Question and Answer with Jo Blake
Do you try to get audience participation? If so, how?
It is important to find what you are and your style of telling. Interaction is important but it can be very subtle such as looking into the eyes of some of your audience or it can be more overt. Some tellers are more natural being literary so don’t involve much interaction.
How do you keep the audience engaged?
Keep the energy high. Pick up the energy and gather them in. Throw in a comment that’ll wake them up and get them involved.
What are the most important things when telling a story?
Communication with the audience. You can always chat with them before you start a story and be yourself. Also of course the story is important. Love and value it. Care for it and be honest with it.
What is it like to be a professional storyteller?
Absolutely fantastic but very hard work. As it is freelance finding work is difficult because even though storytelling fits in everywhere there is no particular audience so you need to work hard to find an audience. Then you have to find a balance between what you believe in and where you want to work and maintain a variety but always keep happy.
28/07/09
Jo Blake has been telling stories throughout the UK for the last 5 years. Her latest performance We Are Pathmakers premiered at The Soho Theatre in London to much acclaim and has since gone on to be performed in Wales, Shropshire and of course her home town of Northampton. As one of the winners of the 2007 Young Storyteller of the Year Competition she went on to perform at the two largest international storytelling festivals in the UK, Beyond the Border and Festival at the Edge as well as storytelling clubs throughout the country. 2009 was Joanne’s first time appearing at FatE as a solo featured storyteller. Martin Manasse, Chairman of the Society for Storytelling wrote of the festival, “I was asked what my favourite session was and there was no way I could compare since all were different in style and content but, given the company of Jan Blake, Xanthe Gresham, Michael Harvey (hilarious), Hugh Lupton and Dovie Thomason in the Stories of Farewell, I was most impressed with Jo Blake who fitted in perfectly and anyone who did not know how recently she has come to storytelling would have thought she was as seasoned a professional as the others.” Joanne has also performed with theatre companies, with whom she has appeared at The Edinburgh Fringe, The Bath Shakespeare Festival, and The National Student Drama Festival. She recently co-directed a 5-star rated production for the Lighthouse Theatre in Poole alongside Laura Griffon-Holmes and John Holmes of the Pockets Progression. She regularly sings with Gregg Cave and the Village Hall Band, and has been attempting to learn the guitar for several years. Joanne is a warm and animated storyteller, a keen interrogator of the art form, and a maker of work that is intelligent, intimate and relevant to our times. As well as making storytelling performances for adults, Joanne regularly visits schools and colleges to lead workshops and tell stories to both children and teachers.
Source : Jo Blake MySpace by Lee Bridge, Author and Storyteller