THE STORY OF THE MOUSE AND THE PRINCESS MASK: PART TWO

By Rita Grimaldi

Making The Clothing For The Mouse Bride

In some science fiction stories, the hero crosses into another reality. As he crosses, he is automatically dressed as an inhabitant of that new reality.

I approached the telling of ‘The Mouse Bride’ in this way. I have a great desire to clothe both the Mouse mask and the Princess mask as they might be dressed in their story world.

  

Mouse in the story is an ordinary grey mouse. But I can’t turn myself into the size of a mouse or have mouse skin.

On top of this, Mouse and Princess are the same person - the Princess being transformed into the Mouse by a witch. So their dresses must mirror each other.

The Shape

I began to think about what shape the Mouse and Princess’ dresses could take. The audience must read each dress as follows: simplicity and small animal for the mouse; beauty and elegance for the Princess. I decide on a simple flowing tube-shape dress for each mask.

Choice of Materials

Grey was the necessary colour for Mouse - the story says that Mouse is a ‘little gray mouse’. So, in my collection of fabrics and precious sewing items, I found a piece of grey fabric for Mouse. And for Princess, I chose a fabric with velvet flowers embossed on it and a beautiful embroidered bird.

The Dresses

Here are the two dresses for Mouse (on the left) and the Princess (on the right).

The Headdresses

Because I can’t have the head of a mouse, I needed to have my head covered for the performance. And once again, the headdress for Mouse must have a mirror image in that worn by the Princess.

Here are the headdresses - Princess to the left, Mouse to the right.

  

Matching Features of the Headdresses

o   Both Princess and Mouse are the same shape.

o   Each headdress has white detail – lace for the Princess and rickrack for Mouse.

o   Mouse has a bow made of the material of the Princess’ dress sewn to the right side.

o   Both headdresses have deep gray colour in their construction.

Mask work requires the teller to enter into the story far more than in regular storytelling. Mask requires immersion on the part of the teller – giving up part of oneself to become the character in the story.

The clothing a mask wears helps me come into the being of the mask. In this case, Mouse’s clothing helped me be a small creature still believing in a positive future. Princess’ clothing helped me be an elegant and beautiful young Princess.

This is the magic of mask. In the plot of the written story, transformation happens through the power of an external person. But in the performed story, the masks and costumes invoke a transformation experience equally as powerful.

  

In Part Three, I will talk about

the transformation experience

of telling

‘The Mouse Bride’.

THE STORY OF THE MOUSE MASK AND THE PRINCESS MASK - PART ONE

By Rita Grimaldi

The Mouse Bride: A Story Summary

Out of jealousy, a Lapland Witch has turned a Princess and all her servants into mice. Only when one man agrees to marry the mouse and another tries to kill the mouse by submerging her in water will the mouse regain her human form. After a series of events, the two conditions are fulfilled. The mouse, now in her human form, marries Jukka, the man who promised to marry her when she was a mouse. Together they go to live in the Princess’ restored castle.

Making the Mouse And Princess Masks

The Mouse face was sculpted in two hours.

  

          

But making the Princess mask was another matter.

I think we all have certain images of animals in our minds. These images are general shapes. As long as a mask conforms to the general shape of the animal it represents, then we “experience” the animal as real.

But when it comes to making a mask of the human face, we are much more exacting. We want things anatomically right. We also want the emotions in the story being told to be compatible with the mask face.

In the case of a transformation story such as The Mouse Bride, it gets even more complicated because both masks used in this story must have some common feelings because, in reality, they are one person.

My Criteria For The Two Masks

So here are the criteria I arrived at for making the two masks I used in the telling of ‘The Mouse Bride’.

1. The princess mask must have the same feeling as the mouse mask.

2. The visual characteristics must be consistent between the mouse and human female masks. At the beginning of the story, the mouse has a positive and optimistic attitude. She also has confidence in her skills and those of her helpers. So when she transforms back from her mouse form into her human form, her human face must read as positive, confident and strong.

3. The Princess’ human face must be beautiful. The story tells us that after transformation into her human form, she is “the most beautiful maiden Jukka has ever seen”.

My Failure To Achieve Both Beauty And Similar Feelings

After I completed the rice paper shells of each mask, I waited to absorb what I have made. A few days later, I decided to stop the process of mask making and to work on the costumes and headdresses.

Ten days later, when these were complete, I looked again at the mask shells and I realized that the female mask was not right for the story. She was neither beautiful nor did she possess similar feelings to the mouse mask. Below on left is Mouse mask without painting or adornments. On the right is Princess mask. See how she is far too masculine looking, not beautiful. And, to my eye, she is not similar in feeling to the mouse.

