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Paper short abstract

Folktales might be old maps for ceremonies – a report from 34 years of field research engaging with folktales ceremonially via audience-as-artist theater participation to reconcile emotional, social and spiritual dilemmas, and return individuals and communities to healthful equilibrium.

Paper long abstract

If we consider that folktales might be old maps or scripts for ceremonies, then we can engage with them ceremonially to reconcile emotional, social and spiritual dilemmas, and return individuals and communities to healthful equilibrium.

Presentation gives a look into 34 years of field research exploring audience-as-artist theater engagement participation with the folktales, Minnesota Folktale Gardening Club, for enjoyment, and healing.

We tell world folktales. Then, we guide incremental “braiding” experiences with the characters and dilemmas of the stories through perfection-free participatory engagement using voice and action. This embodied learning approach allows us to identify with the characters and dilemmas of the stories, and discover how they might mirror and inform our own lives.

We draw from world folktales, poetry, mythology, archetypal psychology, expressive arts approaches, culture studies, recovery principles, men’s work, and the feminist awakening. This play deepens personal and communal understanding and action. It encourages sovereignty and agency of all involved.

We engage in the nobility and heart of the world folktales to promote emotional and social healing, ignite joy and wellbeing, and empower individuals and communities to act courageously in the world in service to community.

This work is trauma-informed. We model how participation can be ecstatically cathartic, with expressed mirth and grief to metabolize insults to inherent dignity. This addresses colonialism’s effects through “recovery of self” (Albert Memmi). Participants often report significant positive life-encouraging experiences.

Presentation includes lecture, video documentation from sessions, and, if time, voluntary experiential participation.