I am a college student doing some research for a storytelling project and am wondering how audience member young and old might respond differently to personal storytelling/folklore vs. mythic/fiction tales. Are there any storytellers out there who can speak (write) about this? I am interested in the difference for you in telling these stories as well as how audience may exp. a dif type of connectedness.

Thank you all for your stories...

Audiences respond differently not only to different stories but also different tellers. Since Telling is not reading aloud or memorizing a script, each performance is fluid and shaped by not only the teller but the audience as well. The same teller telling the same tale will have different experences with different audiences.

Audiences aren't always perdicatable. I've had children delight in scary stories, while I had to tone down the same story for a group of teens. The audience often becomes my teacher, showing me the power of a story, guiding me to slow down and speed up-- and that can change from telling to telling.

Storytelling/folktelling is the original Improv.

Rivka Willick
Rivka@SimplyExtraordinaryTales.com