I began to think about what to do. I tried cutting the female mask smaller. But still, it was not right. I considered using my Young Girl mask with leaf headdress. But beside Mouse, her feeling was too small, too gentle and too innocent. She lacked the Mouse Princess’ strength and optimistic courage.

Making The Second Princess Mask

I began to feel old - too old to make such a face. Then I decided that it was necessary for me to re-acquire my own feelings of strength, innocence and beauty, as you cannot create what you do not feel inside. So doing this and not anticipating either success or failure, I began to re-sculpt the Princess’ face once more.

I worked from the plasticene form I sculpted for my original Princess mask.

Here is what I did.

1. I removed the detail across the forehead.
2. I re-shaped the nose, removing almost all of the plasticine.
3. I removed all details from around the eyes.
4. I re-sculpted the mouth to make it less open.
5. I removed plasticene from the circumference of the mask to make the mask smaller.And finally, I brought the features of the face forward to make it flatter and rounder in feeling.

Now satisfied with the new, re-worked form, I made the rice paper shell. Pictured below, beside the Mouse mask, is my second Princess mask.

She has a much simpler face. Her eyes and nose are almost my own eyes and nose. Only her lips and the shape of her face are different from my own face.

As this mask is far closer to my real face, I feel more rapport with it. I can also see potential strength in it and I know that this strength would emerge once the mask was painted.

In my mind, as I looked at the mask, I began to choose colours to paint it - blue for the eyes (as in the story, the mouse has very blue eyes), off-white for the nose (as the mouse has white on her nose), gold under her eyes for beauty, pink on her cheeks for health and lastly, very red lips.

In Part Three you will see the painted Princess mask and enjoy her beauty.

Part Two will come soon. 

It is about the making of the costumes.

TO BE CONTINUED...

‘The Mouse Bride’ can be found in 
Scandinavian Folk and Fairy Tales.

Edited by Claire Booss.

New York: Gramercy Books, 1984.

IN AND OUT OF MASK                                         

By Rita Grimaldi

I have told so many stories in mask over the last year that I have forgotten the look of my own storytelling face without the mask.

Yesterday, rehearsing before a mirror for children’s storytelling, my out-of-mask face seemed flat, two-dimensional.

Rita performing ‘The People of the Trees’

But as soon as I put on Monkey mask, to rehearse ‘Molly the Monkey’ - one of the stories I planned to tell - my whole being came alive. The story came alive. Energy welled up in me and poured into my experience of the story.

It occurred to me that this was not right. My own face must be as valuable a storyteller as my mask face. My energy out-of-mask has to be as deep and available to audiences as when I’m in mask.

The key factor is emotion. Mask automatically brings emotion out of me because mask automatically bonds me with the feeling of being part of the story’s reality. The story’s reality becomes my reality. I see the story from inside rather than from outside.

It is not that I like the stories I tell in mask any better than I like the stories I tell out-of-mask. It’s that the stories I tell in mask I know better. They are part of me in a different way. They belong to me and I belong to them. The transformation of using the mask causes this belonging experience. When I put on the mask, it is as if I no longer belong to my regular life. I belong to the reality of the story.

So here is the Question

How can I tell stories out-of-mask with the same depth as I tell stories while in mask?

Or perhaps the better question is this.

Can my audience experience the story at the same depth whether I tell the story in or out-of-mask?

Here are strategies I use in mask work that can be applied to telling stories out of mask.

1.   First, I think about the main characters in the story.

o   Who are they?

o   What are their desires?

o   Who are their allies?

o   Who are their enemies?

All these questions are unconscious within me while I build the mask. However, the answers will become part of the mask face.

2. As I tell the story out-of-mask, I need to let my body and face express the emotion of the main character. Just as I do when in mask.

My voice needs to be just as dramatic out-of-mask. It has to express a range of volume and be different for each character.

Making each character sound distinct helps the audience separate the characters into different individuals, especially if emotion is added to the voice. For example, a fairy, a witch and a king would not only each have their own unique and different voice, but each voice will tell you how the character feels about their actions.

3. Finally, my clothing has to tell the audience something. Each item of clothing or costume gives a message. I must be aware of what that message is. For example, when we think about suits, dresses, sports clothes, we immediately have images of roles and jobs. I must remember this. What I wear as a storyteller will always tell a unique story to the audience.

