TelLIT: Celebrating Written works through engaging, oral storytelling

How it works:

·     The selected author for the month will have up to 30 minutes to tell THEIR story in an entertaining, yet engaging way.  Authors can choose the overall topic and the theme for the month (open ended and thought of as a writing prompt for our Public Storytellers) to promote a new work, themselves, or a particular writing genre.  Theme and general overview of presentation will be provided to Jovinea Cellars at least 30 days prior to the event in order to allow time for advertising and for public storytellers to prepare a piece within the chosen theme.

·     A few short excerpts may be read, but this event is intended to be a conversational and entertaining storytelling event overall based on sound stories and strong oral presentation that evokes audience participation and intrigue.

·     The author will then serve as one of two judges (the other will be selected from the community by Jovinea Cellars) for the public storytelling event that follows.  Rehearsed stories can be up to 7 minutes in length and will be judged on performer’s spirit of delivery, appropriateness of story, non-verbal communication, and how well it was rehearsed and smoothness of flow. Final score for the Storyteller will be the average of the 2 judge’s scores.

What we offer to the authors:

·     An opportunity to feature local writing talent and highlight your work in a live and engaging atmosphere while connecting one-on-one with potential readers.

·     We will feature any works of your choosing for the entire month leading up to your presentation (and longer if space permits).  For example, if you are presenting for the month of March, we will display your work from March 1-31.  We are happy to sell any items, have loaned copies in the Tasting Room for people who would like to browse through them, or any other ideas you may have to feature your writing.  Jovinea will not charge any sort of selling fee.

·     Free bottle of wine of your choosing after your scheduled presentation (or $15 merchandise credit) and free glass of wine during the Storytelling event.

 What we offer to the additional judge:

·     Free glass of wine or $5.00 merchandise credit for the evening.

·     5-Minute timeslot to promote your local organization’s services and activities within the local community between the author and public storytelling

·     To keep things interesting, we ask this judge to have a Storytelling presentation prepared to start things off.  Must follow the same guidelines as the Storytellers themselves, but does not have to follow the given theme.

What we offer to the Public Storytellers:

·     Anyone who would like to tell a story will put their name into a bowl upon arrival and names will be drawn randomly as time permits.  Storytellers are welcome to practice their story, live in the Tasting Room, with no audience from 12:30-1:30 on the Monday-Friday week leading up to the Storytelling event

·     All storytellers, over the age of 21, will receive a free glass of wine of their choosing after their story has completed (or $5.00 merchandise credit). Storytellers under the age of 21 will receive a voucher for a $5.00 merchandise credit.

·     Judges will offer 1-2 aspects of the presentation that were done well and 1-2 presentation techniques that could be improved.

·     The winner of each month’s event will receive a bottle of wine of their choosing (or $15 in merchandise credit) and be invited back for a final Storytelling of Champions event on the first Sunday in January (mandatory rehearsal scheduled/recording submission TBD between December 15-31)

Storytelling Rules:

·     No reading of stories. Props may be used with prior approval.  Storytellers may tell stories as a solo person or as a pair, but will be judged as a single act.

·     Stories must be no longer than 7 minutes in length.  Any story over 7 minutes will be result in a one point score deduction.

·     Stories can be fiction or non-fiction, original works or tall tales, but credit must be given to the author if the work is not original.

·     Language and story content must be appropriate for a PG-13 audience. Any fowl or offensive language, and hate speech/themes will not be allowed.

Judging based on the following criteria:

·     Teller’s Spirit of Performance – enthusiasm, vibrancy, poise, & audience engagement

·     Appropriate story choice – was the story a good match for the storyteller and appropriate for a general audience?   Did it follow the theme?  Was the grammar appropriate for the chosen story?

·     Beginning – did the story effectively capture the attention of the audience?

·     Vocal Delivery – Good rhythm to engage the audience, timing techniques were used properly to accentuate the story’s content the words flowed easily and naturally from sufficient practice and storyteller’s voice was loud enough and could be clearly heard

·     Did the story appear conversational rather than memorized?

·     Non-Verbal Communication – were effective use of eye contact, facial expression, gestures and other bodily movements used effectively or did they distract from the story?

·     Ending – Did the story have a lead into and a clear ending using words and other cues that the story had ended (slowing rate, change of tonation, etc)?

 Schedule:

January 31 – Sharon Hoseley, “Surviving Winter”

February 28 - Christine Cohen, “Truth in Myth”

March 27 - Cancelled

April 24 - Cancelled

May 29 - Cancelled

June 26 - Stuart L. Scott, “Through the Darkness”

July 31 - Guy Worthey, “Science The Heck Out Of It”

August 28 - Terri Picone, “Family Stories”

September 25 - Eva Moran, “Magic of Fiction”

October 30 - Garry Bush, “I Wasn’t There…But”