Am I an official Puppet Slammer now?

I'm always interested in new ways of telling a story--so when I saw there would be a free puppetry class, taught by the talented members of Facto Teatro, I had to go.

I had no idea when I signed up online that one of my favorite friends was also attending, that I'd adapt a Liberian folktale ("Head, Body, Legs")  into a script, and perform 48 hours later in a full-on, big-time puppet slam.

If you like to make people laugh--and I do--then there's nothing that feels better than hearing an audience crack up over a story you're telling. And nothing makes you worry like fearing that they won't.

Building the set and the puppet.

So while we fretted over how to make our main character's head roll around on the ground and worried if the waves of our cardboard river were moving in sync, I knew that success rode just as much on the timing and the character voices. And when we scrambled onto the stage with our tabletop set, I wasn't sure what would happen.

I'm happy to say the audience laughed. A lot. Thank you Indie Grits film festival, Columbia Marionette Theater, Lyon Hill, Facto Teatro, and my classmates for a great experience. 

Alejandro Garcia fine-tuning "Head" (left) and one of our talented classmates using paper puppets to tell a magical story from her childhood.

I learned a ton, had a great time, and would love to make puppet slamming (if that's the right term) a regular part of my life.

I wrote about the storytelling lessons that my friend, artist Alejandro Garcia-Lemos, and I took away from the experience for the online magazine I manage for The Buckley School of Public Speaking, so if making a puppet show interests you, there's more over there.

To see the incredible work of all the puppet artists, here's a recap from Indie Grits.

Getting personal....and liking it

Personal essays.
I battled my mixed feelings about them the entire time I worked as an editor for skirt! magazine. Nikki Hardin, the magazine's founder, is superb at writing them. It was one of the reasons she created a magazine that featured personal essays. But I worried that some essays we published from other writers might sound like whining by people with more good fortune than they deserved.

That began to be all I could think about when I'd write my monthly editor's letter. Don't let me be guilty. Please don't let me sound like a spoiled brat.

Fast forward. It's Valentine's Day 2017.
I'm huddled around the table with my classmates in The Nickelodeon's podcasting class. Friends wondered why I was taking it. I'd been writing, producing and editing projects since before I was in college.

Those projects, though, didn't have the feel of This American Life. I wanted to see if I could write a personal story and bring it to life with sound.

That's not a heartbeat on Valentine's Day but a soundwave: Our teacher, Cooper McKim, giving us some tips for putting our stories together.

On that night, we were reading our scripts. And when it was my turn, I was incredibly nervous. Alone in front of my laptop, I thought I'd written something funny.  

But you never know.

My topic was my basketball fandom.
I follow the University of South Carolina's women's basketball team. I'm more than a fan, even. At the time, I was mentoring one of the players.

So when I watched my team play the invincible women of the University of Connecticut, it was nerve wracking.

That was the personal story I had decided to tell.

My voice cracked as I read the first lines. My hands shook. I was breathless, going too fast. 

I teach public speaking and present in front of huge groups of people, but all that experience--apparently--was worthless at the moment.

Then my classmates laughed. I started to relax.

They laughed some more. 

They liked my personal angle.

So, with a few minor copy changes, I went for it.
Being able to use my voice--my actual voice as well as my writing voice--to create a finished product was new for me. I liked it.

Taking the class helped me think about new ways for telling my stories. It reminded me of what I've always liked about personal essays, the vulnerability that the writer risks and the way it makes me feel connected to the writer.

Here's the end result on SoundCloud.
If it sounds a little "rustic," I hope you'll forgive that: All the audio was recorded on my cell phone, edited with free software downloaded from Hindenburg:

Experiencing StoryCorps

I've always enjoyed the the way you get to eavesdrop on the conversations that make up StoryCorps features. A few weeks ago, I had the unexpected good fortune to be part of a StoryCorp recording.

Filling out the required paperwork

My longtime friend Hugh Jacobs wanted to capture the story of his mother. She died of cancer when he was 16. He worried that her grandchildren and great grandchildren wouldn't know anything about her. So he asked me to help him tell those stories, by interviewing him.

When the door finally opened, we found out that our old WIS-TV friend and co-worker Joe Pinner was there just before us, recording his own stories.

It was cold. We got there a little early. Hugh seemed nervous. And I was curious about how it would all play out. We'd met for lunch the day before to talk about the stories he wanted to tell. Recalling his mom's death had brought up a lot of old, difficult memories.

Getting ready to record Hugh's stories

The StoryCorps mobile studio is a lovely little gem of a thing, with a producer sitting in to make the recording and ask the occasional question to help make the story clearer. I had a few notes and asked Hugh both planned and unplanned questions, trying hard to listen, hoping I was capable of prompting him to tell the stories I knew he wanted to record.

Wrapping up the details and getting a CD of the interview.

I hope Hugh got everything he needed. I know I got the thrill of doing something unbelievably cool. Not only was I allowed to indulge my inner Charlie Rose, but I learned new things about someone I've been friends with for 30 years. Thank you, StoryCorps! And thanks to everyone in Columbia who worked to bring them to our city!