I do all of the above when I tell stories in mask. Now I must do them for storytelling out-of-mask.

I have always told my storytelling students to develop their own natural style. Perhaps it’s true that my mask storytelling style has become part of me.

Now I need to let it come into my non-mask telling.

Belonging to the story’s world

I strongly believe that the more I belong to the story, the more my audience will also belong to the story. In a real way I want the external world to disappear during my telling – both for me and the audience listening to it.

Working in mask makes this transition into the story world easier. But I want to work on having equal ability to bring the audience and myself into the story world whether I am telling the story in or out of mask.

Writing this short article is the first step in doing that.

Last week, in telling stories to children, I made some progress.

o   I chose my clothes well.

o   I felt the stories more.

o   I examined who the characters were in a deeper way.

It’s a beginning. All learning first starts with awareness of the situation which then progresses to developing and practicing the skills.

Rita is a co-founding member of Peterborough Storytellers 

in Ontario, Canada.

She can be contacted at peterboroughstorytellers@cogeco.ca

WORLD STORYTELLING DAY 2016: THE MUSINGS OF A TROBAIRITZ

THE MUSINGS OF A TROBAIRITZ – PART ONE

ALL ABOUT STRONG WOMEN AND BOLD GIRLS

WORLD STORYTELLING DAY 2016

By Angelica Ottewill

Trobairitz - which is what I call myself - were the first feminists of Europe!  

In medieval times, the trobairitz wrote music and sensuous poetry, usually to men other than their husbands. Often they accompanied themselves on the harp. As a harpist, singer and storyteller, I guess I fit the bill. Except that as a married woman I stay away from the sensuous poetry to men other than my husband!

This year’s World Storytelling Day theme of ‘Strong Women and Bold Girls’ is right up my alley. 

In preparing for a radio interview to advertise our storytelling concert, I did some reading about heroines in folk tales. 

I was shocked to read in one survey that 4,000 folk and fairy tales were examined and only 100 featured females in a heroic role! One also wonders why the female heroines are usually pretty and passive, while powerful adult females are portrayed as vain, jealous, proud or downright evil! 

James Riordan in ‘The Woman in the Moon and other tales of Forgotten Heroines’ writes:

“The irony is that the original storytellers were mostly women – humble working women who led robust lives. That is why Charles Perrault called his stories ‘old wives tales'.  Yet those who wrote down the stories were mainly men:  Charles Perrault, the Grimm Brothers, Joseph Jacobs, Andrew Lang and the rest…. the characters were made to fit into society’s ideas of the way men and women should behave.’”

In the last half century, many parents and educators have been reluctant to expose children to traditional fairy tales for fear that these outdated stereotypes will have a negative impact on children.  After all, they reason, through children’s literature our children learn a lot about the world, about what is expected of them and what they can be when they grow up.  

As a five year old, I remember being shattered when my brother told me I could not be a princess when I grew up. When a kindly adult retorted “but you are a princess already!” then I was really confused.  

James Riordan goes on to write:  ‘the price of stereotyping in stories is not paid by girls alone. Not all boys wish to be adventurous, tough and aggressive.  Some want to be home-loving, gentle and caring – qualities some people define as feminine.’   

Suzanne Barchers writes in the preface to ‘Wise Women:  Folk and Fairy Tales from Around the World’:

“Though attention has been given to the negative effect of the images of passive women in fairy tales, there is no mention in the literature of the possible negative consequences of the traditional role required of men to rescue, slay dragons, or pursue quests.”

Thus, there is all the more reason for storytellers to search out those precious gems of stories that feature heroines that are courageous, resourceful and talented kas well as possessing strength of character and intelligence.

One surprising source is ‘The Secret of Laughter:  Magical Tales from Classical Persia’ by Shusha Guppy.  Knowing that some Eastern societies discriminate against women, one hardly expects to find examples in this collection. Yet here again the author reminds us that traditionally the main storytellers in her culture were women.  She writes:

“Above all, these stories extol and celebrate the Feminine:  their protagonists are mostly women whose patience and prudence, beauty, love and strength save the day for their men...”

Guppy continues.

“In these stories it is often the women who initiate the love affairs, make the first move, determine the outcome of events and overcome the obstacles that Fate and the patriarchal society scatter in the path of love and fulfilment.”

In fact, one should not be surprised to find these female role models among Eastern stories. After all, the archetypal example of a woman who saves her life and changes her own destiny is Scheherazade, the protagonist of ‘The Thousand and One Nights’.  And the most heroic character in ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’ is Morgiana, the slave girl, who saves the entire household from the treachery of the Robber Barron and the forty thieves. 

