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Vol. LXV, No. 38
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Wednesday, September 21, 2011
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Vol. LXV, No. 38
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Wednesday, September 21, 2011
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Young listeners and their families recently visited several continents without ever leaving the Princeton Public Library’s Community Room. Their guide was the aptly named storyteller Helen Wise who, using no notes or books and only a very few props, transported them from Africa to North America to Asia with “Stories From Around the World.” A tall, angular woman with a wonderfully expressive face, Ms. Wise trembled in fear, rubbed her hungry stomach, channeled a witch and was otherwise totally believable as she enacted the characters — not all them friendly — who people her stories. A portable microphone attached to Ms. Wise’s neck amplified nuances (loud and soft voices, and sound effects), and kept her hands and arms free to gesture.
The veteran storyteller made each child feel welcome, and was unfazed when spontaneous shouts and questions interrupted the line of a story. She engaged young and old audience members by asking them to stand, clap (“faster!”), snap, dance, and sing along with her. Sometimes, youngsters got to choose what came next. Offered several different countries for the next story, they noisily opted for China. A request for the kind of cookie that appears in a story elicited suggestions of “peanut butter,” “M& M’s,” and “plain.” And what kind of candy did they have? “Skittles,” said one child. “A thousand Skittles,” said another, upping the ante. How fat was someone? As fat “as a TV set,” offered a little boy.
Like the Grimms’ fairy tales, Ms. Wise’s stories are edgy and sometimes a little scary. A child shrank back as she morphed into a bad witch, but that was part of the fun. At one point there was a communal chant about a mountain on fire, and the need to “run quick” or “you’re going to be barbecue.”
Describing a collection of stories she often turns to, Ms. Wise paid tribute to two retired Princeton Public Library children’s librarians, when she noted that the volume was compiled by librarians who were “right up there with Dudley Carlson and Jan Johnson.”
Ms. Wise’s background includes a B.A. in English Literature and B.F.A. in Theatre from St. Andrews College; teaching credentials from Claremont Graduate School (she is certified in N.J. for K through eight, and secondary English); and an M.A. in English Literature from Clark University. Inspired by hearing storyteller Susan Danoff about 20 years ago, Ms. Wise decided to attend Ms. Danoff’s summer institute. The week-long program was a life-changer for her. “This is the mountain I’ve always been meant to conquer,” she recalled thinking.
Assignments at the Princeton Friends School, Princeton Nursery School, and Mercer County Detention Center followed. She enjoys the pleasure of “playing with” preschoolers, and a stint building a school-wide kindergarten through grade 5 storytelling and storywriting residency in Trenton public schools was a real eye-opener. “Children in inner cities are just not listened to,” she observed, describing the sense of connection and engagement that was immediately apparent to her when she began her work there.
A group of unwed mothers at the Mercer County Detention Center proved to be Ms. Wise’s biggest challenge. Her work there, she said, was “at an entirely different level,” because “a teen-age girl who is pregnant has been abused. There is no other word for it.”
Ms. Wise is a member of the Greater Princeton Area Storytelling Circle, and on September 18, she will be among the presenters in the N.J. Storytelling Festival at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton. “There will be storytellers from all over Pennsylvania and New Jersey,” who move from site to site during the program, which will run from noon to 6 p.m., she reported. The festival is free with admission to the park.
Prior to the opening of the Festival, Ms. Wise will offer a morning workshop on the use of storytelling as “a tool for preventing and and healing bullying and other violence.” Pre-registration is required; a $50 fee includes entrance to the Storytelling Festival. Three Professional Education Credits are offered. See: http://njstorynet.org/wpnjstory/.