Ruth Holden interviews Rob Wallace
The start of a new year, and the introduction of the new Open the Book materials, make this a great time to reflect on how we can make our stories as engaging and interactive as possible, particularly for younger learners. Ruth spoke to Rob, who’s been working through the new stories with his team, to get his thoughts.
Rob, we know OtB is all about powerful storytelling that enables children to engage imaginatively with the stories. However, sometimes we might feel our character doesn’t have much to say or do. What do you do when there are no action instructions for your character?
Well, you go ahead of the script. I remember playing Noah and in that story Noah had no dialogue. He wasn’t even mentioned for the first five to seven lines. I needed to avoid just standing there. I needed to show I was alive. I had to go ahead of the script, so I built my ark!
That’s great. Can you give us some more ideas?
If you’re a sailor or fisherman, you can mend some nets. If you’re a bystander you can go shopping and buy something off an invisible stall. You can quietly talk to people, put a coat on, or sweep the house. Just simple, low-key actions that show you’re alive. You can do these as the introduction is being read and it gives younger children something to watch.
Do you have any other helpful tips?
Actors sometimes ask, ‘What would my character have beenI doing just before this moment?’. Storytellers can do the same. For example, if you’re starting the story in the middle of the stage, walk from the back while the narration is being read. Also, if you have children with you, you can quietly explain what you want them to do at this point, e.g. If you are doing ‘Story 61: Storm!’ you can explain that you’re on the beach and you’re all going to point up at the seagulls. It’s all about leading up to the main focus of the event.
How do you use actions to build a sense of character?
We were doing ‘Story 52: Where’s Jesus?’ and a member of my team said Mary needs to hug Jesus when they’re reunited. So, we did that. I was playing Jesus and was sitting on a stool when Mary found me. She pulled me off my stool into a big hug, saying ‘What were you thinking? We were worried to death about you! We’ve searched the whole city to find you!’ It’s such an obvious thing that a mother would hug her son after such an experience, but it was so powerful.
Actions are also good at communicating how characters feel about each other. For example, if you have a soldier walking across the stage everyone else can look scared and turn aside or walk away.
And these actions are a great way to tell the story to younger children?
Yes, children might not understand all of the words, but they can understand a lot from facial expressions and your tone of voice. It can make things funny too. I was playing John the Baptist in story 53’ and had a big empty jar labelled honey. With a spoon I took an invisible gulp of honey, and the children went, ‘Mmmmm!’ Then I got some crisps and ate these as the narrator said, ‘And crunched on wild locusts’. The front row could actually hear the crunch! It was funny because I was enjoying my crisps/locusts as everyone else was saying, ‘Yuck!’
When you see Bob Hartman, he’s amazing at bringing out the funny side. It can be hard if you’re just reading the stories aloud but if you act them out, it’s all there. Also, these actions can lighten up a serious story like John the Baptist talking about repentance or a story from the Old Testament.
I saw a team do ‘Story 10: Joseph the Servant’ where Mrs Potiphar wants a kiss from Joseph. I thought, this is going to be funny and it was. In the story Joseph is sweeping, so the team found a broom in the school. It ended up with Mrs Potiphar chasing Joseph around the stage as he tried to fend her off with his broom. It was fun.
Speaking of Old Testament stories, I know you recommend that Storytellers start in the middle of The Storytelling Bible. Why is that?
Yes, it’s a good idea to start in the middle of the book because the stories are so well -known, and Storytellers will have done them before which will help to boost their confidence.
Do you have any more examples?
We had a lot of fun with ‘Story 57: The Sad Centurion’.
The Centurion says ...
If I say, ‘Go!’ they go.
If I say, ‘Come!’ they come.
If I say, ‘Do this!’ they do it.
We had a small group of children playing the soldiers. On ‘go’ the children were asked to march around the hall. On ‘come’ the Centurion ordered them back, but as they turned around at different times they bumped into each other, so that was funny. Then on ‘do this’ the Centurion saluted, and the children copied him. You could have fun with the salute and get the children to do lots of things, like a star jump, etc.
