Teaching artist Allison Lerman-Gluck tells an interactive story about a child who finds a secret portal in their home, inviting the audience to participate in creating the world of the story.

Vocabulary You Will Learn:

• Interactive storytelling - A type of storytelling where the audience participates in the telling of the story.

Materials You Will Need:

• Nothing - just yourself!

How to Tell an Interactive Story

1. Starting at around 1:30 in the video, follow along with Allie’s prompts to help create the story about Jamie and the secret portal they find. Sometimes she will ask you to repeat what she says, sometimes she will ask you to perform an action, and sometimes she will ask you a question. Be creative and have fun!

In this video, Allison shows us how to create an interactive story about a child who finds a secret portal in their home. If you want to go even further, think about these questions: 

• Can you dream up a new scene to add onto the end of the story? What do you think happens after Jamie reunites with their parent? Where might the secret portal take them next?
• Allie uses some props in the video to help the story come to life. Can you find props in your own home that you could use as you tell the story? Do you have a suitcase or a necklace? Do you have materials you could use to make a snake for the scene in the rainforest? 
• Can you create your own, original interactive story to perform with a friend or family member? It can be about anything you can dream up with your imagination. Where in the story would you stop to ask your audience to act out certain parts or fill in creative details? 
• Can you think of other places you may have seen an interactive story before? Have you ever read a Choose Your Own Adventure book or played a video game that let you decide what would happen next?

Accessibility

Don't forget that you can turn on "Closed Captioning" to view the YouTube video with English captions.

More about the Teaching Artist

Allison Lerman-Gluck (she/her) is an educator, facilitator, theatre director, and storyteller based out of the Berkshires, Massachusetts. Her work primarily revolves around facilitating play-building processes with teenagers and teaching storytelling to people of all ages, while engaging in personal storytelling practices of her own. Allison believes in the power of stories—from the stories that we tell ourselves, to the stories that we tell the world, to the stories that we’ve been told. Allison’s goal as a teaching artist is to help people develop the tools to harness the power of their own stories.

Kennedy Center Education provides resources and experiences that inspire, excite, and empower students and young artists, plus the tools and connections to help educators incorporate the arts into classrooms and learning spaces of all types.

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Generous support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Bank of America; Capital One; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; The Ednah Root Foundation; Genesis Inspiration Foundation; Harman Family Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; the Kimsey Endowment; The Kiplinger Foundation; Laird Norton Family Foundation; Lois and Richard England Family Foundation; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; The Markow Totevy Foundation; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Morningstar Foundation; Myra and Leura Younker Endowment Fund; The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives;

Prince Charitable Trusts; Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk; Rosemary Kennedy Education Fund; The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates; The Victory Foundation; The Volgenau Foundation; Jackie Washington; GRoW @ Annenberg and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Family; and generous contributors to the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund and by a major gift to the fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts..

The content of these programs may have been developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education but does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the federal government.