Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Roslyn Quin. The Red Bird and Death. Melbourne Fringe 2012


Over the years Roslyn has been all sorts of everything from a two-bit crystal salesman to professional Alice in Wonderland, she's tread the boards, fought in the ring and spent far too much time covered in sawdust and paint…but there have always been the stories.

New to the storytelling game, Roslyn is debuting her storytelling at this year's Melbourne Fringe, collaborating with a collective of passionate creatives to produce a stage show centering on traditional and original folklore. While Roslyn's work history lends itself to performance and educational projects for children, her current passion is invoking darker tales for the delight of an older audience and collaborative work.

Venue: The Bull and Bear Tavern - 347 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Tickets: $20 Full, $15 Concession, $15 Tight Arse Tuesdays (BUY TICKETS HERE)
Shows:
(All show durations approx 1hr…depending on how chatty our Storyteller is)
Sunday 30th September – 5pm
Monday 1st October – 7.30pm
Tuesday 2nd October – 7.30pm
Wednesday 3rd October – 7.30pm
Thursday 4th October – 7.30pm
Friday 5th October – 7.30pm
Saturday 6th October – 7pm*

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Dancing the story with Jasmine Wirawan. Festival Indonesia. Melbourne 2012

At 14 years of age Jasmine Wirawan is already an exciting and unique storyteller. Performing In Queensbridge Square as part of the Festival Indonesia, Jasmine held her audience from start to finish. 

Jasmine's style is highly visual with beautiful costumes and props. Her training as a dancer is evident in her carefully choreographed gestures. Snapping away with my camera, I've tried to catch some of her in action. This is 'whole body' storytelling. Every part of Jasmine, from the tips of her toes to the top of her head is engaged in animating the story.

The story Jasmine is telling here is Princess Kemang, an Indonesian folk tale from Sumatra. It was an adaptation from a version retold by Murti Bunanta. 'An unusual story from Bengkulu province, it tells of the courage and bravery of a princess, who is independent and chooses her own match'.

You can learn more about  Indonesian folktales at this website here. There are many available in both Indonesian and English

pic: Jackie Kerin welcoming Jasmine to Melbourne on behalf of Storytelling Vic.




Jasmine is keen to return to Australia. This accomplished storyteller has already much to teach us. If you would like to invite her back please contact me and I can pass on her details.





Jackie Kerin
jackie@jackiekerin.com.au

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Julie Perrin. Workshops. October 15, 22, 29, November 5 2012


Limber up your story memory

Workshop series with Storyteller

Julie Perrin

Traditional tales are built for memory. Most people don’t trust their memories - discover gestural, aural and visual ways of remembering stories.  

four Monday nights:
October 15, 22, 29, Nov 5
7 – 9.30pm


$280, concession $240


Athol Gill Centre
100 Hodgkinson St Clifton Hill, adjacent Queens Parade  # 86 tram or 5 mins walk Clifton Hill Station.

Bookings & inquiries Julie Perrin 0409 019 987




Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Storytelling Australia (Vic) remembers Morna Lewis


Some of our longtime members will remember Morna Lewis from our early conferences at Erskine House Lorne. Morna and her husband Bill would always drive in late Friday night and like most of us she would  thrill to be with like minds who had a passion for storytelling. Morna put me in mind of Patricia Scott with her quiet composed telling and had been a member of our Guild for over thirty years.
 
Sadly we report her passing. After some time in the Alfred Hospital Melbourne, Morna was transferred to Portland Hospital for rehabiltation, where she died peacefully with Bill and her family present on 5 July 2012.
 
Bill reported that "at Morna's funeral the grandchildren came forward and placed a number of items symbolising her life on a table. Her passion for story telling was represented by her lovely colourful wool jacket. She was much loved in Portland and Heywood for telling stories to children and a wide range of community groups, and will be greatly missed." He asked that we inform her fellow members of the Victorian Story Telling Guild of her passing"

Anne E Stewart

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Gael Cresp. Myths and Legends night at Alexandra Library. 18 September 2012


The Alexandra Library is hosting an evening of storytelling with professional storyteller Gael Cresp.
Gael Cresp is a well known gifted storyteller who captivates her audience with dramatic ancient tales. Gael brings to life all the excitement, tragedy, wrath, revenge and passion of the ancient myths and legends, complete with all the M rated bits.

