!STORYTELLING! ?WHAT WHAT?

Storytelling is the aspect of sharing with someone a story obviously. Originally, storytelling was oral mixed with gestures and emotion. Gradually, stories evolved into carvings in cave walls, and eventually writings on paper. Whether the story is true or not makes no difference. Some like to be entertained with wild, extravagant stories about fantasy worlds or action packed adventure. While others prefer more realistic stories about history, or just anything based on actual events. Either way, a lot of thought gets put into ones' storytelling. Anyone can pass down from generation to generation a tale of a hero, and how they came to be that hero. Or one can even look at it as in terms of The Bible, whereas we are all to learn from this text(which I believe pastors/preachers are storytellers of God). Many different aspects of storytelling include: what are you trying to say?, the actual story, from what point of view the story is viewed, and of course conflict.

In storytelling we would expect to see an individual, or individuals depicting events that did or did not happen for an audience. Person(s) would explain in depth conversation an incident, maybe even with visual stimulants.

Above we have Jesus Christ, our Earth's 'Savior'. He was sent to Earth by Almighty God to teach his children, us, the ways we should lead our lives. He would travel city to city preaching the ways of the Lord. He would show the peoples miracles such as vastly multiplying one fish and a loaf of bread into many of each. He would influence others through his conviction of the ways in which he would speak.

Storytelling affects people in different ways. It all depends on the opinions and views in the person, and how the person decides to take the story. 

Above we have a woman telling a story to children. Now, she may be dressed and have visual stimulants to further entertain her listeners in understanding and relating to her story. As we would understand, visual stimulants would definitely grab our attention and hopefully keep it.





Now, above we have an old show called "Reading Rainbow". Now this is how far we've come from the beginning of storytelling. While books allow 'US' to become the storyteller, even if technically the book is the story, we also have shows like this that entertain us while telling us a story. In the show we have a narrator who explains every detail to us so we better understand. The top video is only here because it is the original theme. The lower video is here to show how stories get our minds thinking. We also have the gentleman coming along with the children, who he tells stories to, representing us as viewers. I couldn't find a good enough clip to share, so I thought this would be sufficient enough. I'm sure you get the idea. Another similar show was "Wishbone", which had a little dog as our narrator/actor in the storytelling. "Wishbone" tried to teach the moral of the stories and entertain at the same time. I've also included the theme of this show below, and am sure you can grasp the idea with just that.




Work Citing:
http://allthingswildlyconsidered.blogspot.com/2009/12/storytellers-jesus-and-parables.html
http://42explore.com/story.htm
Also, The World of Theatre book.

Marionettes

HISTORY

Traced as far back as 2000 B.C. in Ancient Egypt, marionettes are one of the oldest and most complex of the puppets genre. They were used to portray rituals, celebrations, and even daily activities. Marionettes were even placed by burial sites to guide or encourage the passed in death.

It was believed that the Egyptian Priestesses would carry around marionettes in likeness of the "God of Death"-Osiris. 

The word "Marionette" originates from the Greek word "puppets" as "neurospasta", meaning "string-pulling".

There are two different types of marionettes:one of which has a metal rod connecting to the head, while the other has a string connecting to the head depending on the skill level of the "Manipulator". 

The operator is known as the "Manipulator", and controls what they call the "Airplane". The "Airplane" is the propellor shaped cross the strings attatch to. By manipulating of the "Airplane" and plucking at the strings the puppet gains movement. These marionettes were usually made of wood, foam, or paper mache. 

Background

Some say Marionettes pre-date actors, while they were used as an example of how rituals and festivals were suppose to play out. Along with plays as entertainment representing upper-class and lower-class individuals without them actually being on the same stage. Marionettes usually have about nine to over thirty strings connecting to various limbs of the puppet. More simple marionettes have a rod connecting through the head for easier movement, while more skilled "Manipulators" have string(s) in place of the rod allowing more dramatic effects of the acting puppet. 

(as we see in the image above:The puppets are being controlled from above and behind the background of the set.)

Conventions

In Marionette performances there are many different ways in which they can be viewed. There are mini-theaters, which are portable and can be performed anywhere. There are also actual theaters which are open to marionette performances in form or opera or any other sort. In either type of performance, there is usually some type of music in the background, a stage as a background, and a curtain as any other theatrical performance would include. 

Banning of Puppets from the church

While puppetry was a part of the church originally, and taught morals and thoughts of good will. The performances had become rather comedic and offensive in the churches eyes. This led to the banning of puppetry from the church. In retaliation, puppeteers set up tents outside of Cathedrals and the routines became more and more Slapstick.

Growth from the ban

After being banned from the church, puppeteering became more and more comedic. This led to the Italian Comedy known as 'Commedia dell'Arte'

(as we see in the image above:This is a portable theater, in which a performer(s) travel around with putting on shows and plays of their own making after being banned from the church.

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To me this video depicts how much of a longing this "Puppeteer" has for another. He has a puppet as himself, and also a puppet of woman he is in Love with. While there are other segments in the clip as well, the basis is how much of a longing he has for this woman. In his act of puppetry, he can perform acts that he wouldn't be able to in a real-life situation. At one of the moments he/himself as a puppet realizes he is being manipulated by another and is not in actuality performing these well thought out acts. Pay attention to his puppet's solo performance and the actual human actor's performance in the end. I believe playing parts that aren't actually reality still give those performers hope that moments can still happen. In turn give them hope.


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This video depicts how even if some of the puppets are larger than others, they can still me manipulated in rather sophisticated ways. Overall, marionettes are rather sophisticated and very complex puppets. Stick around through this video. !!!THE SKELETON IS RATHER HILARIOUS!!!