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WALTER MAYES
hey all entered the theatre waiting for their next task. People of all ages stood to the side of the stage, ranging from as young as 14 to 65. The directors instructed them to take on the roll of a character of their choosing without the use of any words. They would walk up one by one, and pretend they were at a bus stop, get on the bus, and step off of it. Today was the day in which they were to show off the characters they have chosen to play. The directors began to call the actors up, and soon they came across a 17 year old girl who had decided to be a pregnant
youth. She walked up to the stage, and began. She started by bending her back over, and caressing her stomach as if there was truly an unborn child there. Suddenly, she was told to stop. One of the directors stood. His presence overpowered the room, he asked the girl who she’s supposed to be, to which she replied “a pregnant teenager.” The tall boisterous man then asked her what it is like to be pregnant. With no answer, he rapidly explained how a woman feels to be pregnant, what happens to her physically when she’s pregnant, what pregnancy does to
women psychologically, and all while this happened, everyone was completely and utterly silent. Shocked, the people around couldn’t fathom at how well a young man with no children, who rarely hangs out with pregnant women, could even begin to describe the experience of pregnancy. As he finished instructing the young girl, the man who’s name is Walter Mayes, is asked how he possibly knew all of that, to which he replied “I don’t know! Isn’t that what being pregnant is like?!”
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ver since Walter Mayes was a young man he has always been a part of the theatre community. He describes his youthful self as “a showoff. I was boisterous. I was loud. I was desperately seeking attention at all times.” So when he found theatre, it became an appropriate creative outlet for him. During his 5th grade elementary school year, his teacher announced to the class that they were going to be performing the Christmas Carol. That day, they gave all the children scripts and asked them to familiarize themselves with the parts and come in the day of auditions. However, young Walter misinterpreted the instructions he was given. He thought that they were to come into auditions having learned the parts, not become familiar with them. So, Walter came into auditions having memorized the whole part of Scrooge, thinki n g
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that had been the task given. When the teacher realized that he had already learned the entire part, she said “Okay, so I guess you’re playing Scrooge,” thus starting his whole acting experience. After that initial experience, Walter acted from the time he was 13 to the time he was 30, never stopping until he took a break to raise his son and become a professional storyteller.
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n order to pay off his college tuition, Walter worked at bookstores and eventually he worked his way up into the publishing business. After working many years in the industry, an editor came up to Walter and asked him “would you write a book for us?” At first, being skeptical of his ability to do it, he immediately answered no. However, Walter states, “my son finally ultimately said ‘oh dad just shut up and do it,’” and that determined his decision to create Walter the Giant Storyteller’s Giant Book of Giant Stories. Since 1985, Walter has professionally told stories and travelled to book fairs under the persona of Walter the Giant Storyteller.
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s he’s journeyed to school assemblies, local libraries, and book fairs, Walter spread his motto of “Love food, shelter, clothing, books.” He believes that “Story is something that every person uses every day of their life. A person who chooses to have no interaction with the rest of humanity and live in a cave is probably drawing in the sand with a stick or carving on the walls of the cave and telling a story. Story isn’t just words. A dance can be a story. You can build a house out of popsicle sticks and it’s a story. Everything is story, we have an innate need for narrative and we have a desperate, desperate human need to make sense out of random things”(Mayes). In the book The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human Jonathan Gottschall conveys a similar belief and uses his book to point out why story is essential in human lives. He says, “Story, in other words, continues to fulfill its ancient function of binding society by reinforcing a set of common values and strengthening the ties of common culture. Story enculturates the youth. It defines the people. It tells us what is laudable and what is contemptible. It subtly and constantly encourages us to be decent instead of decadent. Story is the grease and glue of society: by encouraging
us to behave well, story reduc- expressively in a form or perfores social friction while uniting mance he loves. people around common values. fter asking if playing difStory homogenizes us; it makes ferent characters helps him us one” (Gottschall 1627). understand other people,
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ian of the Girls Middle School in Palo Alto. During his time as Walter the Giant Storyteller, a friend had asked Walter if he could come to the school to get the students excited about
“ E v e r y t h i n g i s s t o r y, w e h a v e a n innate need for narrative and we have a desperate, desperate need to make sense out of r a n d o m t h i n g s .” - W a l t e r M a y e s
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ccording to both Walter and Gottschall, story creates meaning in our lives, and it connects people together by reminding others of their humanity and empathy. Walter is currently directing a production of the play Evita, which is about a group of prisoners locked up for their support of the Perons in Argentina. The new regime does not want to have anything to do with the Perons anymore and wants all forms of them destroyed. However, the people who are locked up are still telling their stories, meaning the prestigious family will never go away in history. This play beautifully emulates Walter’s core belief of why story is important and it is an opportunity for him to not only convey that message, but to convey
he states, “I’d actually turn that around, for me I can play a lot of different characters because I do empathize with a lot of people. I have a really highly developed sense of empathy...I can just get in there and feel what you’re feeling and it’s not like it’s psychic or anything, I’m in tune with where you are right now. I can read your face, I can read your body language, I can hear it in your voice, so that really helps me be a better actor”(Mayes). Walter’s ability to empathize with others not only helps him within the world of theatre, but it also helps him in his daily occupation.
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utside of his theatrical antics, Walter can be found sitting in his room surrounded by books as the librar-
books and read stories. His friend, who was the librarian at the time, was about to move to the other side of the country and was currently looking for someone to replace her. Thinking Walter would be the perfect fit, she told her boss and Walter became “the visitor who never left”(Mayes).
