Lend an Ear

Fidgety kids grow calm and focused. Boy Scout troops sit still. Students who despise history suddenly change their minds.

What’s the magic elixir? Not an eye-popping movie blockbuster or virtual-reality playground. It’s simple, ancient and low-tech: storytelling. And chances are it’s happening just about every week of the year at a mall, your kid’s school, bookstore, library or museum near you.

Storytelling groups, workshops, clubs, birthday parties and festivals are growing nationwide, and Orange County is no exception. It’s logical that this basic art should enjoy a renaissance at the same time technology seems to rule the land, says Linda King Pruitt, a master storyteller with the South Coast Storytellers Guild.

“I think there’s a need for the human connection,” says Pruitt, one of the guild’s 35 professional storytellers. “It’s unlike all of the television and videos, with children getting plunked down in front of machines.”

It’s also unlike read-aloud story times and theater.

“I love theater, but theater is on stage, and you have that fourth wall there,” Pruitt says. “Storytelling is very intimate. It’s sharing. You make eye contact. . . . [the listeners] are almost like co-creators of the story because they’re engaged in the story, and they’re creating the pictures in their imaginations. I always thank people for sharing the stories with me because by their listening the story is out in the wind. So we are sharing.”

Some stories literally need the audiences’ sound effects, animal roars or stamping feet, to carry on. It’s powerful fun and--don’t tell the kids--educational.

Themed storytelling is a popular student assembly, in which a batch of pioneer tales or American Indian legends flesh out textbook studies.

Storytelling is entertainment and education, says Marilyn De Marchant, a recently retired teacher from Lincoln Elementary School in Newport Beach and the founder of the school’s Storytelling Club.

She is a believer in the educational value of teaching children how to be storytellers themselves. The value of listening is priceless too, she says.

“It’s kind of like magic. They have this person who is inviting them to be a participant in the story itself,” De Marchant says. “It kind of reminds me of my childhood with my ear against the radio and my heart pounding, listening. You shut down all your other senses.”

That’s one way children can build up those good, old-fashioned attention spans that veteran teachers like De Marchant see eroding.

Indeed, storytelling is not a special-effects affair. At most, storytellers may dress in costumes that fit the theme or time period of their stories. Some include a few cultural artifacts if they relate to ethnic tales. Occasionally, a storyteller will be accompanied by a musician. Plain or gussied up, the story is still the heart of the event.

“Speak to the heart,” Pruitt says, “and the mind will listen.”

Several storytelling events will be included in the countywide Imagination Celebration this spring. Audiences can also look forward to a full slate of storytelling in October, when the annual Once Upon a Story Festival is held in San Juan Capistrano and when the guild’s Tellabration comes around in November.

Watch the events calendars of your favorite library, bookstore or museum for periodic storytelling sessions. Meanwhile, families can gather and lend an ear at these regular happenings:

* Bowers Kidseum, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. Every Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., with occasional additional storytelling workshops. (714) 567-3600.

* Borders Books, 25222 El Paseo, Mission Viejo. Wednesdays at 7 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 11:30 a.m. (949) 367-0005.

* Newport Beach Central Library, 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach. A traditional pajama story time with storytelling by students from Lincoln Elementary School’s Storytelling Club, Mondays at 7 p.m., beginning Jan. 11. (949) 717-3830.

* South Coast Storytellers Guild Story Swap, 1551A Baker St., Costa Mesa. Every third Thursday at 7 p.m., for adults and older school-age children “who listen like adults.” The guild periodically holds additional events throughout the year, including summertime campfire sessions. Guild members also are available for adult events, retreats, birthday parties and groups. (949) 496-1960.