POSTSCRIPT TO THE LOG OF THE BLACK BIRD MASK

By Rita Grimaldi

The Black Bird Mask Tells Its Story to Two Different Kinds of Audiences

Storytellers put on their stories like clothing. They wear their stories for the period of telling. Masked storytellers put on their stories like skin. They belong to their stories for the period of telling.

One hundred nineteen days after beginning the Log of the Black Bird Mask, I told the story of ‘The Bird Who Spoke Three Times’ to an audience of storytellers.

All these storytellers were members of Storytellers of Canada. I preceded the telling by a presentation about my experiences of telling stories in mask and the making of masks. In the presentation, I worked with the audience to elicit how the experience of telling in mask was different for both the audience and teller of the story.

Now it is two days later. This morning I woke up thinking about the two different audiences for the Black Bird mask story. I was considering the difference in the two audiences’ responses after the story.

           

My first audience was made up of the general public with a few storytellers mixed in. Their response in the Q & A after the story was to comment on and ask questions about the story and the effect of the mask on the story. For example, their interests were in the concept of the bird as a protector of Dona Rosita and also the experience of the mask as affecting the power of viewing the story.

           

My second audience was all storytellers. The story in both performances was the same. The Black Bird mask and the Donna Rosita mask both told their stories in the same way. However, the storytellers’ comments and questions after the story were not about the story at all. They were about the mechanics of telling the story. The ‘how to’ of telling a story in mask – about what my experience was like telling in mask.

           

The skilled storytellers heard the narrative of the story but also saw, heard and experienced the Black Bird’s skill and art in telling the story. Their questions were aimed at understanding this skill. And for some of them, maybe it was also about how to adopt this skill into their own repertoire of storytelling.

How fine this is! One of my intentions in presenting to the group of storytellers was to link modern storytellers to the mask tradition created by many indigenous tellers. Masked storytellers from traditions like the Haida, the Greeks, the Balinese and the Mexicans.

I am so pleased at the idea that some among the storyteller audience might consider joining this old tradition of storytelling. That they might consider following in the footsteps of those who have gone before us.