http://www.storytellinginhope.com en-gb storytellinginhope.com 2012-1-28T00:00:00Z storytellinginhope.com http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#111305 We had a feast of Scottish stories onTuesday if not the haggis amp whisky to wash them down. But there was traditional scottish shortbread kindly donated by Rosanna our true representative of the bonny land north of the border. Thinking about it Storytelling in Hope members come from a fair spread of different lands countries and traditions England Ireland Scotland Wales Cornwall Australia Sri Lanka just off the top of my head.One of the joys of story sharing is to see the links the twists the sudden illuminations that come from hearing the familiar plots from a different tradtion or perspective. So we now understood puddock as the Scots for frog when just a few weeks ago Tales of the Paddock initially had us thinking it was something to do with fields. The word fairy can mean so many things but in our Scottish stories there was no doubt that these folk were full sized cunning and very powerful akin to the Irish Sidhe. And there were more references to the historical links between... 2012-1-28 13:04:40 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#110834 Motto for 2012 Treat yourself to the luxury of listening Tuesdays AGM set the basis for a great year of storytelling ahead. In the Bakehouse we will be hosting at least one professional performance in September and holding group performances in April and December. The first of these will be the Laxdaela Saga from Iceland in April. Something a bit different will be the storytelling and circle dance workshop performance of the Baba Yaga led by Storyteller Sian Jones and Dancer Karoline Streicher in November venue to be arranged. The Saturday Open Houses alternately in Forest Hill and Rochester in months when there is no other performance are continuing. Its a great format informal storytelling with food The next one is on Saturday 18th February in Forest Hill. We will also be taking storytelling into Charlton Care Home in the summer and autumn invited back by popular demand Last but not least is our core event the weekly storytelling circle at St Marys Community Centre in El... 2012-1-21 15:32:23 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#104399 A bit of rejigging to the themes is necessary as we hope to get involved with The Project Grimm an ambitious world wide project to celebrate next years bicentennial of the first publication of Childrens and Household Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. So Tales from Grimm will now be the theme on Tuesday 8th November to be followed with a performance that we hope to record at the Open House on Saturday 12th November at Claire amp Judes. More details soon.Fame will now be the theme for Tuesday 22nd November.We will also be telling stories at a care home in Greeenwich before Xmas and hope to arrange some storytelling to children at the new Blackheath Library. Watch this space. 2011-10-11 13:35:00 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#103551 Tuesday nights theme of sun and stars in honour of the recent equinox brought a fascinating mix of creation myths moral yarns and elemental struggle with stories from Nepal North America and the Fens.We also set the themes for the coming weeks which are4th Oct Old Age11th Oct Renewal18th Oct Natures Bounty25th Oct Half Term break no meeting1st Nov Ghoulies ghosties and long leggedy beasties plus witches etc8th Nov Fame15th Nov Group Performance first rehearsal22nd Nov Tales from Grimm29th Nov Misery or Joy6th Dec Group Performance second rehearsal13th Dec Xmas party with tales of generosity amp givingXmas Break10th Jan Tempus Fugit 2011-9-29 17:36:50 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#94535 We held our second very successful Open House last Saturday. This is the ideal setting for informal storytelling easy chairs plenty to eat and good company. Highly recommended. Your next chance to take part is Saturday 11th June at Deirdre amp Tonys in Rochester which will have a Russian theme strong stuff the oral equivalent of Vladimir Putin wrestling bears. Telephone 01634 841176 for details. And if you cant make that theres the summer party at Claire amp Judes on Sunday 10th July date changed from Saturday 9th July when in the week before St Swithins Day the topic will be Weather. Themes for our Tuesday storytelling circle up to the summer break are 24th May Siblings are Cinderellas Ugly Sisters typical 31st May no meeting half term break 7th June Lost worlds 14th June The Essence of Story workshop with Debbie Guneratne we think its about memory but cant quite remember 21st June Ere be Dragons 28th June Help amp helpers... 