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iggi Bengston, a Girls’ Middle School alumni and student advisee of Walter states that if she were to describe Walter in one word, it would be “supportive.” As a young middle school girl, Siggi went through a difficult time identifying herself and her sexuality. She never had anyone to open up to about it and never trusted anyone when it came to that topic in her life until she met
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Walter. Siggi and Walter both met on the day Siggi shadowed at GMS. Shadow day is when those who are interested in applying to GMS can shadow a current student. During drama class, Siggi was asked to play Walter because she was so similar to him in terms of height. Shortly after, she was playfully
bettering myself and if I hadn’t known him I really don’t know how that would’ve worked out.” Out of all the people in the world, Walter was the one who impacted Siggi positively towards the “right” direction. Without him, she would never have learned to be herself. She would never have learned to
older teenagers...”(Mayes). For example, when Walter was 14, an older boy named Bob affected his life greatly. He recalls Bob helping him “man up,” and although it was only the simple act of being selfless, it is one out of many experiences that has sparked Walter’s desire to help others.
“ Yo u l i s t e n , y o u s h u t y o u r m o u t h a n d l i s t e n t o t h e k i d .” - Walter Mayes thrown into a recycling bin and stop caring about what othrolled around by Walter, thus ers thought of her, because at ending their first meeting. the end of the day if you’re not happy, your life is not going to hen explaining her first be worth much and that advice impression of Walter, from Walter is what will stick she described him as big with Siggi forever. and intimidating, but after gets I spoke with Walter about ting to know him, she found helping his students and achim to be a genuine and cartors become better versions ing person. Siggi recalled going of themselves, he mentioned through a rough patch in the mentorship as playing an im7th grade, and how he helped portant role in finding your best her through it. She was strug- self. He states, “It’s important gling with personal problems, because I remember and value really needing someone to those people in my adolescence talk to and Walter was able to who were there as sort of sign be her support for that morn- posts for me and said, ‘here’s ing. She believes “he handled what you need to know.’ [They] it really well and he was like lowered their hands to me to ‘I didn’t know that you could raise me up to the next step. show emotion!’ He joked with Whether it’s family, or whether me and it just really helped... it it’s teachers or whether it’s famwas a really good way to start ily friends or sometimes it’s just
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alter has found that the “ part of the journey of ‘being-of modeling’ [is] that [children] can be their best selves is when they come to you with a revelation or a feeling or uncomfortable emotions [and] you don’t freak out. You just sit there and you listen, shut your mouth and listen to the kid. It’s a good rule for parenting, boy it saved my ass raising a teenager. The Day I learned to shut up was the most amazing thing”(Mayes). Since realizing this, he has helped not only students like Siggi, but others around him with the problems they face. One of Walter’s close friends has recently been struggling with her teenage son. Walter first met the boy when he was 11 years old, and right away he knew that one day the
“ kid and I are going to be sitting somewhere around about the time he’s 17, on a stoop, arms around each other, and he is gonna unburden a whole bunch of shit to me. It happened last week”(Mayes). When you create a comfortable space for someone to be themselves, it’s easier for them to let go and unleash all the unkept feelings they have. The fact that Walter is able to create strong enough rapport with people that they are able to feel comfortable is a quality that he really adds to the GMS community.
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tion of books in which anyone of all ages can come in and enjoy. He is notorious for recommending books, and no matter who you are he can list several authors and books that you may like. He even recommended me a few for myself.
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ther than creating a fantastic library, Walter offers these young girls a place to be themselves and feel safe. He believes “It’s very important to offer young women at that very impressionable time in their life, the opportunity to fall FLAT on their face, to screw something up, to pick themselves up, to learn from their mistakes, and then do it again better. A kid is going through something in her life that is having an impact on her education. Whether it’s a home thing, or a medical thing,
hroughout Walter’s time at the Girls Middle School, his empathy and care matched with his outgoing playful personality really impacts their community as a whole. Esther Selk, a drama and math teacher and alumnae affairs director at the Girls Middle School, states “he is actively looking for ways to challenge you and challenge the girls intellectually and challenge them morally and ethically.” When you enter his library, you enter a room with a vast amount of high shelves filled with books of varying heights and widths. Some are stacked vertically, some horizontally, yet the aesthetic of the shelves brings a sense of comfort to those who enter. With a variety or a peer thing, and we(GMS) of genres and levels of dif- address it. As a staff, we take it ficulty, Walter has a wide selec- on, and we make it so that every
girl in that school can be the version of herself she is most comfortable with at that time of her life, and it’s okay to be whoever you are.” The time and effort he and everyone at the Girls Middle School put to create a space for all their young girls to learn the importance of being themselves is truly admirable. When Walter interacts with his students, current and former, you can see the adoration in his eyes when they are learning on their own by becoming their true selves and figuring out where they fit into the world. Although Walter has a strong passion for directing and acting within theatre, after asking where he sees himself in the future, he states “I will stay at GMS until I die. It’s the perfect job for me I’ll never go anywhere else,” and I with no doubt believe that to be true.
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WORKS CITED Bengston, Siggi. Personal interview. 18 Sept 2015. Gottschall, Jonathan. The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Selk, Esther. Personal Interview. 03 Oct 2015. Mayes, Walter. Personal interview. 04 Sept 2015. Mayes, Walter. Personal interview. 03 Oct 2015.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zipporah Alcaraz is currently a senior at Mountain View High School. Her current goals in life are to graduate high school, get in to college, and leave home with good memories. In her free time she enjoys watching Netflix, hanging out with friends, and traveling. She is the youngest of five, and goes by several names, Zippy being one of them. In the future she hopes to travel around the world and be happy.
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