THE REDEMPTION OF WOLF MASK - PART TWO

By Rita Grimaldi

                            

Rewriting ‘The Iron Wolf’ for Telling in Wolf Mask

Telling a story in mask requires that the story be told as if it were the experience of the mask character itself. 

So as I rewrite the original story, I imagine myself as Wolf. I feel what the story’s chain of events would be like if I were Wolf thinking in human language. In this frame of mind, I see right away that as Wolf, I am an adversary to the human man, the hero of the story.

In the story of The Iron Wolf, wolf makes a deal with this male hero.  The hero is given a magic egg in return for 12 years of service to a holy man.  Instructions are given that the egg must not be broken until a strong cattle pen is built. The hero goes against these instructions, cracking the egg open without the pen. Cattle pour out - too many for him to round up. This is when the Iron Wolf appears.

Wolf offers to put the cattle back into the egg and to make the egg whole again in return for the hero agreeing to be eaten on his wedding day by the wolf.  The hero agrees to this bargain, accepts his magically restored egg and becomes rich because of it.

The Question of Wolf Eating his Adversaries

In many wolf stories, Wolf is portrayed as wanting to eat his adversaries. For example, he eats two of the three little pigs and he also eats Red Riding Hood’s grandmother.

And in this traditional story, Wolf gets agreement to eat the young man.

Food is perhaps the ultimate human resource. In primitive times, wolves competed with people for this resource.

But in storytelling traditions, being eaten may represent winning the game. So this is why Grandma has to be restored from the wolf’s stomach and the third little pig has to kill the wolf.

In my original story, Wolf is torn apart by three dogs.

But I am rewriting the story.

I am redeeming Wolf.

So I don’t have to follow the traditional story pattern.

In my rewrite, Wolf will die but he will come back to life. He will learn. And then Wolf will prosper from this learning.

So here is what I did.

I followed the story pattern. At the beginning, I wrote in Wolf’s feelings and Wolf’s desire to make a bargain that is advantageous to him.

Wolf says, “I will collect the cattle and drive them back into the egg for you. And then I will patch the egg so it will be quite whole. But in return for that, whenever you sit on the bridal bench I will come and eat you.”

In my story, I will write that Wolf watches and waits for the time when his bargain will be fulfilled - when the young man marries and then tries to escape. I will write of Wolf’s feelings and desires to have the justice of getting his side of the bargain fulfilled. These feelings will be apparent over the four days of Wolf’s pursuit of the young man. They will end when Wolf is killed by the three dogs given to the young man by old men and old women.

This is how the traditional story ends but in my version, I will not end it there.

I will continue the story.

I will allow my Wolf the redemption of learning from his experience.

Here is my new ending, beginning at Wolf’s death.

The New Ending

In my mask, being Wolf, I will say:

Chutko sounded the alarm.

Vazhko pinned me to the earth.

And Barry tore me to pieces.

I died in great pain.

And from another place – away from this world – I saw the young man gather his three dogs around him, mount his horse and ride away.

When they were gone,

I put myself back together again.

I did this just as I had put the red egg back together again.

And then I considered my situation.

Well, I thought, now the young man has three dogs.

And these dogs have killed me once.

It is better not to follow them.

So I let the young man live in peace.

And I went about my own business.

And In Conclusion…

Wolf becomes a learning creature. He learns from his experience. He becomes less bound by his instinctual desire to eat his adversaries. Contrary to the traditional pattern, Wolf is now able to choose his own behaviour and in doing so, keep himself safe.

December 28, 2015

To be continued…

Part Three will discuss how Rita changes Wolf’s costume to reflect his inner changes.

Part Four will discuss the public performance of Wolf in mask and a debrief of Rita’s experience with the Wolf mask.

THE REDEMPTION OF WOLF MASK

by Rita Grimaldi

In most traditional stories the wolf is a negative force.

But what if I could see Wolf as I see Coyote?

What if Wolf, like Coyote, had two types of behaviour?

What if Wolf is able to have both good and bad behaviour?

Taking that line of thought a step further, what if Wolf was able to redeem himself from his own bad behavior? In other words, what if Wolf was able to learn from his bad behavior and choose to use his abilities and personality for good acts?

