Ruthanne Edward ~ Storyteller

So begins another story, and who knows where it might take us in the end.  It will take us somewhere to be sure, storyteller and storylistener joined together in creating the tale. Everyone tells stories, every has stories and everyone enjoys listening to stories. The ages old art of oral storytelling is something we have done since we had the gift of speech. The art is flourishing today, with stories told from mouth to ear in the traditional way or with a modern technological twist.

Ruthanne Edward is a professional storyteller based in Ottawa, Ontario. She performs for children and adults, tells all sorts of different stories and loves telling a good scary story but can’t sit through scary movies.

Never heard a storyteller? Not sure just what storytelling is? There are many, many different ways of describing what storytellers do, but here is one that sums it up pretty well.

Storytelling is relating a tale to one or more listeners through voice and gesture. It is not the same as reading a story aloud or reciting a piece from memory or acting out a drama-though it shares common characteristics with these arts. The storyteller looks into the eyes of the audience and together they compose the tale. The storyteller begins to see and re-create, through voice and gesture, a series of mental images; the audience, from the first moment of listening, squints, stares, smiles, leans forward or falls asleep, letting the teller know whether to slow down, speed up, elaborate, or just finish. Each listener, as well as each teller, actually composes a unique set of story images derived from meanings associated with words, gestures, and sounds. The experience can be profound, exercising the thinking and touching emotions of both teller and listener.

Please have a look around, listen to some stories, leave a comment or contact Ruthanne. She loves to chat about storytelling and she would love to hear from you.