Storytelling Course Layout

• Initial Lecture: Story Structure and Performance (theoretical)
• Reading:
  • Introduction to Story by Robert McKee
  • Chap 6 and 8 from the Performance Studies Reader
• Homework: Get a story told to you
• Improvisation / Performance (practical)
• Exercise: Tell your life story in two minutes
• Reading: How to Tell a Story by Mark Twain
• Film: My Dinner with Andre
• Stories in conversation
• Exercise: Class discussion with stories
• Homework: Stories in conversation
• Reading:
  • III in Folklore: Performance and Communications
  • Introduction to Story, Performance, and Event by Richard Bauman
  • Chap 9 from the Performance Studies Reader
• Stories morphing over successive tellings
• Exercises: Chain storytelling, Exact retelling of a story
• Homework: Preparing for next class's exercise
• Film: Swimming to Cambodia
• Stories within cultures
• Exercises: Stories outside their cultures, Swap characters in a story
• Reading:
• Homework: Preparing for next class's exercise
• Old vs. Modern Storytelling
• Exercises: Change a well-known story, Comparing modern stories with folk tales
• Final Projects