Today's lesson involved our first assessment- on Storytelling.
We were given a story in pairs and we each had to learn the story and think of an interesting way to tell it. Our story was called Freya and the Brising Necklace. It told the story of a goddess called Freya who was married to a god called Odour. They had 2 daughters and lived in the heavenly realm of Asgard. One day Freya felt restless so she summoned her two cats and they pulled her (in a chariot) across other lands. First she travelled through Misgard, land of the humans. She then travelled through the land of Alfheim, home to elves- and her brother! She then found herself at the rocky borders of Svartalfheim, land of the evil black dwarfs! 4 dwarfs set a trap and get the Goddess to marry each of them for one day and one night in return for the brising necklace they had charmed and tricked her into doing anything for! She rushes back to her palace as she realises what a bad thing she had done! She hides in her room and puts a spell on the door so no one can get in and find the necklace! However, Loka has been watching her every move and tells her husband, Odour! When he doesn't believe her, Loka turns into a fly to fit through a tiny gap and get into Freya's room to get the necklace! He gets it and shows Odour- Odour is devastated. He runs away. When Freya wakes up, she realises Odour has found the necklace and tries looking for him. But she can't find him! So she goes to Odin; the god of all gods! Odin tells her that she must wear that necklace ALL the time to remind herself of what a bad thing she has done! He also tells her that she must roam the universe until she finds him!
We decided to 'tell' the story very classically- me and Lindsay stood next to each other throughout the piece and only had one piece of movement but we used voice to portray character and we varied our pace and tone to show the mood throughout the story. We tiptoed to each side of the stage blocks when Loko tiptoed to get the necklace off of Freya's neck and when he tiptoed from Freya to the door! We also used different voice for each character.
The first thing we did was discuss the history of storytelling and we were told to do some research. Here is my research:
In this day and age, storytelling is no longer popular- or so we think. In fact, we seem to forget that everytime we send a text message or post a Facebook status or send a tweet on Twitter, we are effectively telling stories- even if they are incredible short. Movies, books, music, news, media, religions, architecture and painting all tell stories. The big question is, how DOES social networking and the media effect storytelling?
Social networking and the media, in particular, have the power to change our opinions about people. Whether it be through articles, tv or Facebook, modern storytelling really is effective- just look at the way it changed our perception of Jade Goody. When Jade Goody first came into the public spotlight when she entered the Big Brother house in 2002, the newspapers slated her. She was known as 'Miss Piggy' and was shown in an incredibly bad light. The nation was turned against her. Producers of the show soon realised that when their 'Miss piggy' left the house, her life would be turned upside down. Just a couple of months before, no one knew who she was and suddenly she was public enemy number one! Producers decided that they had to now show Jade in a good light- the public needed to like her or her life would be completely destroyed when she came out! In the following years, the social media picked up on several drug scandals surrounding Jade and she was once again shown in a bad light. In 2005, Jade Goody entered the CELEBRITY big brother house. Once again, she was slated by the press for her 'racist' behaviour which was aimed towards Bollywood Star Shilpa Shetty. Jade had to leave the house privately due to the public outrage surrounding the racism. In India, there was a huge public outrage. Whether Jade's comment towards Shilpa was racist or not, the press had made it out to be and it spiralled out of control. Then, 2 years later she was diagnosed with cervical cancer- whilst in the Indian big brother house, trying to build bridges with the Indian country. Suddenly, she was thought of as inspirational, a great parent and a brilliant person. Storytelling these days may not be traditional but it's still INCREDIBLY powerful- if not MORE powerful. Stories used to be passed down from generation to generation but nowadays newspapers and social media allow millions of people to read the same stories- it's no wonder that these stories are incredibly influential. Jade Goody's story in particular shows the fickle nature of social networking and media and how ruthless it is. If Jade Goody had never gone on big brother, she wouldn't have become famous but she wouldn't have had to put up with the unfair hatred that modern storytelling had burdened her with.
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