My favourite story from Shusha Guppy’s collection is ‘The Fortune Teller’s Fortune’.  It is a hilarious tale of a wife who convinces her poor laborer husband to take up the trade of a fortune teller, despite his insistence that he has no skill or knowledge of this art. This tongue in cheek story shows us how little faith the storyteller has in the occult arts and how little common sense many rich and powerful men display.

If we look far back into the annals of storytelling, we find many more examples of strong females.  The Greek Goddesses were as powerful as the male Gods and although they are often portrayed as jealous and vindictive, their male counterparts have just as many shortcomings.

Among the Hopi tribes of the Southwestern USA, we find the intriguing figure of Spiderwoman.  Rosalind Kerven in ‘Earth Magic, Sky Magic’ describes Spiderwoman:

“She was…small and dark, wrinkled.  She was sweet and warm, like her voice.”

Spiderwoman gives advice to her children:  “Do not quarrel, do not fight, do not make wars. Take care of all things that grow and the Earth that feeds them. Do you want to be happy, my grandchildren?  Then you must not hurt anyone, or anything, ever in any way.”

This year, the World Storytelling Day concerts by Peterborough Storytellers on March 18 and 20 will present stories from different cultures and time periods. Our theme will be ‘Strong Women and Bold Girls’. There will be historical, biblical and personal stories as well as folk tales.  Here is a sneak preview of the program.

Robert will tell the biblical story of Esther. The tale opens with Esther as beautiful and obedient, but also a relatively passive figure. During the course of the story, she evolves into someone who takes a decisive role in her own future and that of her people.

Rita is telling the Finnish tale of ‘The Mouse Bride’.  This charming folk tale tells us how even a very small, seemingly insignificant being can succeed, through talent and resourcefulness. Rita is both a mask maker and storyteller. She will transform using mask and costume into the mouse and then into the princess. Her goal will be to bring the audience with her into the transformation and thereby into the story.

The drama of the story will be further enhanced by Angelica’s harp playing.

Betty will tell two stories on the two different days.

The first is the story of Charley Parkhust, a historical character from the American Gold Rush days, who successfully lived her life disguised as a man, without anyone suspecting.  

Betty’s second story is from Lapland about a mother who, from the spirit world, mentors her abandoned daughter.  This story is interesting because in many cultures it is the women who possess the wisdom of the natural world and the techniques of living sustainably. All ideas, of course, that are of interest again today.

Angelica will tell the true story of one of history’s greatest ‘Femme Fatales’ - Eleanor of Aquitaine.  The wife of Henry the Second of England and the mother of Richard the Lionheart, she waged a war against her own husband and in the end, won by outliving him. 

Angelica will also sing a humorous pseudo-medieval ballad called ‘Fair Rosamond’.  It tells how Eleanor managed to penetrate a labyrinth constructed to hide Henry’s mistress Rosamond, and how she dispatched her rival.

Don will reflect on several modern women who have demonstrated considerable strength of character, will and vision in their daily lives. By creating this story, Don recognizes many such women who surround us in our daily lives.

The crowning jewel of our program will be the group telling of a medieval tale ‘The Faithful Wife’. 

This is the story of a knight’s wife who disguises herself as a harp playing monk in order to rescue her husband from slavery under a Turkish sultan. 

In this ensemble piece, guest artist Tori will accompany Angelica’s harp on oboe and recorder. With narration by Betty and all the other members dressed in medieval garb and portraying the story’s characters, this should be a lively and entertaining end to a wonderful program.

THE MUSINGS OF A TROBAIRITZ – PART TWO

THE FAITHFUL WIFE – A GREAT FIND FOR A TROBAIRITZ

As a self-proclaimed “trobairitz”, the medieval story of the Faithful Wife was a wonderful find for me.

As the “trobairitz” were female poets and musicians of the 11^th and 12^th century, I adopted this name for my public performances. I am always on the lookout for medieval material, especially if it has a musical subject.  This story meets all my needs as a performer musician and storyteller!

Here is a brief summary of the plot, without giving away too much of the story!

·         The Plot

A knight marries a poor broom-maker’s daughter because her singing and harp playing has won his heart.  But soon after his marriage, he is forced by his King to go on a crusade. He is taken captive and made a slave.  He and his companions are yoked to plows and forced to till the fields.  

However his shirt, strangely enough does not tear or turn black.  This is because his wife has sewn a magic shirt for him to wear. It will stay white as long as the knight and his wife are faithful to each other.

