VENTURA : Storyteller Spins Tales in Schools

Standing on a bare wooden floor with no props but her hands, body and face, Brenda Wong Aoki began to tell stories.

She clapped her hands. Without waiting for an invitation, the audience of 150 children clapped back, following the rhythms she had set. They mimicked her hand motions and facial gestures. Soon Aoki bowed and spoke.

“It’s very, very important to use your ears and your eyes and your heart when you hear a story,” said Aoki, artist-in-residence this week in Ventura schools.

“Storytelling is older than TV, older than books, older than school,” she said.

“Older than radio?” asked a boy at Loma Vista Elementary School where the students, some as young as 18 months, attended Aoki’s performance Wednesday morning. The youngest were hearing-impaired preschool children, for whom an interpreter told the stories in sign language.

Aoki, who lives in Berkeley and was trained as an actress and dancer, is a professional storyteller. She has performed nationwide, earlier this year appearing at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Aoki was brought to Ventura as part of a continuing program that brings performing artists to the classrooms and exposes students to their work, said Fannie Hutchison, principal of Loma Vista School. The program Wednesday was funded by the PTA.

To the obvious delight of the children, and drawing on her ethnic background--a mix of Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Scottish--Aoki told tales gathered from Pacific Rim countries.

“Once upon a time, a long, long time ago in Japan--or maybe it was yesterday, I forget,” she said, drawing giggles from about 100 children.

The story was about Saburo, a boy who learned to listen to the instructions of his parents. With exaggerated movements that displayed her background in dance and theater, Aoki appeared to run gold coins through her fingers, dig up a smelly cat and smash grandfather’s million-dollar teacup.

The children’s eyes followed her every motion and they responded on cue with the words Aoki carefully taught: “ Hai, wakarimasu ,” meaning “Yes, I understand.”

On Saturday, after a week of performances before children at local schools, Aoki will perform for an adult audience at Ventura High School’s Little Theater to benefit the Ventura Arts Council’s Artists-in-the-Classroom program.

“I can do ‘King Lear’ and I can do ‘Sesame Street,’ ” Aoki said.