So here is what I will do for my Wolf mask.

In January, I will tell another Wolf story. For me, this will be the third story in this mask.

But this time, I will rewrite the story so that Wolf recovers from his bad behaviour. But first, Wolf will die then bring himself back to life and behave in a positive manner.

In this way, I will experience Wolf as having all psychological aspects:

• ·         Strengths and weaknesses
• ·         Good and bad behaviour
• ·         A physical being and a supernatural one
• ·         Both adversarial and protector roles

For me, Wolf will become a deeper being - beyond opposites while containing his opposites.

And best of all, my Wolf mask will become able to tell stories in all aspects of its being.

In three subsequent posts, please join me in seeing how this redemption of Wolf comes to pass.

To be continued…

Rita Grimaldi is a mask maker and performance artist skilled in the art of oral storytelling. Several of her mask diaries appear in earlier posts on this blog. Rita is a member of Peterborough Storytellers in Ontario, Canada. 

She can be contacted at peterboroughstorytellers@cogeco.ca

THE LITANY OF THE SHAMAN MOTHER MASK

By Rita Grimaldi

Beginning After The End

Five days after the performance of the Shaman Mother story I woke up thinking about the three shaman workshops I have gone to. I thought about how the telling of the Shaman Mother story was at least equivalent to being at those workshops in terms of an experience of shaman reality. Perhaps even telling it may be superior to being at the workshops. 

What follows is the documentation, in present time, of my preparation and performance of the Shaman Mother story.

Come follow me in my journey toward a deep personal experience of shaman reality.

I Prepare …

1.    I find a National Geographic story of Shaman Mother’s tribe, the Reindeer Chukchee. The article has pictures of her people and text about the importance of the reindeer to her people. I also find pictures of an ancient burial. A horse is being buried to be with the dead person in the land of the dead. Both these elements are part of Shaman Mother’s story.

2.    I research clothing worn by Reindeer Chukchee woman. It happens that I have elements of this clothing. I set these aside for the costume.

3.    I rewrite Shaman Mother’s story twice. I choose, discard and add what feels right for my telling of the story.

4.    I learn the story as I have written it.

I Rehearse …

I am teaching storytelling and have other storytelling commitments. So I have no time to rehearse in costume until the afternoon before the performance.

I rehearse once. I decide to use the drum when Shaman Mother uses the drum in the story.

I Perform …

I show the audience the pictures I found of the Reindeer Chukchee and the ancient burial of the horse. I read aloud text on the role of the shaman in his or her society. I want the audience as embedded into the world of Shaman Mother as I will be when I transform into her through my use of mask and drum.

Then I have one of my storytelling students drum the heart beat while I change behind a screen. I come out as Shaman Mother. In her clothing. In her face. In her fur head dress. In her boots. I begin to speak her story.

The litany of Shaman Mother’s words pours out of me.

Some Of The Litany Of Shaman Mother’s Words

“I know from his words that my son is dead.”

“A great wail rises from my throat.”

“Let me rest, I say.”

“Rest?” says my husband. “You are a shaman. You have no need of rest. Do something!”

“I beat my drum and go to the land of the dead. But I cannot find my son’s soul body.”

“I tell my husband to slaughter one of the reindeer teams so that I can travel on them in the land of the dead.”

“Then I drum and travel on the reindeer team.”

“I find my son’s soul body. It is in the house of a female monster. She has trapped him.”

“I free my son and take him with me.”

“The female monster comes after us. She says, ‘I will break your bones and swallow both of you.’”

“My brave son says, “Mother let me fall and she will come after me and you will be safe.”

“No!” I say. “If we die, we die together.”

“The sky is blood red. My animal allies have killed the female monster. I go back to my village and begin to drum over my son’s body.”

“When his body is restored, I snatch his soul and place it in his body.”

“‘Wake up! Wake up!’” I say. “You have slept long enough.”

“My boy wakes, alive and well.”

“I embrace him and I tell him how proud I was of his courage against the female monster.”

“I am tired. Now I go to sleep.”

The End …

I leave the performance area.

I remove the costume and the mask.

I become Rita again.

______________________

How I Felt During The Telling Of Shaman Mother’s Story

Five days after the performance, I wrote in the present tense, the following words. It is as I remember it.

