© by Jay O’Callahan, 2018 STF Intensive Presenter
Suppose someone said to you, “Bethlehem Steel is closing after more than a century. It built the New York skyline. It was one of the great steel companies of the country.” Then, the person went on saying, “I want you to create a story about the steel making community of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Who are the people? What were their lives like? What were the sounds and sights of the community? What were the struggles? I want several characters in the story. I want the listener to experience what life was like in the community. Can you do it?”
That was my challenge. And so I went to the East Side of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the steel making side, and standing on Fourth Street wondered how to start. I found myself at the door of the Puerto Rican club. I went in and a dozen men were sitting at tables and I asked them about working at the steel company. They talked about the coke works and how incredibly hot it was to work there. There were so many terms: the bleeder pipe, Beth Forge, the rolling mills, the ingots, on and on. They talked until I was dizzy.
I went outside, stood on Fourth Street and looked up the steep streets coming down to Fourth. The Puerto Ricans said that every morning steel workers came down those streets. On one street the Russians, the next the Greeks, the next the Lithuanians, the next the Windish, the French, the Irish, the Hungarians…all going into The Steel. And I thought, this is a different world. I don’t know the language. I don’t know the city. I don’t know steel. I don’t know these people. Can I do this story?
In a sense I became the immigrant, the outsider, creating the story. I will take you though my three year journey creating this story. And give you a chance to be the immigrant creating a story.
Want to learn more about historical storytelling? Take Jay’s workshop (Plimoth Plantation), Creating Authentic Historical Stories, (Friday, March 23 from 1:00 – 5:00 pm) – part of Sharing the Fire 2018. Don’t wait – spots are filling fast. Visit the STF Conference Details page to register for the conference. Want to share your own experiences on this topic? Leave a comment.
About Jay: Jay O’Callahan, author, storyteller and workshop leader has performed his stories in New Zealand, Lincoln Center, The Abbey Theater in Dublin, the National Fine Arts Complex in London and throughout the United States. NASA commissioned Jay to create and perform a story, Forged in the Stars for their 50th anniversary. Times Magazine calls Jay O’Callahan “a man of elegance, wit, and poetry.” http://www.ocallahan.com
