Eight students from two high schools will share their stories of comedy and tragedy this weekend at Cortez’s Sunflower Theatre and the Durango Arts Center.
“Talon Tales” is a student storytelling event organized by Sarah Syverson and Tom Yoder, producers of the popular Four Corners Raven Narratives events. Most past student events have featured teens from Southwest Open School, but this year, the SWOS students will be joined for the first time by a group of sophomores from Animas High School in Durango. Their stories will begin in Cortez on Friday night, followed by a performance in Durango on Saturday.
“We thought it would be interesting for both students and audience members to combine Southwest Open School students and Animas High School students together,” Syverson said.
Several of the students met each other for the first time during a dress rehearsal on Tuesday at the Sunflower Theatre.
They had already participated in several storytelling workshops with their teachers and with Syverson and Yoder, where they learned how to fit a personal story into 10 minutes, and the Animas sophomores had staged their stages in the fall at a storytelling performance at Animas City Theatre, but the rehearsal gave them a chance to practice performing on the stage at the Sunflower Theatre.
Most of the students were new to Raven Narratives-style storytelling, and a few were new to stage performance in general, but they rarely faltered during rehearsal.
“I kind of like that I can’t really see you guys,” SWOS student Ashley Lopez told Yoder and Syverson, who sat in the audience.
“It’s so bright that I just want to look into the lights.”
Animas High sophomore Ryan Glogowski said while he was more nervous than excited, practicing on the Sunflower stage made him feel a little better.
“Going up on stage is definitely the scariest part,” he said, but “It’s real small, so that’s helpful.”
The four Cortez students’ tales focus on major events in their lives, whether getting a job, in Lopez’s case, or repairing a friendship, like in one lighthearted story from Ryker Lancaster-Milligan.
The students chose their own stories to tell, under Syverson and Yoder’s guidance, and some were more emotional than others. Racheal Cox, a junior whose tale dealt with her experiences after having a child at age 16, said she was nervous about telling her story at first.
“It’s hard, especially when it’s something so personal,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Should I tell them this?’”
But when her turn in the spotlight came, her voice rang confidently throughout the theater, and she made the other students laugh several times.
SWOS freshman Alexandra York had to pause a few times to compose herself while telling a particularly difficult story about the loss of a friend. Yoder praised her for being “brave” enough to share it.
Each student tried to wrap up his or her story with a final thought for the audience. York’s was one of the simplest.
“It’s OK to not be OK,” she said.
It was similar to the advice Yoder gave all the students near the beginning of rehearsal. He told them to focus on telling their stories in their own way, rather than saying each word perfectly.
“The audience going to be really forgiving,” he said.
“This is not like a theatrical performance, where they expect you to be perfect and have your lines all memorized. Just take your time, take a breath.”
Animas High sophomore Glogowski said he will be telling three separate stories and linking them together during his 10-minute slot. Glogowski looks for the lighter side in his stories, which he said helps ease the mood of a show that can get a little emotionally intense.
“I think it’s good to hear other people’s experiences,” he said. “My story’s more funny, but I think the stories that are more sad and personal are definitely going to have more of an effect, and I feel like I’m kind of the comedic relief of it, which is a necessary role.”
And for fellow sophomore Parker Smith, his story about how his family dealt with a family member’s cancer diagnosis and treatment forced him to take the stage – something he may not ordinarily do.
“(Going) outside of my comfort zone will be really good for me,” he said. “I thought it would be a great way to put myself out there in the community.
And he said he hopes his story can get audience members to look at the emotional effects of cancer differently.
It’s the idea of an audience rooting for the storyteller on stage that separates a staged performance and a storytelling event, Syverson said, adding that people taking the stage alone – without props or costumes – adds a deep human element to the shows.
“We actively ask the audience to participate in holding a warm and welcoming space for the people on stage,” she said.
“We’re looking for real people that may shake a little bit while they’re on stage or get nervous and forget their spot – when you are in the audience and that occurs, there literally is this feeling of warmth around that person, and kind of a cheering them on in an inward way.”
Syverson and Yoder have organized about 17 Raven Narratives events in Cortez and Durango since the project started in 2015. This year they have a total of seven performances planned, including Talon Tales. The next Raven Narratives performance for adults will be in March.