Hello out there

Hey, those Young Tongues aren't wagging much at the moment, are they?  What news from past winners of Young Storyteller of the Year?  Are you all flourishing? 

The Arts Foundation recently put up a £10,000 award for an innovative and creative rising star in the tiny storytelling universe.  Four storytellers were short listed and had to go head-to-head at London's Barbican Theatre.  But the long list, of less than 15 storytellers chosen by their peers, included two names from past Young Storyteller of the Year awards, the performance storytelling group Annamation, and the storyteller Jo Blake.  Congratulations to them all!

The Young Storyteller of the Year Award next takes place on 7th March 2009.  It could, as the stylish badges proclaim, be YOU! See our great new web site at www.ysoy.org.uk.  But don't forget to leave a posting here too.  There's plenty of room in Cyberspace ........

Fiona

Tim blogs...

Dear Friends,

Too long has past since last I posted here! Things have been busy, and that is healthy. I'm co-ordinating the monthly story-round meet in Sheffield's Old Queen's Head at the moment, organising the mailing lists and such. If you're in the city or surround area, and would like to hear what we've got going on, then let me know and I'll be sure you get the details!

I put on a night last week, at the Fat Cat on Kelham Island. It's a wonderful pub attached to the brewery in amongst the former steel works. The surrounds are a confusion; tangled vines burst from long abandoned factories whilst swish new apartment blocks grow just as vigorously alongside. What better place to put on an evening of Urban Fairytales? Ancient stories in modern settings. We filled the room
until every chair, every patch of floor, and then every armpit had a listener therein. It was incredibly positive, the evening served as a sort of litmus test for me on whether or not we could put such events on in Sheffield. A hat was passed and it came back heavy. If we can do that once every couple of months then we can think about guests, and so on and so forth, the future is ours to shape.

It was also a good learning activity. More and more of late I've realised how eager people are to laugh. That if something is funny now and again, then that carries a lot of the emotional intensity. It's an idea I'm going to take to extremes in my next big project:

In October, I'm looking to put on a night of classic absurd pieces, featuring Kafka's Metamorphosis and Gogol's The Nose. I will be joined onstage by a large, cuddly woodlouse. It will be hilarious, sad, and folly of the purest kind.

'til then
Tim

New website for Young Storyteller of the Year

The Young Storyteller of the Year will soon have a brand new website, and there's already a holding page.

Who should get involved?
Individuals, schools and colleges, youth groups and youth theatre, story clubs and festivals, folk clubs and festivals. Anyone dealing with young people who could be the storytellers of the future.

Comments on this blog, or email Fiona

COMING SOON!

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!

YOUNG STORYTELLER OF THE YEAR 2009

will take place in Birmingham on SATURDAY 7th MARCH

Contact us on fiona@tradartsteam.co.uk or 01490 430551 to join the mailing list

Inspiration from unexpected places

Ira Glass isn't talking about storytelling, but what he says is painfully true, especially when I look at my own recorded work.

Ira talks about creative work.

For me there is an enormously important thing happening in terms of how the world connects, and how creative people can be, and it's really all very wonderfully described here:

by Clay Shirky.

Inspiration comes from strange places, I think the important things are to share it and relish in it.

Mystery in the mundane

The Alden Biesen festival in Belgium was brilliant. Weird, but brilliant.

We were sitting at the back of a theatre, waiting for Daniel Morden to come onstage and tell the Oddyssey, when Rachel leant over to me.

"We're being paid for this." She said.

And I suppose technically we were being paid to tell stories to the coachloads of Belgian teenagers, and were just watching other shows between our gigs. But in that moment it was true, and more than that, it was a dream made real.

On which subject, next Thursday is the first gig of my tour with Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, opening in Sheffield. If you have no plans for Thursday and are in the Sheffield area then why not bimble along to the Showroom Cinema, for this fantastic adaptation of the medieval text, in story, song, and the beat of drums. Tickets are £5 (£3.50 concessions) and can be purchased on the door or from the Showroom Box Office on 0114 275 7727. Doors at 7.30 for a prompt 8.00 start.

But enough of me. I can't help but feel that it's time for some new blood around here...