Tell me a story

Semester-long residency at RISD turns visual artists into performers

Students worked with Silk Road Ensemble musicians and storyteller Ben Haggarty and created costumes, scenery and puppets for three final performances © David O’Connor

The three final presentations by students in the “Folk Tales in the Digital Age” class could not have differed more from one another. With visual elements varying from shadow puppets to live animation to intricate costumes and masks, the performances considered, in turn, the hidden authenticity of dreams, the precise timing and sometimes- circular logic of humor, and the value of appreciating beauty in an unpredictable world. The element common to each was storytelling—a new and challenging medium for most of these undergraduate visual artists and the foundation of the Silk Road Ensemble’s fourth residency at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

Regularly taught at RISD as a “Picture and Word” class that asks students to write and illustrate children’s books, the course this spring engaged participants off the printed page as part of a semester-long collaboration with the Silk Road Project. Eleven students worked with RISD teachers Judy Sue Goodwin-Sturges and Jenn Brandt and members of the Silk Road Ensemble from February through May to investigate the evolution of traditional folk tales and reinterpret them for a contemporary audience, combining time-tested storytelling methods and modern media.

RISD student Emma Tripp narrates “The Onion Children” © David O’Connor

The foray into telling tales began with the Ensemble’s initial visit in February, which brought master storyteller Ben Haggarty and musicians Mike Block, Shane Shanahan, Kojiro Umezaki and Yang Wei to the Providence campus for a week of exploration with students. Participants threw themselves into the process of writing, illustrating and telling stories in groups.

Haggarty placed traditional tales and storytelling techniques in the context of age-old oral systems for the transmission of ideas and cultural values and worked closely with students on story structure and delivery. Many of the students also participated in a free twonight, hands-on storytelling workshop led by Haggarty and open to the entire RISD community.

During the course of the semester, students experimented with a variety of materials and techniques—digital and overhead projection; Mylar, linen and sandblasted Plexiglas panels; cardboard cutouts; color gels on acetate paper for lighting; cloth-panel scenery; and reconfigurable sets. All the while, they kept in touch with Ensemble members through an online discussion forum.

When a group of 10 Ensemble members visited in April for a Silk Road Ensemble performance of music and stories of the Silk Road, students had an opportunity to present them their storyboards and scale models of the stage and to fine-tune ideas for their final projects. By May, they had gained confidence as storytellers and become familiar with aspects of production from set design and costuming to stage management and promotion. In two final performances, the students stepped into the spotlight to enact their own tales for their peers, community members and scores of local schoolchildren, accompanied by Silk Road Ensemble musicians in a synthesis of art, narrative and music.