Myths and legends were an attempt to explain nature and the wonders and dangers of the world. Enduring themes of betrayal, lust, greed, discovery, fear and quests are as central to ancient myths as they are to the modern world.
These stories give an insight into some of the foundations of our cultural heritage, as well as an understanding of the naming of the planets and exploration missions in modern times. They may also help you solve a crossword or two.

Please join us with your family for this storytelling journey into the world of ancient heroes, monsters, heroines and adventure.
Heroic supper afterwards in the library.

This event is sponsored by Friends of the Library Alexandra as part of their Away With Words festival.

Bookings 5772 0349.

When
07:00PM, Tuesday 18 September 2012 - 08:00PM, Tuesday 18 September 2012
Where
49 Grant Street, Alexandra 3714

More info: here

Jasmine Wirawan visits Melbourne: Festival Indonesia 2012


Storytelling Australia (Vic) welcomes Jasmine Wirawan.

Jasmine  is a 14 years old and has participated in various festivals and competitions, among others the well known Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali, Indonesia; Penang International Kids Storytelling Festival in Penang, Malaysia;  KPBA International Storytelling Festival, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Besides storytelling, she loves to dance ballet, hiphop, and traditional Indonesian dances. She is a member of the well known Last Minute Street Crew – street dance.

What is unique about Jasmine is that she incorporates dance with the art of storytelling.

Jasmine will be telling an Indonesian folklore from the island of Sumatra called “Princess Kemang”. Unlike the usual graceful and ladylike princesses, Princess Kemang was tough and mastered in sword fighting. One day she went to the jungle to go hunting and met an evil tiger, a mysterious old man and magic tree. Want to know what happened? Please come and enjoy this unique Indonesian folklore.

Every story she tells will have positive moral messages of encouragement to kids and adults.

Jasmine is an 8th grader at Intan Permata Hati Junior High School in Surabaya, Indonesia

Jasmine is scheduled to perform at the following dates and time:

Saturday 22 September:               1.00 pm - Storytelling
 
Sunday 23 September:                  11.00 am – Storytelling
                                                                1.00 pm – Dance (traditional+hiphop)


Location:
Queensbridge Square
1A Queens Bridge Street
Southbank VIC 3006

Cost: Free

It is an outdoor event part of the Festival Indonesia.

For more information please contact:
Festival Indonesia
Tel: 03 9525 2755

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Jan Wositzky talks about the story of William Buckley and other stuff. August 2012

A quick search of Australian storytellers reveals a variety of interests and areas of expertise, no two tellers being the same. Jan (Yarn) Wositzky's knowledge of Australian history and skill in collecting oral histories, transcribing for publication and editing recordings for radio make him unique.

Recently I had the pleasure of documenting Jan's show Buckley as performed at a primary school in Melbourne's west. Its rare for us storytellers to have the opportunity catch each other in action in schools. Thanks Jan for inviting me along and sharing a little of your work. 



Why tell the story of William Buckley?

Because it works on many levels. It's classic heroes journey, with perfect three part structure, as in Joseph Campbell's exposition of that story structure. 

However all previous tellings of Buckley stopped at the end of act two/beginning of act three, where Buckley, after 32 years with Wathaurong Aborigines, walks into the camp of the settlers/land grabbers who've come to take Port Phillip. Can Buckley use his knowledge to unify black and white? That's the task of the third act, and maybe no previous artists went there because most people are principally besotted with the 'white man goes black' part of the story. 

Also, Buckley is trashed by the whites, especially Melbourne's founder, John Fawkner, so this third act is the hard part of the story, because this is where we, us here today, come into it. And as we all know, Australians are not easy about examining our relationship with black Australia. Not that it's black and white, as there were also blacks in on the killing. 

So it's an important historical story, and untold, and although Buckley's time in Port Phillip ends in failure, the point is that by honouring him we complete his journey for him; if he can succeed, through his story, in moving us today to a better relationship with this land and it's original people, then we give Buckley's life meaning. 

