Mountain Man's Guide to Manliness

So I know you guys are used to my writing, but in spirit of the holiday season, I decided to spice it up a bit. This is my first video post! Yay! I did this as a Christmas gift to my good friend Chris. Special thanks to Kelsey for helping me out!

I present to you "Mountain Man's Guide to Manliness."

Internal Dialogue

Today was a lovely day. I got to meet up with one of my best friends Catherine. We do this periodically, and I must say not enough. We were chatting about Harry Potter, Pride and Prejudice, theater, and our idiosyncrasies in our local Barnes and Noble (our go-to location). Then we stumbled upon a marvelous idea.

As individuals, Catherine and I are both pretty intense people, so naturally, together we are a force to be reckoned with in all senses.  We had a wonderful opportunity to perform with each other in a show called Lettice and Lovage. (Yes, we are theatre people if that explains anything at all about our intense demeanors and extreme emotions.) We know how to work with one another. We know what makes the other person tick. We know each other’s strengths.

Cat is very gifted in the verbal department. She is very vocal. She can create very interesting characters through different accents, inflections, articulations, tones, and intonations. Her characters are always very strong through her voice alone. Oh, how I envy her verbal strength.

My strength, on the other hand, lies within the nonverbal department. I wear my emotions on my sleeve, and a person will know exactly what I am thinking just by looking at me. I am very expressive without speaking. My whole life I have received comments on my facial expressions and body language. I am the girl of 10,000 faces.

An extremely talented actor is naturally gifted in both of these departments. An actor needs both of these tools, voice and body, to perform.

So we started thinking of a way we could combine both of our strengths. “What if,” we thought, “we could maximize both those strengths in one character?” So, thus our idea unfolds: a play all about internal dialogue.
I, Kathleen, would be the only person on stage, and my character would be having an internal dialogue with herself. Here is the catch. I do not speak; I am on stage, and my nonverbals are my only tool. Cat would be off stage with a microphone and would be my voice. Her voice alone, would be her only tool. We would have to work together as one character. I would be reacting to Cat’s verbals through my own nonverbals.

Now let me give you a little scoop on actors. We like to be heard and seen. 

Any actor can tell you that they have at least once went through a script and counted how many lines they had. We want to be heard. When we speak, we are the center of attention.

We also like to be seen. I mean, hello, that is why we are on stage. We want people to see us.

So Catherine and I would both have to give up something that is crucial in establishing identity for actors. We give up one crucial tool to focus on our specific strength, and in doing that, we must work together to make a complete character.  Challenging? Yes. We’re excited.

Our goal in this is to bring to light the necessity of both tools. It will also be a very humbling experience because we both have to give up one tool that is crucial to the ego of an actor. I will have no lines. Painful. Cat will not be seen. Painful. However, together we will be seen and heard. Together we are one character.

We are currently working on the script.

Coming soon! (As in maybe next year, or maybe 10 years from now)

The Rules of Storytelling

The Rules of Storytelling:

1. Assume your story is the most important story ever.

2. Always tell the truth, but don't be afraid to exaggerate. When in doubt, fluff it out.*

3. The more excited you are about your story, the better it tends to be.

4. Expression, expression, expression. Facial expressions, hand gestures, and body movement always make your story at least 12 times better. Act it out! Storytelling is all about your delivery. 

5. Use props if available, but don't overuse them. The props don't have to necessarily be accurate according to your story. In fact, inaccurate props have the potential of making your story even more humorous. For example, a table can be used in the place of a car. People can also be used as props.

6. Make sure your story is detailed. A story without details is boring. Details spice it up. However, an overly detailed story becomes too long and hard to handle. So keeping kitchen spices in mind remember, No spices: Tasteless. Too many spices: Ridiculous.

7. Never let anyone interrupt you in the middle of your story, not even if you are tag teaming it. It causes you to lose momentum. If you find someone trying to interrupt your story, increase your volume and talk over them.

8. Don't allow questions until the end. Again, it makes you lose momentum.

9. Side-stories and random facts are highly encouraged. However, the side-story must make sense within your story and the random facts must be relevant. 

10. No matter how poor the response is once you complete your story, never, never EVER end a story with "And then I found 5 bucks." You are just confirming the story's failure. Own your story with pride, because remember, it IS the best story ever.

*Clause: The only time you are allowed to flat out lie is when you are telling "scar"ry stories. If the story of how you happened to get a scar is pretty lame, you can make it have a heroic spin. For example, I am clumsy, and I often have a tendency to trip over my monster feet. So naturally, my clumsy stories turn into heroic stories about how I saved little kids from getting hit by cars.  

I hope you may find this useful for your next story-telling endeavor. Print it out and study it if you must.