Fairytale Storytelling with Storyteller Rosie Cutrer
Chicken and Cockroach Story
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Rosie Cutrer Storyteller
This Fairy Tale Stories Video Blog ‘s Storyteller interview is with Rosie Cutrer who was born in Topeka, Kansas, in a Catholic Hospital. She grew up in the 1950s in the same area. She married late in life into a ready-made family of a widower who had three daughters. (Was this a fairytale in the making?). Now a grandmother, and as of this writing has eight grandchildren.
Getting started as a storyteller began when she was a school teacher for 23 years. With a wonderful school librarian who brought in great storytellers from the local area.
When age 50 was coming she thought that maybe a change of career fields was in order and looking around she thought that storytelling would be something she could enjoy and make a living at. After talking to her husband she got some coaching and started going to festivals that had training workshop opportunities.
Her family’s reaction to her telling stories was kind of puzzled. But now they are delighted. Her brothers that they really get a ” hoot ” when she reminds them of the Catholic School they went to in the 50s.
The hardest part of telling that she found, was not memorize the story. Being a theater person you memorize everything. The other part that was hard was facing a lot of people, being herself and not being someone else. She had told stories in front of a few people but never in front of 200+ and she was never so scared . She is now over that and she found out that people are nicer than you would think.
The easiest thing to do was to add music to her program. It helped to break up the program by adding it between the stories.
To her surprise the best type of audience she has had, was in an Alzheimer’s unit. She was a little nervous about the people, but when she arrived and started to tell stories they calmed down. When she started to sing her songs they began to sing along with her. Along the same lines, preschoolers use to also scare her. She has found that preschoolers have a tendency to get right in there with you and they have no inhibitions in doing it. As far as middle school students are concerned if you do not judge them, they do eventually warm up to her. So what she really found out is that any audience that is willing to sit and listen and be open-minded to you is her kind of audience.
What attracted her to the Chicken Festival was the fact that she knew some storytellers, and it was a way of getting to network and meet people. The Chicken Festival is now like family where you go back and have a yearly reunion. As a storyteller you tend to be isolated just doing a little business so this is a way in which to get together and enjoy each others company.
Brother Beno, Your Storyteller
For Storytelling CDs for all ages go from here to the Storytellers CD Store
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Short Story by Storyteller Robert Rodriquez
[...] what drew her towards Chicken Festival was the simple reality that she recognized some storytellers, and it would be a way of getting to [...]
[...] what drew her towards the Chicken Festival was the simple reality that she knew several storytellers, and it would be a way of getting to do [...]