The words of the story are like a river I ride on. I travel down it.

When I come to the word ‘diver’ I remember that I had wanted to explain this word to the audience and that I had forgotten to do so. So I added the explanation, saying “diver - a water bird who dives under the water”. The word ‘diver’ was like a stone in the river of words.

I allow the river of words to flow through me. I accept the feeling of these words.

Not my words but the real Shaman Mother’s Words.

That is the important part of the experience. That She/I feel the words.

She/I feel desperate and tired when I say “A great wail rises from my throat.”

She/I feel determination and sorrow when “I beat my drum and go to the land of the dead to find my son’s soul body.”

And most of all. Best of all ...

She/I feel strength and rightness when I say “No! If we die, we die together.”

And finally, when She/I bring the boy back to life and praise him for his courage in the face of the monster.

She/I feel love and caring and pride in knowing this son.

For me, Shaman Mother was a real woman and a real shaman.  Shaman reality was her real existence. So becoming her, through mask, made shaman reality my real existence. Whatever she felt in the two worlds she traveled in, I felt too.

These feelings were so powerful that they will never ever leave me. My experience of her realities - the world of the living and the world of the dead - were so powerful, that they will never ever leave me.

The power of mask is to enter another world and to bring part of it back with you.

______________________

Rita Grimaldi is a founding member of Peterborough Storytellers.

Rita welcomes your comments on this posting 
and her many other articles posted here on 'Tales and Tips' 

about the art of preparing and performing in mask.

Rita's contact information is: 

peterboroughstorytellers@cogeco.ca

THE TRUTH FAIRY

By Rita Grimaldi

What if there was a truth fairy

And every time a storyteller told a personal story and he or she strayed from how things really happened, this Truth Fairy would appear and say, “Now now that is not how it really happened. You must retell that part of the story again as it really happened.”

But no Truth Fairy exists and those of us who have the innocence to be gullible, suffer from her non-existence.

Telling the old stories is different. When I tell the old stories, everyone is aware that these oral gems have been passed down word of mouth for hundreds of years. Everyone knows that they are always changing and evolving.

But personal stories are not like the old stories. They belong to those who lived them and they become part of a relationship between the teller and the listener. When the teller obviously changes what happened, as in telling tall tales, the relationship remains in tact. But for me, when the changes that are made are not obvious and I find out later about these changes, I feel some how misled and cheated.

In defending his or her stretching of the facts, the teller might say, “Well if I tell the story with these changes to what really happened then I will effect the listener more.” This for me is not a good reason to change the story.

A simple solution exists. This solution would keep the honesty of the teller/listener relationship intact.

If the teller chooses to change facts or circumstances in the story, before telling the story he or she would say,

“I have changed certain things in this story. For me these changes make the story more interesting.”

Then the Truth Fairy will be satisfied. The story will come into the realm of fantasy and out of the realm of reality.

WE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT YOU...

Hello to our readers. Our page continues to receive continued world-wide readership. Thank you for checking in on our Tales and Tips blog from time to time.

We'd like to learn more about you and your interest in storytelling, either as a listener or a teller. Leave us some information on our Comment section at the end of this post.

If you have written a story about your storytelling experiences, we'd love to hear from you and with your permission, post your story on Tales and Tips.

We'll be posting some new stories in the near future.

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REALLY KNOWING YOUR STORY...BY KEN MURRAY

[Peterborough Storytellers asked writing coach and author Ken Murray to tell us about his experience in encouraging writers to create the first draft of their story. We believe that Ken’s experience closely parallels the process that any oral storyteller goes through when creating and preparing a story idea for telling to others. We welcome your comments to share with our readers. Use the ‘Comments’ section at the end of the posting.]

REALLY KNOWING YOUR STORY

By Ken Murray

Helping somebody write a story might, from the outside looking in, appear magical or even a little like hucksterism — Somebody is going to teach me to write? Yeah right! — but there is a solid grounding from which to work, and it comes down to questions.

Does the writer know the story yet, or is the writer still in the process of discovering the story?

If the writer knows the story, really knows it, then the work is technical. What details should be brought to the reader? When? What order? How?

