Story; noun or verb

Story

(stôr'ē, stōr'ē)
n., pl., -ries.

1.   An account or recital of an event or a series of events, either true or fictitious, as:

a.    An account or report regarding the facts of an event or group of events: The witness changed her story under questioning.

b.    An anecdote: came back from the trip with some good stories.

c.    A lie: told us a story about the dog eating the cookies.

2.    

a.    A usually fictional prose or verse narrative intended to interest or amuse the hearer or reader; a tale.

b.    A short story.

3.   The plot of a narrative or dramatic work.

4.   A news article or broadcast.

5.   Something viewed as or providing material for a literary or journalistic treatment: "He was colorful, he was charismatic, he was controversial, he was a good story" (Terry Ann Knopf).

6.   The background information regarding something: What's the story on these unpaid bills?

7.   Romantic legend or tradition: a hero known to us in story.

tr.v., -ried, -ry·ing, -ries.

1.   To decorate with scenes representing historical or legendary events.

2.   Archaic. To tell as a story.

The above definition was what I found from Answer.com, and the word, was what we will be working around. *Do note the bold parts of the definition.

Stories. Stories from people of different walks of life, and stories about various kinds of emotions, and stories from a vast variety of experiences.

We explored the who, what, when, where, how and why of stories. 

Who do we tell it to? What are stories? When and where do we tell them? How do we tell them? Why are they told? 

These questions made me realize, I’ve never wondered so intimately about why stories exist. I’ve always been a talkative person and if I met up with someone I could talk to, we could go on for hours sharing stories of our lives! I’ve never had restriction regarding telling others stories of my life, but what about those who are unable to share their stories as I did? That led to the next issue we discussed about; who are unable to tell their stories.

There was a significantly long list of people we created under ‘people unable to tell their stories publicly’ which included victims of tragic events, the disabled, the poor, the politically oppressed, and they were unable to broadcast their stories because of the risk they are taking by revealing the events of their life to a larger audience. A risk so great, that sometimes, their lives will be in danger if they voice out their experiences.

It’s breathtaking to know what we can do with the stories they give us, to turn it into something more than just words, using it in theatre to help create change and hope (in the aspect of forum theatre which I will explain in later posts) and to help recreate the stories, memories, of people so that their stories could be heard (in the viewpoint of playback theatre). There are so many wonderful ways to tell stories, and I believe that theatre is one of the more powerful ones that are able to tell the story as well as assist the community on so many different stages.