Introduction to Recitation

taught by Gary Green

Thank you for enrolling in the Introduction to Recitation course.  I hope you will enjoy it.

To help you get a bit of a head start on the workshop, I have prepared a description of the workshop project, a few video examples of some of the province’s more well-known rhymers/recitationists, and a list of some online and print resources.  If possible, please take a look at these before camp.

Should you wish to discuss anything about the information presented here or the course in general, please contact me at my email jrpcnl@yahoo.com and we can set up a time to chat via phone, Zoom or FaceTime.

The Basics

The principal objective for the course is to write a narrative recitation which can be a reworking of a story you already know (e.g., a folktale, legend, personal story), a new-to-you tale, true or not, from a source such as a book (see the online story links in my Introduction to Storytelling workshop welcome), or a new original piece of either fact or fiction.

 The recitation need not be long. It simply needs to tell a story in verse. Like stories told in prose, recitations that are too long can be tiring and the audience will lose interest. Better to leave the audience wanting more.  For reference, ***our concert limit is five minutes per performance***.

 As an example of making quick work of it, at the link below Dave Penny sings a song, plays a tune on his accordion and does a recitation all in about seven minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwTRLstKfhw

 

Videos

To get a flavour of the NL style of recitation, you can see samples of some of the better-known rhymers/recitationists at the links below.

 

Online texts

Books

Poets from elsewhere…

…who have had an influence on local rhymers:

 

Web resources

 


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