I’m a huge fan of solo storytelling. I believe that a well-prepared teacher who uses solid storytelling techniques can captivate an audience with God’s Word like nobody’s business.

However, there are definitely times when you can make your stories even more interesting by involving other storytellers.  

In the next few posts, I’m going to show you a few of my favorite ways to do this that always work great with an audience of kids.  

The only downside to team teaching is that sometimes it can make rehearsals a bit more complicated (and trust me, you’ll need them), but don’t let that stop you. The pay off is totally worth it! And don’t worry. I’ll give you some tips to help with rehearsals after we talk about a few different team teaching techniques.  

Today we’re going to start with an easy one, a method I call Act It Out. Not brilliant, I know, but it describes it well. 

This method is simple and fun. You tell the story and someone else acts it out as you go.  The actor may slip in and out of various costumes, use props, run around the room and do whatever you need them to do to bring the story to life.

Here’s an example of how I used this idea recently to tell the story of the life of Peter:

STORYTELLER

This is a story about a guy named Simon Peter.  We’ll call him Pete.  Hey Pete!

PETE

(waves) What’s up?

STORYTELLER

Back in the day, Pete used to be a fisherman. 

PETE

(Pete puts on a fishing hat, picks up fishing pole and pretends to cast his line and reel it in.)

They’re bitin’ today boys!

STORYTELLER

Uh, not that kind of fisherman.  In those days they used nets. 

PETE

Doh! (Drops pole, picks up net with stuffed fish attached to it)  They’re bitin’ today boys!

STORYTELLER

But one day Jesus came along and invited Pete to follow Him.

PETE

Woo-hoo!

As you can see, this story is lighthearted, and moves fast, going back and forth between the narrator and actor with short lines to keep the story moving. However, you could also use this for stories with a more serious tone and give the actor a longer chunk of dramatic monologue.

Generally speaking when you’re using this method, you would want your actor to stay in character, but you can also have fun with the narrator and actor interacting like I did in these lines from the same lesson:

STORYTELLER

Jesus was not happy about that.  He told Pete to get behind Him or get out of his way. He even called Pete Satan . . .

PETE

What!?!

STORYTELLER

. . . because Pete was trying to get in the way of God’s plan.

PETE

Who me?

STORYTELLER

Yes, you.  Jesus also went on to tell His friends that one of them would betray Him and the rest would all run away and leave Him, but Pete said . . .

PETE

Never! I will never leave your side, Lord!

STORYTELLER

Yeah, right.  Jesus told Pete he would lie about knowing Jesus three times before the rooster crowed the next morning. 

For these stories you can do them with both storytellers memorized or the narrator can read their part from a script (if they’re very familiar with it and can keep strong eye contact with the kids). Generally I’m not a fan of teaching with notes or scripts but in this set up, it’s part of the act and not distracting if done well. When I’m using this method I like to use a ½” black binder for my script. It looks clean and blends in on stage.

Whether the narrator uses a script or not, though, the actor needs to be totally memorized so they are free to get into character, use props, etc. However, one big advantage of the narrator having a script is they can help keep the actor on track (especially handy if your actor likes to go big and ham it up) and bring them back if they get lost in the story.   

In my next post, I’ll show you the more complicated version of Act It Out, how to involve multiple actors, and will share some examples of how that’s worked for me in the past.  Down the road we’ll also talk about a method I call Tandem Teaching and will hit some important tips to help with rehearsing these team teaching lessons.