And if the writer needs to develop technical skills on the page, teach these. It’s a teacher’s job.

But what most often happens is that the writer does not really know the story yet. And in this case they must spend time writing freely, letting grammar, style, and word economy take the back seat. These details can be dealt with later, because right now the writer needs to let the story live and breathe and grow. The writer needs the story to come alive. They need to write it fully.

Once a full, creaky, large draft is in place, it’s the writer’s job to listen to that draft, really listen, and listen not for the story they thought they were writing, not for the story they want to hear, but for the story that is there.

When the writer starts listening to the story that is there, they are getting close to knowing the story, and then we are back to working on the technical aspects I’ve noted above.

If there is an eye-opening moment that happens consistently in my classes, it’s when students grasp that all stories reveal characters. A story comes alive when a character on the page becomes real in the reader’s mind and perceptions. The character becomes someone the reader reacts to emotionally. The reader wants to know more about the character, frets about the character, has hopes for the character, or perhaps becomes angry or frustrated with the character.

If a story draft presents a character and an opportunity to reveal that character, the writer must look more closely at that character, write them, and see what the story is behind them, inside them.

Ken’s latest book, ‘Eulogy, A Novel’ is in bookstores now.

His Facebook page is: www.facebook.com/kenmurray/writer.

Ken’s website, www.kenmurray.ca, has information about his popular writing classes, a blog of his observations about the art of writing, life situations occurring around him and much more helpful information.

Ken lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario

Photo: Ken Murray

LEARNING TO WRITE STORIES FOR MASK

By Rita Grimaldi

One of my goals for taking a week-long writing course at the Haliburton School of the Arts was to write stories for my masks to tell. The course instructor was Ken Murray. Ken gave us instruction on how to write, edit, form paragraphs and most important, how to ‘resonate’ with the reader or in my role as an oral storyteller, how it will resonate with the listener.

Writing For Mask

It was not until the morning of Day Three that I had the courage to attempt to write stories for my masks. To help me write, I had brought photos of myself in mask and of the masks themselves. I started with a photo of Small Bear mask. This mask has only been used once, by a dancer in the performance of Skeleton Woman. I have never told a story in it. 

I began by setting up the photo of Small Bear in front of me.

As I looked at it I thought of all the traditional stories I knew about bears. I knew many transformation stories about males who had been transformed into bears.  So I began one of these. The writing went nowhere. I stopped writing the story and began to write lists of all the ways transformation happens, and all the variations of getting the male back to his male form. But still no story emerged.

Ken’s Perspective On Writing For Mask

         

On Day Four, Ken met personally with each of us to give feedback and to answer questions. When my turn came, I brought my photos of masks and showed them to him.

I said, “Ken how would I write stories for these masks to tell?”

Ken looked at the first picture - the one of Black Bear mask in the forest.

 You can read the story of this mask in my article ‘The Connectedness Of All Things’

(March 24, 2014) in the ‘Tales and Tips’ story blog of Peterborough Storytellers (www.peterboroughstorytellers.blogspot.com).

He said, “Look. Its eyes are looking at something. What is it?”

         

He was telling me to start with the face of the mask.  He was telling me to let the mask tell me what the story is. Of course! This is how I always pair story and mask - intuitively reading stories until I find a story the mask face tells me it can tell.

But now I had to begin not by reading but by pulling the story directly out of the mask face. So I went back to the classroom and once again set the photo of Small Bear mask in front of me and I wrote this story. It is the second draft and it has been rewritten in the first person for telling and performance in mask.

Small Bear Mask’s Story Spoken In Its Voice

I am looking hard. Something is moving. What is it? I am frightened. I feel my heart pounding.  What is coming?  I wish it were my mother coming. I lost her when the ice we were walking on cracked apart. Then the wind stops. And the snow stops swirling and I see that there is nothing coming. I am safe.

         

I curl up against a snow ridge to try and keep warm. I think about my mother. How warm she was to curl up beside. It is so dark. So dark. The sun has gone now. I hear the ice creak. Then I get up. I begin to run over the packed snow. I am hungry. I run hard. Look! I see a dark patch in the snow. Yes! Yes! It is a circle, a fishing hole left by an Inuit hunter. Now I can hunt for fish. Now my belly will be filled.