The important thing is to allow time for the actions. Pause the narration and let the actions do the talking.
You’ve said that a few times now that you need to take your time with your actions, pause the narration ...
Yes, it’s the same with ‘Story 62: Picnic on the Mountain’. There is only one sentence describing Jesus feeding everyone. Therefore, you need to stop the narration and allow time for giving out the bread to the disciples, who then give it out to the crowd. Let it build up. Show how the bread keeps going and going. I give out bread to some children (whom the school have said can eat bread) and then carry on finding bread rolls in my basket and giving them out. Here’s another. Here’s another. At the end, I pick up another roll and laugh as I think Jesus would laugh at God’s abundance.
Another way of introducing ‘action’ is to get all the children to say words and do actions. The Storyteller’s Handbook makes a suggestion for each story, but this is just a starting point, isn’t it?
Yes, look for the repetitions in the stories. For ‘Story 61: Storm!’ the handbook suggests you do actions for ‘He rubbed his eyes, he yawned …’ but you could also do actions and sounds for ‘the sun was shining …’.
And of course, we’ll have Makaton signs for each story too. This is another way to make the story interactive.
You can also have the children dress up and walk along with you. We rarely ask children to say lines. When you think about it, in many assemblies people are talking at them, so to see six people dressed up in costume instantly engages the children. With the younger ones, they might not understand all the big words and ideas, but they know what a Bible is and what a prayer is. They also see that Storytellers, i.e. Christians are fun, happy people and that’s really good.
Lindsey Davies from All Saints Church, Kings Bromley, Staffordshire.
‘You want me to parade round in a pair of old curtains … in front of all the neighbours’ children?’
‘Yeeess, I guess that’s what I’m asking. You’ll need to learn some lines too …’
I joined our church’s Open the Book group about a year earlier than my husband, who, as you might gather from the conversation above, wasn’t initially that keen. It was only as I came home from assemblies on a bit of an adrenalin high, that he became more and more curious.
It’s difficult to explain the magic that happens as you tie pillowcases around your head, don tunics (not always made from old curtains) and begin speaking words from the Bible to an assembly hall crowded with primary school children. You feel them get caught up in the story, particularly when they get the opportunity to participate. You feel their elation as they remember a part of the narrative or work out what will happen next. And you pray that the words spoken, and the stories shared, will plant a seed about Jesus in their young minds.
The first story that I participated in was ‘A Dreadful Day’. I played the part of a Roman soldier and I was delighted to wear the costume that a very talented member of our team had made. Who doesn’t like wielding a sword? I had a leather helmet and leather skirt. I looked quite the part! The narrative involved me having a sword fight with Peter, which was a lot of fun. Then I took Jesus to his cross and fixed him there to die. As the last words of the story were delivered by Jesus – ‘It is done’ – you could hear a pin drop.
As the children reflected on the story, we had the opportunity to see how much the children had been affected. At the end of the prayer, there was a fervent ‘Amen’ echoing around the room. It had affected us as Storytellers too. Perhaps the story of Easter had become too familiar to us and then there we were, pretending to feel the emotions of Mary, the fear and anger of Peter, and for myself, pretending to be involved in killing Jesus. It was pretty powerful.
I came home and said to my husband, ‘There’s more to this than acting out stories for kids. You can’t that the forget that the Bible is living and active. There is power in these words.’
I think that convinced him, or it could have been the nagging of another team member. He’s not telling.
The first story my husband participated in was ‘The Secret Baby’. He was the Pharoah. ‘My word, this feels a bit political,’ he commented reading the script at the same time as the war in the Middle East reignited. And it did. The horror of what is happening in Israel and Palestine at the moment made the story of hiding babies from massacre feel very real. The school children came away excited that a baby had been saved, and that God cared. But again, the story spoke to us as Storytellers in a deeper way, reminding us that the stories that we know so well, and tell sometimes without thinking, aren’t just for kids.
Here is a selection of pictures teams have sent in featuring their lovely Christmas assembly costumes:
Please keep sending us your photos. We love seeing your creativity and sharing your ideas with other teams.
Read the Bible 
Processing...