He went to a restaurant...a FROG restaurant
One of the many joys of telling improv stories with LP is witnessing her evolution as a storyteller.
She took a storytelling leap a few weeks ago where she began to fill in more details on her own.
There was such delight in her whole being as she added that important detail.
Throughout the story, she took the idea and added to it (the restaurant served goatmeal - I'm not sure if that is a meal made of goats, or something a goat would also like to eat or an exotic kind of oatmeal - and the red salamander waiter told the frog a story after dinner).
It is fun to see where she is taking stories now (many, many stories about characters who get lollipops -- that interest is firmly established, and LP is angling for a plane trip because that is the only time she's had lollipops).
A challenge for me is to really keep things open and not be controlling of where the story goes or how it gets there. Really after two days of stories that revolve around lollipops, I'm a little bored.
A few ideas to gently expand the storytelling:
1. Make an offer that has an undefined element (also called a "blind offer" in improv). For example, when we're telling a story about a lion, I might say either the lion found something, what was it? (yes it was a lollipop). OR the lion found a box and in it was... ? Then LP's imagination fills in what is in the box...and yes, it was lollipops...but then there was also a box that could be filled with other things or sat inside or who knows what. Was there anything else in the box? (probably another lollipop - LP is persistent in the finest small person tradition)
2. Go for detail...ask questions about what color the lollipop is? What did it taste like? What did it smell like? How did the lion eat the lollipop?
She took a storytelling leap a few weeks ago where she began to fill in more details on her own.
Me: Once upon a time there was...
LP: A frog!
Me: Once upon a time there was a frog who went...
LP: To a restaurant...a FROG restaurant!
There was such delight in her whole being as she added that important detail.
Throughout the story, she took the idea and added to it (the restaurant served goatmeal - I'm not sure if that is a meal made of goats, or something a goat would also like to eat or an exotic kind of oatmeal - and the red salamander waiter told the frog a story after dinner).
It is fun to see where she is taking stories now (many, many stories about characters who get lollipops -- that interest is firmly established, and LP is angling for a plane trip because that is the only time she's had lollipops).
A challenge for me is to really keep things open and not be controlling of where the story goes or how it gets there. Really after two days of stories that revolve around lollipops, I'm a little bored.
A few ideas to gently expand the storytelling:
1. Make an offer that has an undefined element (also called a "blind offer" in improv). For example, when we're telling a story about a lion, I might say either the lion found something, what was it? (yes it was a lollipop). OR the lion found a box and in it was... ? Then LP's imagination fills in what is in the box...and yes, it was lollipops...but then there was also a box that could be filled with other things or sat inside or who knows what. Was there anything else in the box? (probably another lollipop - LP is persistent in the finest small person tradition)
2. Go for detail...ask questions about what color the lollipop is? What did it taste like? What did it smell like? How did the lion eat the lollipop?
posted by Susan at
2:25 PM
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