Tales for all: Jennings and Ponder continue to satisfy audiences of all ages
Duo to kick off tour with Montpelier appearance tonight at T.W. Wood
|
|
Leanne Ponder and Tim Jennings have been regaling Vermont audiences with tales and music for nearly 20 years. |
Toolbox
By MARY GOW Arts Correspondent - Published: November 27, 2009
In a country of poor farmers,
In a village of poor farmers,
In the poorest part of the village,
There lived the village paupers
– a husband and his wife …
So poor they did not even have bread to eat, these paupers were about to have their humble lives shaken up by a cast iron pot – a clever, talking, three-legged pot.
This evening Tim Jennings and Leanne Ponder will tell the tale of "The Wonderful Pot" and other folk stories at the T.W. Wood Gallery & Arts Center in Montpelier. This celebration, with music and tales, launches their newest CD, "The King and the Thrush," and their upcoming performance tour.
"The King and the Thrush: Tales of Goodness and Greed" features four stories and four short musical interludes. Ponder plays the harp and Jennings the concertina in traditional Celtic arrangements. The CD was taped before audiences in September at Vermont College of the Arts' Noble Hall. The tales performed by these veteran Montpelier-based storytellers come from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and India.
"These are four of our favorite stories that we had not already recorded," said Ponder about the selections. "We chose them because there is something in each one of them that we really love and that we won't get bored by."
For almost two decades, Jennings and Ponder have been performing original adaptations of traditional tales together. In their arrangements, they weave stories, characters, places and themes with their two voices in a compelling dual narrative style. Paupers and rich men, imps and talking pots come to life. As they move their stories along, Jennings' and Ponder's voices work together in a delightful blend – with lots of expression, wit, and good humor.
Jennings' fascination with storytelling began early. "When I was very young my grandmother told me a story. She told it right out of her head without a book. It was the 'Bremen Town Musicians,'" Jennings said. "I loved that donkey. There was no book, no pictures, but it was right there."
Years later, in the 1970s, his interest was re-ignited when he heard a storyteller at an arts festival in Lake Placid. Jennings recalls, "I was enchanted. It was completely familiar and completely different, and I thought, well maybe I could do that."
He already had been performing as a musician and in theater. Jennings still tells the first story he adapted, "Dimwit."
With degrees in literature and psychology, Ponder also had a career performing. For several years she had a one-woman show as a Vermont peddler.
For Ponder and Jennings, adapting stories is a long process.
"The most organized room in our house is a small room filled with books of folktales – they are all organized by country," said Ponder. They are constantly building their collection – often through used book shops where they find out-of-print volumes.
In selecting stories, "We choose carefully," said Jennings. "You want those that are good enough to tell for the rest of your life. Leanne does most of the writing – she is a more literary person than I am, she writes like a poet."
Finding most of their material in books, they need to adapt them to oral presentation. Jennings said, "You don't usually need all the adjectives and adverbs, because you have your voice." Jennings and Ponder work together through piles of edits, telling and retelling the stories as they find the right voices, timing, and interplay.
"When we're performing, the stories get better," he said. In performances, audiences participate – they join in ditties sung by a feisty bird, chatter with imps, and respond to crafty jackal.
The appeal of folk tales seems to be universal – with their villains and heroes, triumphs and twists, they have something for everybody. And there may even be a physiological reason they attract us, noted Ponder.
"I recently read an article online about a study of things that make the pleasure centers of the brain light up. They were sex, chocolate and fairness – being treated fairly. I think that hearing stories that end fairly is very satisfying."
Without giving away too much, the stories on "The King and the Thrush," have very satisfying endings, and if someone offers you a talking iron pot, you probably should accept it.