WORKSHOP: KATE LAWRENCE
True Tales, Told Live
Sat June 13
10.30am - 12.30pm
This workshop is interactive. You
will be exploring your life and pulling on memories; sharing and shaping them,
reflecting and learning, listening and watching as others do the same.
It maybe that you already have an idea for a story you want to work on, or you
may think you’ve got no stories - either is fine. We will be doing
exercises to explore our history and find memories we can turn into fantastic stories
- we all have them.
Please bring a pen, a notebook, and a sense
of adventure. A good nights sleep, and a fed belly also help.
PERFORMANCES: JACKIE
KERIN
Tales from the Flyway
June 13
2.00pm – 3.00 pm
Recently I met violinist Sarah Depasquale
at the Newport Fiddle and Folk Club. We discovered we share a love of bikes,
sensible shoes, binoculars and storytelling and decided to combine our skills
in a collaborative storytelling adventure.
Sarah and I live in Hobsons Bay where there
are five significant wetland sites. A week would not go past without us walking
or riding our bikes along the ponds and checking in on the birds. Some of the
migratory shore birds that travel between the Arctic tundra and SE Australia can
be spotted over spring and summer. These are birds that connect us to countries
via wetlands and transcend language and cultural boundaries. The corridors that
the birds travel are called Flyways and Hobsons Bay is on the East Asian
Australasian Flyway linking us to Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan,
Mongolia …
What more inspiration does a musician and
storyteller need?
The structure of Tales from the Flyway is simple. If we were to fly with the birds
and visit the chain of wetlands in the countries along the flyway, what stories
might we hear? Sarah and I have harvested stories from Indonesia, Thailand and
Siberia. Our final story is a kamishibai story that has been passed down the Flyway
from the Yatsuhigata Tideland in Japan (in 2008) to Boondall in Brisbane and
then on to us (2015) for telling in Hobsons Bay. For me, receiving this story
was very moving – a validation that there are people who see the big picture
and don’t allow bureaucracy to get in the way of an idea. I thank the
Yatsuhigata Tidelands Observation Centre, Brisbane City Council and the Rangers
at Boondall Wetlands.
I would also like to thank City of
Melbourne Arts Grants and the SAV series Words
on the Wind that gave me time to work on this idea.
Hope some of you can join Sarah and me for Tales from the Flyway.
This is some video taken on world Migratory Bird day where Sarah and I adapted a story to share with children but please note Tales form the Flyway is not suitable for the very young.
Kamishibai: Stories on a Bike
June 14
12.00pm - 1.00pm
Kamishibai (paper theatre) is a kind of
visual storytelling once popular in Japan in the 1930s and 40s. Connected to
comic book making and anime, kamishibai is experiencing resurgence around the
world. Many kamishibai storytellers who work in as many languages, connect via
the internet to share ideas for building rigs and picture cards are swapped as
jpegs or pdfs. Google translate is a wonder!
The box used to frame the pictures is
called a ‘stage’. I have two – a beautiful handcrafted stage made from recycled
eucalypt made by my friend Ted Smith from the Newport
Fiddle and Folk Club and another that I made from papier mache and heavy
duty cardboard. This one I can fix to my bike, take to the streets and parks
and busk. If you are interested, you can see the plans for this one on the SAV
site under RESOURCES
I’d love to meet you in the Williamstown
Town Hall at the Festival, tell some tales and share the magic of stories on
wheels.
*(with children in mind but everyone will enjoy)
