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"Syd is an internationally acclaimed storyteller, an award-winning teacher, and author." --Illinois Storytelling
"I think I got storytelling ability from my mother. My father had a lot
of stories-he was a used car salesman-but he had a dead-pan approach.
My mother could go to the grocery store and turn the trip into an opera.
She'd always find some story that took place during the trip, and she
would play all the parts, using different voices and gestures when she
returned home.
"I didn't get into storytelling professionally until I was thirty-eight.
But I was storyteller before that. I taught high school English for thirty
years until I retired in June of 2000, and I always told anecdotes in
my classroom. I liked to share moments in my life when they were relevant.
Kids are thirsty to know who you are. Adults don't talk to them enough.Certainly,
connecting people is one of the great values of storytelling. Stories
that contain universals teach us we are not alone. It's wonderful to laugh
and cry together.
"In the summer of 1982, I took a week-long course in storytelling, and
it changed my life. I found my art form. My first show was in my town
library: one hundred people, ninety friends. And I was so afraid, I thought
that not only would I forget the stories, I'd forget which stories I was
going to tell. I had my wife sitting in the front row holding a sign board
with the titles of the stories written on it.
"I've come a long way since then. I've been featured at festivals around
this country including three visits to Timpanogos and six at the National
festival and have been as far away as New Zealand. I also served as guest
storyteller and host on American Public Radio's Good Evening. And, of
course, I'm honored to be part of this first storytelling special.
"I've been at it for nineteen years and I enjoy storytelling as much as
I did when I first began. It's such an intimate art form. No matter how
big the audience I am looking people in the eye and telling them a story.
The story is created somewhere between my words and audience's imagination.
In a way, we are working together. I also love storytelling because it
reminds me of being a teacher. I'm up in front of people, connecting with
them.
"I've also been able to continue teaching as a storyteller. I have taught
teachers around the country how to use it in their classrooms and I direct
an annual institute at the Chicago Historical Society, helping teachers
use storytelling to teach history.. I've also taught storytelling to teachers
at both the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center. This year I am going to
begin teach storytelling at Northwestern University Of course, I love
to teach it in other contexts. I've run workshops for lawyers, doctors,
hospice workers, and clergy. In 1999, I even ran a workshop on storytelling
for the writers and directors at Disney World.
"Storytelling has also allowed me to practice the art of writing. something
I did before I became a storyteller. I've authored two books of stories
and have won commissions to write and perform historical pieces for the
Smithsonian Institution and the Johnstown, Pennsylvania. I love doing
writing and telling historical stories. Recently, I completed a major
work on the story of Raoul Wallenberg, A Swedish Christian who tried to
save Jews in Budapest in 1944.The story also tells the story of my Great
Aunt Helen, who was there at the time. I premiered the story this fall
and was gratified to receive standing ovations from crowds as large as
1,000 at two of the most prestigious storytelling festivals in the country.
"I also write many of the stories I tell. In fact, three of my seven audio
cassettes are tapes of personal pieces. I think writing and telling personal
stories is very important. It creates a story scrapbook of your life.
A photo captures a moment; a story captures the events behind that moment.
It also can capture all the events of a lifetime that have brought you
to that moment.
"It is fun to tell other things also. I have a cassette of Jewish folktales.
Those are just part of my blood and bone. Sometimes people tell me I sound
like Billy Crystal . I really don't, but they are hearing a Jewish rhythm
to my speech. I think I also like Jewish tales because of the laughter
that is in them and the wisdom they present. Sometimes I feel like a frustrated
rabbi. But I also like the macabre. I have a tape of scary stories from
literature. I love telling Edgar Alan Poe stories.
"I've accomplished a lot in my life but two awards give me they greatest
satisfaction. Because of my work in the classroom, I won the prestigious
Golden Apple award from the Golden Apple Foundation. And in 2000 the my colleagues in the National Storytelling Association inducted
me into their circle of excellence. During one summer, I once took a group
of high-school students to a live and work on a ranch in Eastern Colorado.
One day the rancher took us to see a butte. On the way home, he asked
if I wanted to take a short cut. When I told him I did, he directed me
to take a small dirt road. That road got smaller and smaller until it
was gone and I was driving over prairie. The ranch, who was very laid
back would point a finger in a direction and off I would go. Well, the
w=land began to roll and the sun began to set. And I came to the top of
a rise and I slammed on my breaks because there in front of me looked
to me like valley. "What do we do now?" I asked.
"The rancher leaned forward, looked out the window, and shrugged. He replied,
"Just start 'er over the edge and let her slide. That's my advice to you
if you are thinking of telling stories-be it professionally or just to
your family. There's nothing to be afraid of. Just start 'er over the
edge and let er slide."
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