2011-5-22 23:26:06 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#87315 Our weekly Ring of Hope meetings welcome any stories of 10 minutes or less. But for those who like the stimulus of telling stories on a given theme here are ours for Spring 2011.Feb 22No meetingMar 1 Palette of Colours Mar 8Regeneration ..eggsMar 15No meeting were having an evening out to the Gillingham Club to see Kate CorkeryMar 22Irish StoriesMar 29FathersApril 5April FoolApril 12DreamsApril 19Moon Care Home visit in pmApril 26Easter breakMay 3Easter breakMay 10Fish 2011-2-19 16:38:38 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#87271 We had a lively discussion about the shape of Club activities in the months ahead. Everyone wants Ring of Hope to carry on and Tuesday night attendances are now consistently high enough to make them not only more fun but most importantly self financing too. So we will be booking Tuesdays ahead to the summer at least. There was also a lot of interest in returning to regular monthly weekend performances. This is difficult in our straightened times with costs ever rising and grants a distant memory. But Claire amp Jude Forest Hill and Deirdre amp Tony Rochester have offered their houses on alternate months for performance based evenings. The format would be to browse and share story collections either in book form or on CD or tape or to work up a group performance or run a Story Bazaar. People might feel like trying out a longer story than would be suitable for a Tuesday evening.We are also moving to Saturday evenings which are easier than Sundays for many people. The... 2011-2-15 20:18:11 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#78524 This was a most fruitful evening with June commenting on 4 stories giving universal pointers for shaping and developing them and our narrative techniques which everyone present could share. More of the same on Tuesday 23rd November everyone welcome. First here are Junes reflections on the evening followed by notes of some of the other issues she raised. Ive just had a lovely evening at Ring of Hope St Marys Community Centre. I heard 4 extraordinary stories told in 4 very different styles and I have come home feeling invigorated and lifted up by the experience. All the stories got me thinking about really big issues on the way home so that means the telling of the stories really worked well. I have already told the storytellers what I thought but on reflection I have other thoughts. I do hope that Sam Tony Claire and Deirdre wont mind me posting here some more of what I feel about the stories and the possibilities of how they could be told. The stor... 2010-10-19 14:58:43 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#77239 June brought with her much from the archives of Storytelling In Hope which has been performing since the early 1990s. Not all of these were tangible objects some were just stories and reminiscences. Storytelling in hope started on the premise A platform to tell amp good models to follow and quickly established itself as a place for the spirit of storytelling to live. The first ever group performance At the Bob Hope Theatre hence the name was of the King amp The Corpse by Heinrich Zimmer. Drawing from Eastern and Western literatures a selection of stories linked together by their common concern for the problem of our eternal conflict with the forces of evil. Beginning with a tale from the Arabian Nights this theme unfolds in legends from Irish paganism medieval Christianity the Arthurian cycle and early Hinduism. After this the group moved on to stories from The Mabinogion the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh ... 2010-9-21 20:39:01 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#69541 One of the group had a brain wave for a new game called Heads for Tales and everyone else was happy to give it a go. So someone starts a tale and when they have told enough they flip a coin and if its heads something good happens in the story or if tails something bad. Then the next person takes up the tale and when they have told enough they flip the coin. Heads for Tales a fun game of free form storytelling that really gets the imagination going. So we had the story of Shy Jack with the amazing singing voice and his competition with nasty Nigel the Tax inspector. Followed by an old man who goes on a very strange journey with a collection of animal friends. We then experimented with some different rules and outcomes. Some also had a story they wanted to try or tell. Its strange. You can read a story you can hear a story but you only know if it really works and how it feels when you tell it yourself to appreciative ears. Mary told the beautiful sto... 2010-6-29 23:27:05 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#69234 Five of us present Chris Mary Maggie Deirdre and Tony. Discussed the forthcoming storytelling session at Lewisham Hospital on Thursday 17 June. Chris Tony and De and Mary. Chris told the Little man on the Little island our passitround story where each teller adds their own ending. It was great. Deirdre told The Dead Moon the story from the English Fens where the moon is captured by the Bogles and Boggarts and the fens loose their night light. The moon is saved in the end. Tony told a Polynesian story Saving Time a young boy Maui confronts the speeding sun and bargains with it to slow down thus giving more hours of daylight. Mary told a story about a manycoloured coat that was recut into a jacket then into a waistcoat to a cap and then a bowtie. All this during the growing up of a mans family each item for a new member of the family. Maggie told a true story about a kitten stuck in a tree saved by a ... 