Highland Mid-Kids Interview Storyteller Barbara Lawson

Storyteller Barbara Lawson recently visited the Highland County Schools, where she held workshops and performances. The Highland Mid-Kids Radio Club interviewed Ms. Lawson to get the “behind the scenes” information.

“Hi, I’m Lauren Davis, from the Highland Mid-Kids Radio Club, and hello Ms. Lawson, how are you today?”

“I’m doing great, thanks.”

“I have a question for you. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?”

“Well, I started out as a schoolteacher. When I graduated from JMU, I started teaching, and I taught lots of years of kindergarten, and a few years first, second and third grade. And then I started storytelling.”

“Hi, I’m Erin from the Highland Mid-Kids Radio Club. What got you interested in storytelling?”

“ I think I got interested in storytelling by listening to other storytellers. I love listening to stories, I loved watching movies that were good stories, and so that just – I like to try and re-tell the stories that I heard. And that’s kind of what got it started, and I just never stopped.”

“What is your favorite story to tell?”

“oh, that’s a good question. Because, you know, a storyteller has lots of stories. I think one of my favorite to tell is Grandma Spider, because I get to – it’s a great story, and then I’ve really made the characters kind of extreme, which makes it fun to tell. So I can just have a ball telling the story, and it’s a great story.”

“How did you learn to do all your facial expressions, and voices?”

“Well, the facial expressions, I remember always looking at myself in the mirror, honestly, Because I wanted to see what facial expression I was making myself – I wanted to see what it looked like, to see what other people might be seeing. And then when you get your first reaction from people, with a certain facial expression, you go “Oh, that one works!,” and then you keep going from there, and then it was just fun, because I loved theatre, and I’ve done a lot of theatre, so I got a lot of chances to do a lot of crazy expressions.”

“Thank you Ms. Lawson.”