of background knowledge — woven with spontaneous observations of what was happening in that moment, in that wild space where I was performing — have inspired a wide array of improvised ecological tales in a more formal performance venue. Below are two recent examples: