Storytellers Peggy and Gene Richardson Change the World One Narrative at a Time

By Melanie Hess

Full-time storytellers Peggy and Gene Richardson say they believe in the healing power of the spoken narrative, and they have both experience and research to back them up.

Gene defines storytelling as, “A live narrative performance shaped by dynamic audience response.”

For most, thoughts of storytelling often lead to mental images of library programs or elementary school, but the Richardsons emphasize that storytelling is not just for children.

Regularly “telling,” as they call it, at drug and rehab centers, federal prisons, local festivals, sporting events, or sometimes even at the mall, the Richardsons stress that stories are for everyone.

“We are part of tradition that goes back to the caveman,” Gene says. “The narrative form was the only form for a long time.”

Descending from a long line of storytellers, Gene turned to his inherited talents in an unfortunate season of unemployment in 1979.

“They needed somebody out at the state museum of agriculture,” he says. “And many of the events they had required some storytelling. So, I started looking into storytelling professionally and I’ve been at it ever since.”

Today, he describes it as a calling.

Peggy, however, claims she was dragged in “kicking and screaming.” She attended a storytelling festival with Gene in the March of 1989 and admits she was intrigued.

“I had never seen stories told for adults before,” she says. “I was completely mesmerized.”

Nonetheless, Peggy’s shyness and stage fright kept her comfortable on the sidelines, attending functions to talk to people or support simply as an audience member.

Homeward Bound

Yet when Gene found himself suddenly without a telling partner for Homeward Bound, the drug and rehab center he worked with in 1999, he knew Peggy would be the perfect fit. She knew all the stories and had visited the center regularly.

Reluctantly, she agreed.

“It took me a long time to get over being shy,” she says. “But it didn’t take long at all to get over the stage fright because I was actually seeing what a difference the stories made. By the end of two months, I was hooked.”

The impact she saw the stories having made the stage fright all but disappear.

At the rehab center, Gene often tells a signature healing story about a man who lives in Hell.

“I tell them, ‘There once was this man who lived in Hell. That’s right, he lived in Hell. Now this man could leave anytime he wanted to, but he never did. You know why? Because he knew the names of all the streets.’ And after they get through laughing or scratching their head, I say, ‘That’s your story. The only reason you are here is because you know those streets just a little too well. If you aren’t happy where you are, you gotta go somewhere else.’”

Stories like these, the Richardsons believe, are not only engaging, but potentially healing and certainly impactful.

“Especially at the home,” Peggy says, “clients will come in and ask us to tell these stories over and over again.”

The stories reach their audience in ways that can be seen even years down the road.

Peggy recalls a special “gift” the couple received while out for their anniversary one year.

“We were at the theatre, coming out of the movies, and we hear somebody yelling ‘Storytellers!’ and we look up. We could tell we recognized the face, but we didn’t know who this was. And he says ‘I know y’all don’t remember me. It’s been a couple of years.’ Then he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a rock and says, ‘I remember the stories you told. I still have the rock you gave me, and I want to let you know I’ve been clean for two years now.’”

For the Richardsons, this man’s quick “thank you” provided a world of encouragement.

“It was one of those ‘Okay. I can die’ moments,” Peggy says. “It was real validation that the stories were making a difference.”

Prisons

Since the Richardsons had a strong reputation in the drug and rehab system, it was only natural that they’d be asked to begin telling at prisons.

“Some of the state prisons actually are devoted to drug and alcohol treatment, and the prisoners there are there for that reason,” Peggy says.

Today, the Richardsons are mostly involved with the Ft. Worth federal penitentiary. “It’s a federal medical facility for women,” Peggy says.

They have performed for a program that runs the women through almost a year-long program for starting over again, dealing with jobs, budgets, and coping skills, with a mother-child day camp for incarcerated moms, and in the prison’s hospice group.

Gene loves the day camp because of the many opportunities it allows.

“They get to go outside and play games and they wanted us to come and tell stories for the kids and the mothers,” Gene says. “It was a great opportunity to reinforce the value of narrative as ‘how do you look at this situation with mommy away?’ and talk to them about the various stories and lessons you need to have.”

Alzheimer’s and Hospice

Just like in the prison’s end-of-life area, in hospice, the Richardsons focused on helping to distract and decrease pain.

“There’s no cure for death but there’s an easier way to die,” Gene offers. “Telling in hospice is a great way to do that.”

One of those physiological examples he’s referring to is part of their work with Alzheimer’s disease.

Telling to Alzheimer’s patients is a challenge, they acknowledge.

“Sometimes they get up and walk away or sometimes they start talking, but a lot of times if you’re telling a story about kids peeling watermelons, all the sudden somebody who hadn’t talked in weeks, months, even years will say ‘I stole a melon once,’” Gene says. “Then they start to remember.”

He says they have seen these types of results many times.

“The reminiscence bubbles up and they remember things that they thought they had forgotten,” Gene says. “It kind of helps to rewire the brain and improves their quality of life.”

Citing much research, Gene describes how patients involved in reminiscence have decreased blood pressure, lower cortisol and a decreased need for pain medication.

Dallas Storytelling Guild

As special as this couple is, they are not alone in their passion for storytelling.

In fact, when they originally decided to begin storytelling full time, they moved in with Elizabeth Ellis, a Dallas local and renowned storyteller and shadowed her, traveling the country on a festival main stage route.

In the end, Peggy said she prefers to be able to hug the people she’s just told to and a crowd the size of a festival main stage may not exactly make that possible.

But wanting to stay in the Dallas area does not limit them. Among a number of other Texas guilds, that Dallas Storytelling Guild hosts more than 30 members, who share similar interests but a variety of paths to how they got there.

Peggy listed membership including everything from librarians, motivational speakers, professional tellers, a mother-daughter team from India, business people, and those working to learn English.

“We also have two members of the Dallas Storytelling Guild who no longer live in the United States,” Peggy recalls. “One lives in Norway, and the other in Oman. They’re both ESL teachers, and they use storytelling as part of their ESL classes.”

The universality of a story, the couple explains, is key to its effective aid in language acquisition.

“The Chinese have a Cinderella story, and they recognize the motif, and it brings them into ways to use language and words that they wouldn’t normally use because so many stories are told in the vernacular.”

Impacting people worldwide through the use of stories and faith in their ability to help heal, the Richardsons continue to tell stories as their contribution to society.

Says Gene, “You change the world one narrative at a time.”

To learn more about Gene and Peggy Richardson and find out where they’ll be telling, visit their website at www.twicetellers.com.