2010-6-16 13:11:52 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#67780 Well Parish news and exciting details of forthcoming events were dealt with as quick as possible so we could get on with some storytelling. We kicked off with Deirdre telling her version of our tell it and pass it on story the Little Island. Its really great to hear the same story told over and over evolving as it goes. Will we ever agree on what the end should be Come along and find out. Now as is often the case one story leads to another and the story of the Little Island reminded Debbie great to see you back of a Japanese story that she had been told while she was in Indonesia The Golden Sea. It had resonance with the Little Island and after Debbie had told it it resonated with the whole group. And then we were really going with Chris and the Mouse Princess a couple of true stories from Tom and Claire. Followed by Ben reworking an old tale to fit a new situation and giving it some local colour. Anne told us a wonderful story of Scottish Kelpies which are wa... 2010-6-8 18:38:36 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#66277 We kicked of with trying to come up with the Top Ten childrens stories that a teller really should know and inevitably we couldnt agree and came up with a longer list than ten. Here it is in no particular order Jack and the BeanstalkThe Emperors New ClothesThree Little PigsGoldilocksLittle Red Riding HoodThe Princess and the Pea but told along with The Paper Bag PrincessRapunzelBilly Goats GruffHansel and GretelAladdinRumplestiltskinGinger Bread ManThe Ugly DucklingCinderellaBeauty and the BeastSnow White Well thats what we came up with. Anyone want to try a list of stories for adults You can use the Comment link at the bottom of this post to give us your ideas for essential stories for children or adults or any other feedback on TnB. What do you do when you dont have an ending for a story You bring it along to SiH and start a Tell it and pass it on. So one of our tellers had an original story that h... 2010-5-25 16:38:30 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#65870 We got physical How much should we use our bodies in telling How can we use gesture to greater effect And an experiment in storytelling to help us do this Well once we got going it was another lively night. I must find a better word than lively otherwise Im doomed to repeat it every week. So first we had a discussion about Gestures what they are and if we should or need to use them did I say discussion perhaps I should say a debate We then considered Descriptive amp Emphatic gestures and how we should think about how we can fit them naturally to our own style. And then after Tea and bickys we had a bash at Shadow telling. Hum whats that Well the audience faces a wall Stay with it and the story teller stands behind the audience and is lit from behind Get it. So what the audience watches is the tellers shadow. This means that if you are nervous about telling or just want to experiment with a story the audience isnt watching you. They are watching your shadow tak... 2010-5-18 17:28:51 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#65869 A night of just good old random storytelling and story chatter. Amongst the tales we heard from Tony an Italian folk tale Quack Quack Stick to my back A story about a very strange duck. A Chinese story from Ben The Jar. An Urban legend in the form of the Cat in the safe from Tom and to round it up from Deirdre a Duncan Williamson story of the Seal folk of Ireland Mary and The Seal. A nice relaxing evening of stories. Great fun. 2010-5-11 17:25:04 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#65868 Well what a lively night looking at how varying our Pitch Pace amp Power can help to bring a story alive. The alternative of course is to keep an even pitch throughout the sentence which at best sounds odd and at worst dull boring or confusing. We all modulate our voice naturally while we are speaking to fit the mood or emotion of what we are saying. However put an audience in front of us and nerves and anxiety can take over draining our voice of its life and spark modulation puts the life in. The Devils Breeches story from Italo Calvino gave us a chance to analyse what parts of a story call for modulation and then to have a go at using some of the techniques we discussed. Great to see engaged and ready to have a go. 2010-4-20 17:21:02 http://www.storytellinginhope.com/page3.htm#65867 The Devils Breeches gave us all an introduction to the Italian folk tales collected by Italo Calvino. Italo Calvino One of the most inventive of European writers and a master of allegorical fantasy Calvino was born in Cuba in 1923 but grew up in Italy and spent most of his life there. An essayist and journalist as well as a writer of fiction he was awarded the prestigious Italian literary award the Premio Feltrinelli. He died in 1985. Italian Folktales Meticulously selected and artfully recreated the selection of stories in Italian is vast and ranges geographically from Corsica and Sicily to Venice and the Alps. This is a really interesting collection of folk tales better some would say than the brothers Grimms. The flavour of raw hard peasant life comes through on every page and very little imagination is needed to transport you back to 17th century taverns where storytellers spellbound their listeners with these even more ancient stories of ogres bandits princes... 2010-4-13 17:16:20