I stop by the hole. My sharp eyes look into the hole.

My sharp ears listen for movement in the water below.

Sound.

Then the blur of movement

The slap of my paw

The feel of cold fish

Taste in my mouth

Warmth in my belly

Feeling better

Sleep now in the dark day/night.

 My Thoughts On Small Bear Mask’s Story

This story is a very immediate narrative. I regard it as the first step in writing story for mask. It is based on experience rather than events. I think Ken’s instruction to me was designed to get me into the experience of the mask as a being. This is a good starting point for writing. As I go on, the story content will evolve out of the experience content.

An Interesting Post-Script To The Small Bear Mask Story...

Rita writes: On Sunday November 8, I again told the above story in Small Bear Mask.

The next day, I looked at the photos from the performance.

Seeing the photos I remembered Small Bear’s feelings when telling his story.

I remembered Small Bear’s fear. I remembered his inner drive for survival even when he was so alone and so frightened.

Early this morning and for several early mornings previously, I reflected on my Small Bear mask telling experience. I came to realize that Small Bear’s drive to find what is necessary for his survival is, in truth, a deep part of my own life.

Like Small Bear, I too lost my mother at a young age. The survival drive within me is similar to that possessed by Small Bear. Mine has led me to search for ‘food’ and find it. This search is not only just a part of ‘story land’. It is part of this world as well.

Small Bear’s words about catching fish are my words too. I was so careful to learn and say each one exactly as I had written them because they brought into my body the truth of my own life.

Such is the power of the mask for me and my life.

Addendum:

1.   Ken Murray is an excellent writing teacher. To get more information about Ken go to kenmurray.ca

2.   To get more information on the Haliburton School of the Arts go to flemingcollege.ca/school/haliburton-school-of-the-arts

Rita Grimaldi is an active member of the Peterborough Storytellers

in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

To contact Rita, email her at peterboroughstorytellers@cogeco.ca.

ANNIE AND THE WOLF MASK

By Rita Grimaldi

BEING WOLF, TRANSFORMATION AND THE WOLF MASK

The experience of telling two stories in my Wolf mask is still full of emotion even after almost two weeks. This is because of the stories I told. The second story, Medicine Wolf, especially was full of raw emotion and need. Some part of me wanted to clear the Wolf mask of the emotions of these stories. So I decided to write a fictional piece in order to have another kind of experience with the mask.

Working in fiction allowed a full transformation and allowed me to write in a mentor for the mask being.

So taking my fictional personna - Annie - I went into story land wearing the Wolf mask. Here is the story of being Wolf in story land.

 ANNIE AND THE WOLF MASK

Annie put on Rita’s Wolf mask and went into story land. She turned into a wolf as soon as she crossed the border. A fine white wolf she was, walking over the rocky ground. The ocean came into sight, big waves rolling into the shore.

Annie/wolf walked along the shore. By and by she came to a little house. An old woman sat outside spinning wool on a drop spindle.

Annie/wolf approached her. “Good day grandmother,” she said, “Can I have some food?”

The old woman looked at her but she did not answer. Then Annie realized that what she had said sounded like barking. So she took human form and asked again.

“Please grandmother can I have something to eat?”

“Come inside,” said the old woman.

So Annie walked into the house. Inside Annie saw a magic thing. All the windows looked out on a different view. Annie saw the ocean out one window, a city out another window, farm land out a third and a forest out a fourth window.

“How can there be so many places outside your house?” asked Annie.

“Well,” said the old woman, “That is because this house is at the centre of the worlds.”

Annie sat down at a small table on a small chair. She had a tiny cup of tea and a tiny biscuit. When she had finished she said, “I had best be going now. Thank you for the tea and biscuit.” Then Annie went out the door. She became a wolf again.

Outside was as it had been, the ocean tumbling by. Annie/wolf walked along the shore to where she had come into story land. Then she walked into the real world.

Now she was human again – wearing the world mask. She walked into Rita’s studio. There she took off Rita’s Wolf mask and hung it on the wall.

After that she sat on the small couch and thought about the house at the centre of the world.

She wondered what would have happened if she had climbed out one of the windows instead of going out of the door.