Beth Thames: Storytellers sharing their Bramble Stories
This is an opinion column
Melissa Ford Thornton has always been a storyteller. When she was a student at Huntsville’s Mountain Gap School, she won first place in a mini mystery story contest. Later on, in her high school years, she won first place in the short story competition sponsored by the Huntsville Literary Association. Decades after that, she headed up that organization’s Young Writers Contest. She’d come full circle. And there was more.
Her early decision to keep on writing has paid off. She’s published in magazines and journals and is working on a novel. As former Communications Director for the Princess Theatre in Decatur, she’s been witness to performances of all kinds and has learned about the craft of performing herself. She’s the author of “The Princess Theatre: A Grand Ole Dame.” It tells the story of the historic building which started as a livery stable in 1887.
Thornton has told her stories on local public radio WLRH, at area storytelling events in Huntsville as well as Nashville, and won a place on the prestigious Moth Story Slam. She just found out that she’s been accepted to a week long storytelling workshop in Paris this summer, where she’ll continue to hone her craft and perform a story in front of the class. “Not in French,” she adds.
Her introduction to live performing came when she was on the stage with Ricky J.Taylor, a singer/songwriter, who pushed her in front of the microphone at a story and song event in Birmingham. She admits she was shaking. But she was hooked.
Along with local story telling friend Sam Mitchell, Thornton founded Bramble Stories, a collection of storytellers who perform with no notes in front of a live audience. The first time she performed with the group, she was filling in for someone. It’s stressful, she admits, since you can’t use notes or written prompts, but it was a great opportunity to keep telling tales.
The name Bramble Stories comes from the small black fruit that grows on a bramble berry bush. It’s both wild and sweet. Some see it as a weed and a nuisance, but others know that its jams and wines are sweet. The story tellers don’t ramble, Thornton says, they “bramble.” They create a ten minute tale based on a theme which changes from show to show.
Their upcoming show will be held at Shenanigans Comedy Theatre on April 11 at 7:00 PM. The theme is “The Last Straw.” Tickets are available on line at the theatre’s website. For the first time, one of the performers is hearing impaired and will tell her story out loud, but with an interpreter on stage with her. The event offers storytellers a venue where they’ll be “safe, seen, and heard” in a non profit space with reasonably priced tickets and a friendly atmosphere.
How do storytellers find topics? Where are the stories? Thornton says they’re everywhere. She takes a notebook with her and finds topics in other people’s conversations. She’s an inveterate eavesdropper and listens to people on the street, in line, and in restaurants. If you have a story-catching gene in you, stories will appear.
She remembers times she’s been lost on the road, back before GPS told us where we were. Did her friend say to turn left at the pasture with the goats in it, or right? “If I ever get out of here,” she thinks, “this will make a good story.”
“Stories have power,” Thornton says. “Without stories, we wouldn’t know our own family history or pass down our values and traditions. She believes there is something cathartic about telling your own story and something beautiful about hearing someone else’s. Children always want to hear their own origin stories, too. “Tell me a story” is what children say to the adults in their lives. If they’re lucky, someone will.
More information about Bramble Stories is at [email protected]
Contact Beth Thames at [email protected]
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