Challenge Ranch

It's been a busy week for storytelling.
On Monday evening I went up to the beautiful Challenge Ranch at Somersby to share stories with a very attentive group of 6th graders. 58 children from a Catholic school in northern Sydney were the perfect audience as we cracked codes, laughed at eccentric tailors, cried over Mongolian tragedies and marvelled at the brazen audacity of a cheeky cook who tricked her boss and his gullible guest.
The Mongolian story is a new one in my repertoire, and is one of the most challenging ones I tell. It is long and involved, but is also heart-breakingly sad at one point. The challenge in telling it comes with seeing children in front of you crying (at one school, a boy in front of me with tears pouring down his face), or even worse, when the adults in the audience are crying. I then have to swallow the lump in my own throat, and complete the tale. I have asked an audience of kids if they thought the story was too sad to tell, and 2 girls gave me a great reply: "Somtimes it's good to have a really good cry, and besides, the ending is so good."
I now end the story with traditional Mongolian music, which completes the story beautifully.

Tonight is my turn on the radio program "The Bridge."
I will be on between 9 - 10pm, talking about my experiences as a storyteller, and a student of storytelling.
The program is streamed live on http://www.coastfm.org.au/site/

Radio program

I have been invited to take part in the Storytelling Guild's new venture into community radio.
My fellow storyteller (and back-up extraordinaire when I can't make a booked gig) will be first cab off the rank tonight.
The link for Coast FM 96.3 is
http://www.coastfm.org.au/site/

and you can listen live from your computer.

My session will be Friday 29th Feb.

Storytelling at the Lit Fest

Here is some footage of The Tale Teller in action, promoting the (then) upcoming Ourimbah Campus Festival of Literature in 2004.
http://www.ccc.newcastle.edu.au/kidslitfest/video/index.cfm

Once upon a time

It's time for this storyteller to start using technology to advance the cause of a very traditional artform.
This blog will include news about my storytelling work, the interesting readings I come across, and how the PhD is developing (always keeping Uni ethics guidelines in mind, of course.
Please send me questions and comments, and I'll reply as soon as I can.
I'll be adding some interesting photos soon.