I feel it’s important to avoid any stories that my guest storyteller has already told—set pieces that have already been tried out on an audience and that have lost their freshness to the storyteller. My job is to get the storyteller relaxed enough to engage in a simple conversation, even small talk. When a subject comes up that strikes me as having some real significance to the story teller—something they clearly have some emotions about—I get them to focus on it, explore their memories, fill in some details.  

Often, as a result, they will take me to a place they have not explored fully themselves, perhaps some issue or piece of unfinished business they feel comfortable enough with me to talk about and re-live. From this the "true" story they want to tell begins to take shape. Sometimes the story can come out all at once. Far more often, it comes out in bits and pieces, with interruptions, changes of focus, distractions. It's my job then to find and re-link those pieces into a narrative and to add any other elements like music, pauses, and sound effects that give the story even more shape and emotional power.

This can involve some significant changes in what was originally said. Basically, from everything the storyteller told me, I find the story I heard, the story that registered on me. I always give the storytellers the final say in this process. I ask them to listen and to tell me if my interpretation feels true to them, if it is a story they wanted to tell. If they say no, the story goes no further and is not made public. In close to two hundred productions, this has happened twice.

More on what I mean by "listening to someone" in our next discussion.

Please feel free to send your comments to me at tony@tonykahn.com.

Listen to the edited story,

“I Know, Mama, I Know”