Indy Theatre Habit

On Sunday, January 24, 2010, I drove to the Frank and Katrina Basile Theatre in the newly renovated Indiana History Center in downtown Indianapolis to hear the premiere performance of “Root Doctors, Midwives, and Fried-Mice Pie: Medicine in Early Indiana.”  Storyteller Susan Grizzell was commissioned to develop and present this piece by Storytelling Arts of Indiana and the Indiana Historical Society as part of their Sharing Hoosier History Through Stories Series.

Not all public speaking involves storytelling.  This piece as presented was more of a read-from-notes lecture than a storytelling – more about this in a moment – but the information was interesting and Sue delivered it warmly.

She stood behind a podium next to a lace-covered table on which were several onions and an egg and something else that size that I couldn’t identify from where I sat.

She shared a wealth of information from a variety of cited sources about early medical practices throughout the young United States, not just Indiana.  Much of it was ghastly, so the audience shivered in delight and gratitude that we no longer rely on, for example, axes under the bed to “cut the pain” of childbirth, or “cupping” and mustard poultices to raise welts on a patient’s skin to “pull” the illnesses out.  We gasped and cringed at the thought of removing birthmarks by rubbing them with the hand of a corpse, too. 

We laughed out loud at the thought of boiling a piece of pork meat in a patient’s urine three times and then feeding it to a pig or dog (but not your neighbor’s) so that the animal would die instead of the patient.

By the end of the program, though, when Sue was throwing the onions into the audience and prescribing them for various ailments, I felt impressed but…dissatisfied.  I felt impressed by all of the research that had obviously gone into this presentation – and I believed Sue when she said that there were many more treatments and recipes “on the cutting room floor.”  However, I had come to hear stories and at the end of the program I didn’t feel that I had heard any stories, only references to stories, if that makes sense.

Every once in a while it would seem that we were going to settle in to a story – something with people that we could get to know, having problems we could sympathize with, finding solutions that we could rejoice along with, or experiencing tragedies that we could empathize with, or whatever – but no, too quickly we were on to the next bit of information. 

I think, for example, that I would have liked to have been led by the storyteller more deeply into the personalities and actions that were part of the rivalry between the “heroic”-style doctors and the new root doctor, Thomas Chin, in the settlement where after a while everyone was putting up a shingle and calling himself a root doctor, even the man who had been a constable three weeks ago.   There are all kinds of potential humorous, cultural, and otherwise engaging story elements to unpack and flesh out in that one sentence.

And if all that wasn’t already neatly packaged and ready to learn and tell in the primary sources, then I am okay with the storyteller imagining and filling in what was not in the primary sources.  A well-crafted story can usually give the feelings and motivations and truth of a topic more effectively than mere facts.  I also think it is possible to craft a story while still respecting the facts.

I know that Sue knows how to do this because I have heard her do it many times before.  I think she just ran out of preparation time this time.

For another example, I think I would have liked to linger in a story about birthing practices.  Sue went into storytelling mode about this sub-topic at one point, telling about one specific birth and the people who were present at it, and tying it somehow to her own experiences as a mother.  You could tell it was storytelling and not fact-telling then because everyone went deeply still for a moment, listening.  But too quickly, before we had time to feel the relief with the pioneer family or share their grief or even just process however the story ended, we were on to the next piece of information.

There are other “story embryos” among the wealth of information that Sue gathered.  Maybe some of those, if more fully developed into stories, would be even more interesting to an audience of story listeners than the ones that caught my attention.

So…as is, this piece is a very interesting talk on the subject of medicine in early Indiana, but I think it has the potential to be a great example of the art and craft of storytelling.  In fact, Sue herself hinted at the end of the premiere that she hoped to continue to work on shaping the piece into a more narrative form.  I hope she does.  I expect that Sue will get a chance to present this piece a few more times this year around the state as part of the Sharing Hoosier History Through Stories grant.  I hope I get to hear it again as it evolves!

