ARIZONA JEWISH POST 12/3/04
Arts and Culture

Odyssey Storytelling Empowers and Entertains by Sheila Wilensky

"I'm the person on the bus who loves listening to people's life stories - then I'll tell the next person. I've always been interested in how people figure out their lives," says Penelope Simmons, who founded the Odyssey Storytelling series in Tucson in March.

At Odyssey Storytelling, six participants relate their life experiences for 10 minutes on a monthly theme, such as "In the Beginning" or "On the Road." The stories are not read or memorized. "I ask people from diverse backgrounds to tell stories; the audience is so accepting. They want the storytellers to succeed," Simmons says. The series itself has been a success, with the audience tripling within five months, helping to fulfill Simmons' goal of getting "neighbors to meet neighbors."

Odyssey Storytelling was conceived when Simmons, an artist who has worked as a counselor in a battered women's shelter, was looking for a new direction in her life. She was inspired by her daughter-in-law, Beth Lisick, who founded Porchlight, a storytelling venue in Berkeley. Lisick, in turn, was inspired by The Moth, a storytelling series in New York City since 1997.

After Odyssey's first few months, Simmons began to wonder why "so many great storytellers were Jewish."  "In my family of origin, you were supposed to tell stories. You don't get punished for being a talker in a Jewish family," she reflects. "There is a cultural expectation about sharing and being emotive."

Are Jews better storytellers than others? "I don't think so, but the oppressed have passed down easily identifiable survival skills. Taking care of yourself verbally is important," says local psychotherapist and Odyssey participant George Goldman. "Storytelling is a primal, primitive pleasure," he says, adding, "It was really fun telling my story [in November] and making it enjoyable to others."

"This is not therapy by any means, but storytellers often feel empowered," Simmons says. "One participant was so nervous, she almost backed out and couldn't eat dinner, but as soon as she got on stage she was great. At her birthday party six months later, she was telling everybody, "I had such a good time, I would do it again.'"

"My father's imaginative stories always encouraged me," Simmons says. "What he really loved was to illustrate his point with a story. Storytelling has such educational value, which is so important in Jewish culture. My father loved Shakespeare, mythology; he must have memorized Bartlett's Familiar Quotations."

Explaining the Jewish storytelling phenomenon, professional storyteller Judith Black comments, "The role of the storyteller is to pass on culture, morals, history, gossip, and the humor that emerges only when you are an ‘outsider' culture."
 
If the success of Odyssey Storytelling is any indication, Simmons has made storytelling an ‘insider' event in Tucson. "Stories help us think in metaphors; they show us life from different perspectives," says Simmons. Her next goal: "to consult with organizations and businesses to introduce personal storytelling for team building and communication skills."

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