Theater Of The Spoken Word
Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 11:41PM A friend I haven’t heard from in a long while called me the other day to ask what I was doing and I told him all about my headlong plunge into the world of storytelling.
He phoned back yesterday to ask if I was still busy reading books.
I wouldn’t have known what he was talking about except that I had just read an article online by Jason Gelt* about California’s Ojai Storytelling Festival where artistic director and founder of the festival, Brian Bemel, is quoted as saying: “One of the biggest misconceptions is that people just stand up and read books. That’s why I started using the term ‘theater of the spoken word,” because they don’t read, they perform the stories.”
Theater of the spoken word! I like that!
And I was delighted to have such a succint nugget to pass on to my slightly cynical friend.
Thank you Mr. Bremel!
* Have they got a tale for you in Ojai, by Jason Gelt, Los Angeles Times, April 29, 2010
Reader Comments (2)
I think the phrase "Theatre of the Spoken Word" is awesome, but it can also get confused with things like word slam, or poetry readings. Of course I grew up in the theater and graduated from the theater so I don't even equate storytelling with reading from a book. But I always thought that just reading from a book was kind of boring anyways.
Your affinity for Theatre still remains after all these years. Marvelous!