By Jennifer Kennedy
Tara Hartley is a storyteller. No, she’s not a librarian. She doesn’t wear a bun. And she certainly doesn’t read Little Red Riding Hood to groups of five-year-olds.
“It’s storytelling, not story-reading,” deadpans Hartley.
What Hartley does is spin complex tales from her head, without cue cards or pauses, with her hands cutting the air, her wide eyes glued to the audience, her words creating images so vivid that all, young and old, are spellbound by the power of her words. She’s a magician without a cape. She’s got the art of spinning a good yarn down.
Hartley is part of a growing art form that has ancient roots, but contemporary popularity.
Once upon a time, storytellers entertained and enlightened all who gathered around the campfire, in skirts or loincloths.
Now, amidst the world of television, the Internet and cell phones, that oral tradition is once again finding its place. So much so that two years ago, the Canada Council and the Art Council of Ontario began recognizing storytelling as a performance art.
“Storytelling is absolutely growing,” states Ruth Bowen, program chair with Ottawa
Storytellers.
When the non-profit group began almost 20 years ago with the aim to develop a forum for storytellers, they were seven strong. Now, the group has 70 members. “It’s been a steady growth,” says Bowen, a 15-year storytelling veteran.
This year, the 12th annual Ottawa Storytelling Festival at the National Library Nov. 11 and 12 will feature its largest group of storytellers. More than 50 tellers from Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes will perform, telling tales and running public workshops.
“It’s an opportunity to have some of the best storytellers in Eastern Canada come and perform for an Ottawa audience,” says Bowen.
At the festival, Hartley and Jennifer Cayles, another Ottawa storyteller, will be telling some of Ovid’s tales. Yes, that’s Ovid, the Roman poet of 2,000 years ago who wrote epic poems.
Why Ovid?
“I’ve always liked the traditional oral stories,” says Hartley, who’s from Centretown, “not just the Grimm Brothers.”
The two have spent hours culling from different translations of Metamorphoses to create their tale. They’ve memorized parts of it and practised their oratory, just as an actor rehearses his part.
But, spinning tales from the classics isn’t new to Hartley.
In August, she and 20 other local storytellers told The Iliad. Over three days and three nights, with breaks only for sleep and food, Homer’s epic held their attention. Hartley told about 40 minutes of the tale, but she spent 80 hours preparing for it, reading various versions, researching Greek history and etching passages into her memory. She can still recite it on demand, reeling off long passages in the syntax and language of old.
“It’s like any other kind of performance,” says Hartley, 33.
“Everything has to click and it has to happen between the teller and the audience. It’s really important to get the attention of the audience and part of being a good storyteller is judging the reaction from the audience.”
Storytelling for Hartley began eight years ago when she attended the Ottawa Storytelling Festival. She’s been hooked ever since.
Now, Hartley has a stash of great stories percolating in her head. Half of them she’s read; the rest she’s heard.
“The (storyteller’s) community is a very welcoming community,” she explains. “All kinds of people are involved, although a lot of them work with words.”
Hartley, who works for the federal government in Hull, says there’s etiquette in storytelling.
“You do not take someone’s personal story without their permission . . . and this is also true if you found the story in a book.”
If a First Nations tale is being told, for instance, it’s important not to destroy the context of the story explains Hartley. Some stories are told to teach a lesson and the teller must be sensitive to that.
“But, I’m not going to write to Ovid to ask permission,” she jokes.