Photograph by George Sakkestad
Storyteller Jim Mita shares a tale with his class at San Jose State University.
By Diane Hoda
Stories can bring joy and laughter, inspiration and healing. They can teach listeners compassion and forgiveness, and tell them about the differences between people.
Everyone has the gift of storytelling to share.
Storytellers find their material in what they read, experience, overhear or make up. Stories can be chosen from an array of folk-tale books from around the world, from childhood feelings and encounters, from stories passed on through generations or heard at parties. Stories also can ignite from the mind's infinite bounty of imagination.
"Storytelling is an ancient art," says Jim Mita, a Cupertino storyteller. "It's not just a pastime or rural art. It is a vehicle for passing on tradition and values."
Mita, a retired special education instructional aide, devotes his life to telling stories. For two yeas, he has been a member of the South Bay Storytellers, a Los Altos-based nonprofit group. Every second Sunday, he gets together with other storytellers at Los Altos Methodist Church to share yarns.
"There's a wonderful mixture of ages," Mita says. "The youngest storyteller is 8 years old and our oldest is in his early 80s. There are some professionals, some amateurs. We have a variety of styles and personalities and the genre of stories is very different. Our motto is: 'Everyone has a story to tell, to hear, to love.' "
Mita says there currently is a renaissance in the art of storytelling. "Our country is experiencing a flourishing of storytelling at all levels." In nations, such as Japan, that have a long tradition of stories as parables for life, storytellers are revered, he says.
"One thing storytelling has in common--people have common fears and dreads. The story has a way, if it's a good story and well-told, of reaching out to people and joining them in the story. As the storyteller is telling the story, the listener is telling his story. There's a bridge. Stories can break through barriers."
Mita specializes in folk tales from foreign countries, Western stories, adventure and inspirational stories--"stories that heal," he says. He has studied the discipline of Japanese storytelling.
The first stories he learned were from his grandfather. "I was able to use some of those stories as an instructional aide in special education. My students responded better, whatever subject, if I could bring the subject, characters and place alive."
Storytelling is a challenging hobby, Mita says: "It challenges you to learn more about the world. It also teaches you strengths and limits. There's something about a good story that wants to get in front of the storyteller."
Bob Jenkins, a professional storyteller, is enthusiastic about Mita's way with words. "Jim is an elegant, polished gentleman, who offers dignity and personal wisdom to his storytelling," he says.
For upcoming storytelling festivals, Mita shops at a fabric store to select fabric for a vest. He wears different vests, he explains, to suggest background for his stories. He wears one vest with a Southwest desert scene for cowboy stories, a denim vest and suspenders for gold-mining stories, and several Japanese-style vests for Japanese folk tales.
A Japanese-American, he was born in a relocation camp in Topaz, Utah. He tells about barbed wires and guard towers, but also about playing games with other children.
"Childhood is a reservoir of stories," says Mita, who began telling stories at age 8, while babysitting.
"People listening to a story allow it to unfold in their minds differently. They take what they need from a story based on their own experiences. Stories are therapeutic, giving solutions to life's problems. The response may be unconscious, immediate or dormant."
Mita noticed while working with handicapped students that storytelling engaged them in thinking about the story's outcome.
"I had a junior high school disabled student, who was headstrong, angry, with a short attention span," Mita says. "I discovered that telling him a story about my foibles got him thinking about his own behavior and calmed him down."
Cheryl Dawn, wife of the pastor at International Baptist Church in Cupertino where Mita sometimes tells stories, says, "At Sunday school, the children are normally fidgety, but when Jim meets their eyes and starts a story, they sit as still as can be."
Mita brings his audience into the story through eye contact and facial expression. He describes storytelling as " theater of the face." He also changes his voice to reflect the character's expression.
"The story is the most important element," Mita says. "It should stand on its own merit." The storyteller is of secondary importance.
Storytellers share their gift in different ways. "Grandpa" Paul Dexter, 80, the founder of South Bay Storytellers, tells stories at public schools.
"Stories stimulate the imagination," he says. He explains that in contrast to TV viewing, where pictures encourage passive watching, storytellers provide the words and listeners provide the pictures.
Several year ago, one little first-grader, who had trouble expressing herself in English throughout kindergarten, started telling her own stories after listening to Grandpa Paul.
"She was mesmerized by Grandpa Paul's stories," says Janet Suer, the little girl's teacher. "All of a sudden she was transformed from a quiet, shy child into an outgoing, confident child."
Grandpa Paul currently tells stories at Montclaire Elementary School.
Although some storytellers use props, pantomime, puppeteering or instruments, others narrate effectively in a monotone. A grandfather, for instance, may tell his grandchild a tale on the back porch, the child listening intently, asking each time grandfather pauses, "Then what happened?"
Bob Jenkins, who teaches drama at San Jose State University, says some storytellers use dramatics, but it isn't necessary. "Those who stand on their feet to communicate--lawyers, teachers, nurses, parents, business, executives, leaders--can use storytelling effectively to get their message across."
Mita has given talks about storytelling to future teachers at workshops, such as "Art in the Classroom Curriculum," at the University of Phoenix in San Jose. He plans to give seminars and workshops at an outdoor theater at his home near Stevens Creek in Cupertino and wants to lead California historical tours.
For more information about South Bay Storytellers events, call Joy Swift (415) 494-1383.
This article appeared in the Cupertino Courier, February 14, 1996
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.