for those wishing to tell stories to children or to other adults
No experience necessary, bring nothing but yourself*!
The day is made up of segments, stages, just like any story. It's a journey during which you will find gems to help you understand your own journey, and to discover how it is to tell stories.
Coffee and delicious lunch are provided
Beginning
Your story, my story, whose story?
This is a swapping of stories, nothing honed, just sharing ....
Tell me about this part is the enlargement, the discovery of the views of the narrator and their experiences along the narrative path. Simply put, you stop at any part of the journey of the story, take a look around you and explain what your imagination sees.
How clever are you?
This is the Olympics for aspiring tellers and great fun!
Objects
They can have so many stories and they become all the more tangible and malleable when you tell them.
The Bones of the Story
Every story has its structure, the frame that holds it up. These are the bones. To fully understand a story we must identify what they are, why they are and how we individually interpret them. There are several ways to do this and we will explore them to find the one that suits you.
Emotional attachment
Having discovered what the bones are, slowly something important happens and we begin to have an emotional attachment to certain eliments within the structure of the story. This attachment is why we find ourselves attracted to tell certain stories, in particular ways, while other stories have perhaps less meaning for us.
Windows into the Story Here we step into the story landscape, and fill and enrich it. Our senses come into play and emotional learning takes a key role.
Archetypes, Gestures, Movement, Sounds and Silence.
Every storyteller is different, which is part of the wonder and appeal of storytelling. There are a number of powerful tools that can be used. These come into play through understanding how the story presents itself to you, and how you want to shape it for your voice, your way of seeing. We will explore some of these tools.
Telling
My aim for this enjoyable and hands-on workshop is for you to leave at the end of the day with the tools and the skills to begin to tell stories. Exploring the way into story is an intriguing journey of discovery and can be great fun as well as enlightening.
Throughout your day we will use games and techniques used by professional Storytellers to ’find’ a story. These games are rewarding and often hilarious!
There will be time to put some of what you have learnt into practice by telling a story to the rest of the group. This can be done in pairs or threes.
*If you have a story that you wish to work on please bring it along with you.
Weekend workshops for those with some experience are also available throughout the year at Assington Mill in the beautiful Suffolk countryside. These's workshops tend to engage on a deeper level and we use the surrounding countryside with its atmosphere to uncover the voice you have to offer your story skills.
Please go to my LINKS page for details.