 

When the knight’s wife learns of her husband’s fate, she disguises herself as a harp-playing monk and goes to rescue him. This is a more daring deed than we realize because in some places during the Middle Ages, the punishment for a woman dressing as a man was death!  I won’t tell you any more, for fear of spoiling the story!

·         Is This A True Medieval Tale?

I wish I could tell you more about the source of this particular story, but unfortunately I know very little. It was copied off a tape that someone brought back from a historical harp conference in the USA over 20 years ago. There are numerous versions of it that date back to the Middle Ages, but I suspect the one that I am performing is a late 19^th century version of it.

 

The reason for this is that in the Middle Ages, only nobility played the harp.  In Scandinavia if a commoner was found playing a harp, he was put to death!  The fact that a knight would marry a broom-maker’s daughter is also a little suspect. But fairy-tales are full of princes marrying commoners, so we will let that go.

 

·         The Russian Version

‘A Harp of Fishbones’ ^1. is a book of harp stories compiled by Russell Walton. His book has a Russian version of this story ‘The Tsaritsa Harpist’.  In this version, the harp player is the Tsar’s wife and the captured man is the Tsar himself.  The story is very similar to mine, but leaves out the magic shirt.

    

The historical notes on this Russian version say the instrument was was probably a gusli, which is a small Russian lap harp.  It also tells us that it must have pre-dated the 12^th Century, because in the 12^th Century the bishop Cyril Turovsky denounced all musicians as the servants of Hell!

Sadly enough, before the 12^th Century, court music flourished. Musicians used ancient poetic modes, and sung recitation accompanied on the gusli, much like the Gaelic tradition.  After the 12^th Century, musicians who had enjoyed the patronage of courts were reduced to street entertainers.

 

·         An Old Medieval Version – “Of Chastity”

The ‘Gesta Romanorum’ ^2. or, ‘Deeds of the Romans’ also contains this story. The book is a collection of tales likely compiled in Latin by Christian monks in England about 1300. This version makes me smile because it interprets the entire story in religious symbols.  It was apparently a source book for preachers as each tale contained a religious ‘application’ or message.

In the Roman version, we learn that the Emperor Gallus employed a skillful carpenter to erect a magnificent palace.  A certain knight decided to give his daughter in marriage to the carpenter.  The lady’s mother gave the couple this magic shirt that would stay white as long as they were faithful.

 

Three soldiers decided to seduce the wife with the intent of making the shirt turn black. However, she outwits them, luring all three men into a chamber, locking the door and feeding them only bread and water. Once she had accomplished this, she informed her husband about her daring actions.  Of course, the knight was proud of his faithful wife.

Now here is the interpretation of that story.  The emperor is God, the palace is the human heart, the knight is Christ, the carpenter is any good Christian, the mother is the Church.  The shirt is faith, the three soldiers are symbols of pride and the lust of both eyes and the heart.

As you can see, the Romans dearly loved their religious symbols!

·         A Brothers Grimm Version – ‘The Man Hitched To A Plough’

This story comes from Metz, Lorraine, a region that straddles the border between Germany and France. So it could have been German or French.  In 1818, the story was collected by the Brothers Grimm ^3. so there is no way of knowing how old it is.  

However, it closely resembles my version, complete with the magic shirt and other details.  In the Brothers Grimm version, the Sultan tries to make the shirt turn black by sending his general to seduce the knight’s wife.

 

·         A German Version – ‘Conrad von Tannenbarg’

The knight decides to go on a pilgrimage to give thanks for recovering from a serious illness.  He is attacked by pirates and sold into slavery to the Turks.  There is no mention of the magic shirt.  This story has echoes of the Odyssey, as his wife is left at home for years, while other suitors try to marry her.  

On hearing of her husband’s fate from another pilgrim, she disguises herself in men’s clothes and sets out to rescue him, dressed as a male minstrel. When they both return safely home, the rejected suitors denounce her for having disappeared for years and running around in men’s clothes. The husband is about to take his sword and kill her, before she is able to escape and explain the complete circumstances to him. ^4.

If you wish to learn more about the many versions of ‘The Faithful Wife’, here are the sources. 

Enjoy!

Sources:

1.  ‘A Harp of Fishbones’ in ‘Folk Tales Of The Harp’ compiled by Russell Walton. The White Row Press (c. 1992) pp. 104-108.