How long have you been working on the story of Buckley? Have you collaborated with a writer, director and designer? Do you offer this show for adults?

Since 2003. It was initially commissioned for an exhibition of Buckley art, and after a lot of reading and walking the country I wrote it in two furious days, then read it at the exhibition opening that night. After that I went back to the drawing board many times. 

First I worked with theatre director Paul Hampton, an old friend who'd directed Max Gillies and lots more from the Pram Factory days. Paul was really working as a dramaturg at the start, with me on my feet trying and re-writing the show. We did a few shows, kept re-writing, and got it into shape. But it was just me on stage, telling the story, with very few props. Then when I decided to offer it to schools I felt it needed visuals, and it came to me all at once - the printed shirts representing Batman's six shirts that were included in the land deal (a trinket treaty, as they are called); the washing line for 'civilisation', the poles representing the Wathauring creation story, and everything coming out of the ship's trunk. 

So I made that for the school show and it worked so well I took it into the adult version, which is longer, deals more deeply with matters of violence, murder and sexuality. But it's still a simple set up, which I like. Nothing as boring as not being able to play places because the set it too elaborate. So it grew from a bare story into a piece of storytelling theatre.  

What is it that drives you to create storytelling shows?

God knows! That my grandmother and auntie used to sit me down and pump the family story into me when I was barely ten? That they taught me that their most important possession was their story - they were refugees arriving in Australia with only a suitcase. That I can string words together, and when on stage it's a total experience, absolutely galvanising, which is great for the whole being. But you have to be firing on all cylinders/chakras for it to be zinging along, so it's a great mind/body/soul/physical check up, because I often don't know how I'm travelling exactly, until I get on stage and start. Because I believe that stories are the basis of nearly all art, and the best way to carry information. And of course, the ego, because any performer who tells you that the ego is not a part of being up there, well...they're fooling themselves. 

But as for storytelling shows, I just love shows, and was turned on to story shows in about 1979 when I saw the great director, Peter Brook's production 'Conference of the Birds'. 

Favourite story? why?

No such thing as a favourite story for me. I'm a story addict, I'd say, with media and reading going all the time, or yarning with people. Currently I'm reading Xavier Herbert's 'Poor Fellow My Country'. Now there's a story!

Favourite storyteller? (anywhere in the world)

Brian Hungerford, from Canberra. I've put him on in my home town of Castlemaine, and he did the first half with medieval and Innuit tales - deep, hilarious and sexy. At interval a woman who was pregnant left. She said it was too much, she was full, she couldn't take any more. And that happened twice. I've seen the occasional overseas storyteller in Australia, and truly, I've seen no one who's as enthralling, wise, funny or who packs such a psychological punch. You don't see Brian around much because he's not out to make a name for himself, which may be why he's so good. But he's hitting eighty, been at it in many forms - radio, TV, stage, writing - all his life, and is a real treasure.

NB In the final photo Jan is holding a copy of the The Yallukit-Willam: the First People of Hobsons Bay. You can download the link or contact Hobsons Bay Council for a hard copy.

Jackie K 

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Rocket Clock Story Slam: “Family Matters" September 12, 2012

Rocket Clock Story Slam: “Family Matters"

Rocket Clock returns with a night of stories on the theme of "Family Matters". Pre-register your intent to tell by emailing rocketclockss@gmail.com or register on the night. Everyone is welcome to come along and listen, laugh, drink, cheer & weep.

Wednesday September 12, 2012
Doors open 8pm; slam kicks off 8.30pm.

Tickets:
$5 pre-sale (+ $2 booking fee) or $8 on the door. Book tickets now via the Bella Union website: http://www.bellaunion.com.au/ticketing/show_367/.

Bella Union
Level 1, Trades Hall
Corner of Victoria & Lygon Streets
Carlton South

What is Rocket Clock?

Rocket Clock is a monthly story slam competition. Ten people each have five minutes to tell a story around a particular theme. Judges in the audience rate each story on both content and performance. Everyone has a great time.

More info:
rocketclock.com.au
Rocket Clock on Twitter
Rocket Clock on Facebook