Storytelling is a primal activity and it is making a welcome comeback in our overly-connected age. We encounter it increasingly often via popular downloads such as The Moth, NPR Storycorps, and wildly popular podcasts such as The Serial. We may be unwittingly subject to storytelling through modern sales and marketing techniques. A common mantra among marketing gurus: Don’t talk about the product or service – Tell a story instead. I think this is happening because we need it. We lose touch with primal practices when we become bubbleized smartphone users.
Indeed, storytelling has been with us since the dawn of time. It’s what we did when we were crowded around the campfire after hunting down dinner. It entertained us, especially when there were no written languages or when illiteracy was the norm. Storytelling provided metaphors for living. Think of the Greek epics, classical mythology or the household stories from the Brothers Grimm. Of course, there are bedtime stories and those modern day ghost stories shared at summer camp and sleepovers.
A recent therapy for at-risk kids, recovering addicts and PTSD sufferers: Storytelling. Which brings us to the upcoming Veterans Storytelling Project. Imagine the stories that are made when people leave their homes, are dropped headfirst into a very different and challenging culture, forced to work harmoniously with strangers from all walks of life and becoming best friends with those strangers. Add to that, having to experience extremely foreign lands and customs, extreme conditions of terror (and valor) and having to come home and adjust to the old life. These stories will be compelling!
Voices: Veterans Storytelling Project is part of the Veterans Initiative in the Arts. It is a program that empowers veterans to use theater to talk about their experiences and help the community understand the life of a veteran. Over the course of six weeks, interested veterans participated in weekly workshops that will culminate in a public performance at Heroes Hall Veterans Museum at the OC Fairgrounds on May 23.
The event is FREE but you must reserve tickets.
Support for Veterans Initiative in the Arts comes from the California Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Orange County, Chance Theater, and Heroes Hall Veterans Foundation and OC Fair & Event Center.