8:30–11:30 A.M.
Today, I attended the Storytelling Workshop at the George Lindsey Theater at UNA. I was not sure where the theater was located, so my husband let me out at the Arts and Music building. I walked around, trying to find the workshop. Finally, I spotted a room with the light on and saw a woman inside.
I opened the door and said, Could you please tell me where the Storytelling Workshop is being held?" She grabbed her keys and said, "Sure, follow me". She locked the door to her office and off we went. I told her that I was getting flustered and agitated. I followed her to the George Lindsey Theater, and she showed me the room where the workshop was being held. I thanked her, and she went back to work, and I joined the workshop.
Our group leader was Dolores.
Our first exercise was to introduce ourselves using a descriptive word that began with the same letter as our first name.
We started with Wonderful Wanda, Sassy Susan, Vibrant Vivian, Audacious Amy, Caring Carol, Sad, and Friendly Freda. I cannot remember the other two women's names, but I remember one was an animal lover who owned many dogs and cats.
Dolores talked about Steve Jobs. Jobs said, "that being creative is just connecting things."
Delores used an example of James Webb Young's two key ideas to be creative. One was the idea of a new combination, and the second was the ability to make combinations.
Delores also showed us the works of Norman Rockwell and his idea of the collision of two worlds.
Next, we were told to close our eyes and think of a toy or animal we remembered from childhood. To imagine the clothes we were wearing, the sounds we heard, and the texture of the toy or animal. We were just told to bring these images to life in our imagination.
We then broke up into groups of three and had to describe to the others in our group what we remembered.
Amy and Freda were in my group.
Amy's told her story, and it was a baby doll that could sing Happy Birthday.
Amy took this doll everywhere, and she never left home without her baby doll. Amy remembered playing in her grandmother's yard while holding her doll and hearing the porch swing. Amy did not remember when her baby doll stopped singing "Happy Birthday."
Freda told the story about the bride doll she wanted badly, but her family. It was very poor and could not afford the doll.
When Freda would go to town with her family, she would see this bride doll in the store window.
On Christmas, when Freda was in the first grade, she was surprised with the bride doll.
Freda had several brothers and no sisters, so the doll was never played with.
When Freda was older and married, her mom gave birth to a baby girl
Freda was so excited that she finally had a sister.
Freda loved her sister so much that she gave her the bride doll.
To Freda, having a sister was more important than having a bride doll.
Dolores said, "I want each of you to go outside and see what you can find using your senses."We each spent about twenty minutes exploring and brought our ideas back to class.
A man joined our class, and he talked about rain and how birds were supposed to stop singing when it was going to rain, but the birds just kept singing.
Another told about sitting on a wooden bench and how it brought back memories of her father. He was a farmer, minister, and very well dressed. The story behind being well-dressed was that her father's family was so poor that her grandmother had to starch the children's shirts just to keep them together.
Dolores was taking one item from our list and using the snowball effect.
One of the items on my list was a yellow cab in the UNA parking lot.
Dolores said, "What does the yellow cab bring to mind?"
I said, when I was a schoolgirl, there was a neighbor girl who was a cripple, and she always took a yellow taxicab to school. I said I had forgotten all about the cripple neighbor girl.
It is funny how something as simple as a yellow cab can bring back memories.
Dolores started a list as we each called out items to add.
We had to take two items from that list and make our own list of fifteen each.
One woman made a list of the things she needed for a trip she was taking.
Another woman made a list of the animals she owned.
Another woman made a list of the places she had visited.
Another woman made a list of the things she overcame.
The three hours went by so fast because I was having a great time. I did not realize that you could learn so much about others so quickly and have fun at the same time.
snowball effect
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