Box Office/Mailbox –

Below are excerpts from the press releases I received about the next two Storytelling Arts events (with a link embedded by me to my thoughts about the first “Jabberwocky” event.)  I am looking forward to both of them.  And how cool is it that the “Jabberwocky” series at the Indy Fringe building is supported by the Indianapolis public transportation system!  I admire whoever thought of that sensible partnership.

Indianapolis – Storytelling Arts of Indiana and Indy Fringe Festival present the second Jabberwocky (a rendezvous of Jabbers who share their life stories) on Tuesday, February 9th at the Indy Fringe Theatre, 719 East St. Clair St, doors open at 5:30 p.m., the program begins at 6 p.m.  Tickets are $10 at the door which includes hearty soup, bread, snacks and a cash bar.

What do actors, librarians and teachers all have in common? Stories that begin with Once Upon a Time. This is a night of lustful humor, Harlequin romances and good stories by Ron Spencer of Theatre on the Square, actor Gayle Steigerwald and storyteller Celestine Bloomfield. After the heavy breathing subsides, audience members get their chance to jump in and share a tale or two. Stories shared during the open-mike portion should be limited to 3 – 5 minutes.

Jabberwocky is supported by IndyGo. IndyGo Route 5, Route 11, Route 17 and Route 21 serve the Indy Fringe Theatre.

Jabberwocky is a monthly event based themes to get every day folks to share their life stories.  Upcoming theses include Off-Key Musicians on March 9th, and Worst Case Scenarios on April 13th. Indy Fringe Festival and Storytelling Arts of Indiana have a history of collaboration. Most recently, Storytelling Arts of Indiana sponsored a stage during the 2009 Indy Fringe Festival which featured several storytellers. To learn more about the 2010 Indy Fringe Festival visit, www.indyfringe.org and upcoming storytelling events visit, www.storytellingarts.org. 
 
 *****

Indianapolis- Talk of the Town: The Tenth Annual Benefit for Storytelling Arts of Indiana is scheduled for Saturday, February 20, 2010 at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center.  The evening hosted by Lou Harry of the Indianapolis Business Journal includes a dinner, silent auction and storytelling performance, Stories for the Journey Home, told by Carmen Agra Deedy who is known for her razor-sharp wit. 

Carmen Agra Deedy is an award-winning storyteller who was born in Havana, Cuba. In 1960, she emigrated from her homeland during the Cuban Revolution, a move that has profoundly affected her life and her work. Her parents, strong proponents of human rights, decided to leave after four tumultuous years in the midst of a revolutionary environment. They took Carmen and her sister and found sanctuary in the United States under the JFK Cuban Refugee Act of 1963. They settled in Decatur, Georgia, where they coped with the separation from loved ones still in Cuba and slowly acclimated to cultural differences. The Agra family ultimately succeeded in starting over and rebuilding their lives.

While Deedy’s storytelling reflects these themes of separation and deprivation, she shapes and crafts her stories with humor. Also essential to Deedy’s experience are her strong sense of perseverance and her dual heritage, drawn from growing up steeped in the riches of both Latin American and Southern culture. 

This event begins in the Startdust Terrace Café and moves upstairs to the Frank and Katrina Basile Theater located in the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, 450 W. Ohio St. Tickets for the entire evening are $80 per person. Tickets for the performance only are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. To order tickets or for more information, call the Indiana History Center at (317) 232-1882 or (800) 447-1830 or purchase tickets on-line, www.storytellingarts.org. Free parking is available at the Indiana History Center in its parking lot at the corner of West and New York streets. 

‘See you at the theatres!

 Hope Baugh – www.IndyTheatreHabit.com

Follow @IndyTheatre on Twitter.com, too!

P.S. – The headshot I received of Susan Grizzell from Storytelling Arts of Indiana was too big of a jpg file, apparently, for resizing via Flickr.com or WordPress.  Anyway, I couldn’t figure out how to make it work, unfortunately.  ‘Sorry!  But as a sort of substitute, I do like the “Herb Bundles” photo by Carolina Gonzalez, because Sue referred to herbs a lot in her talk.