2.  ‘Gesta Romanorum’ translated from the Latin by Charles Swan. Revised and corrected by Wynnard Hoooper. London: George Bell and Sons (1906) pp. 122-124.

3.   Jacob and Willhelm Grimm, ‘Der Mann im Flug’ [The Man in the Plough] appearing in ‘Deutsche Sagen’ [German tales] (1818, version 2).

4.   J.W. Wolf  ‘Conrad von Tannenberg’ appearing in ‘Hessische Sagen’ [Hessian Tales] (1853, Number 238, pp147-149). Translated by D.L. Ashliman.

o   ‘The Faithful Wife’ appearing in ‘Folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther’, translated and/or edited by D.L. Ashliman (c.1999-2008).

The web site I found this on was www.pitt.edu/dash/type 0888.html

THE MUSINGS OF A TROBAIRITZ – PART THREE

ABOUT THE MUSIC CHOICES IN ‘THE FAITHFUL WIFE’

·         Why Did I Choose This Story?

First of all, the subject was so perfect for this year’s World Storytelling Day’s theme – 'Strong Women and Bold Girls'. 

The heroine has every heroic quality you can think of.  She is clever, resourceful, talented, faithful, intelligent and undaunted!

 

Secondly, the story has a lot of dialogue and a cast of characters that render it perfect for a group to tell.  

Finally, it was a perfect match for me - a harp player and singer.  The music I’ve chosen to add here is not just to give colour to the story, but rather the music becomes a key part of the story.

·         How Did I Choose The Instruments And Musicians?

I play the Celtic harp, so that was a given.  I also asked my friend Tori to accompany me on oboe and tenor and soprano recorder. Her gorgeous and expressive playing added a whole other dimension and it was great to have the recorders which are authentic medieval instruments. The concert oboe is not a medieval instrument, but its snake-charmer quality just quickly transports us to Medieval Turkey!

·         What Sources Did I Use In Choosing The Music?

Most of the music I chose came from France, Italy and Spain between the 13^th and 16^th centuries. I did not have any Turkish music, so I cheated by using a Jewish folk song and a contemporary sacred song. They were both in minor modes with a very “Arabic” sounding melodic line.

Even though the Crusades took place in the 11^th and 12^th Centuries, I decided not to use authentic music and performance styles from that period. Harmony did not come into use until the 15^th Century and to my ears the medieval sounds are harsh and stark. No feature film about Robin Hood or King Arthur that I know of has used authentic medieval music. So I decided not to either. Instead, I opted for a “pseudo-medieval sound”.

·         How Did I Create This “Pseudo-Medieval” Sound?

OK, this section is going to get a little technical, but our musician readers will find it interesting.

I keep the harmonies very simple. Often I use a drone, which means the bass part of the harp plays two notes in repetition. 

Choosing pieces that were in the mixolydian and dorian modes, also helped give this music a medieval flavour.  

Most of us are only familiar with the so-called “Major” mode, which centers around doh, and the “minor” mode, which centers around lah. But there are actually seven modes, each relating to a different note of the western scale. The mixolydian, which centers around soh, and the dorian, which centers around ray, can sound very medieval.

Much early music is in AB form, that is, there are only two melodic ideas in the piece.  Variety is created by having the instruments imitate each other, and play contrapuntally, that is, weaving the different melodies together.  In this style of playing, medieval music was very much the “jazz” of its time.  By arranging the music in this way, I keep the medieval flavor of the music intact.

 

·         How Did We Organize The Speaking Parts?

There are five of us in this ensemble telling and at first I gave each participant a section to narrate. I also gave each participant a character to play. However general consensus was that it would be too confusing for the audience to have people narrating sometimes and role playing at other times. So we decided to have one narrator and the rest of us took on specific roles.

 

We form a kind of semi-circle, with the musicians on the right and the speakers on the left. The “faithful wife” who is me and the harpist is on the right. Our narrator stands off to the far right. In the centre is a fabric covered screen which we use when the wife had to change her costume.

Each character remains seated except when he or she has lines to speak, and then the character stands up and walks to the middle of the floor to deliver their lines.

·         How Are We Dressed?

We were all in costume, except the narrator. The wife/harpist and the wind player wear medieval dresses. The sultan has a turban, baggy Turkish pants and a long open robe with a sash.  The knight wears a crusader’s tunic with a large red cross. The general is robed in an Indian outfit of white pants and a long white tunic over it.

About The Author

Angelica Ottewill is a member of Peterborough Storytellers in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

For more information about Angelica’s music and storytelling, please visit her website: www.trobairitz.ca