By Oisín McKenna
Over in Abbotsford, a relatively new
storytelling event has charged ahead and is getting full houses and fantastic
feedback every month.
‘Enchanted Evening’ takes place at the
Abbotsford Convent – in the Bishop’s Parlour, no less – and is the brainchild
of storyteller Niki Pidd.
Niki has been working in theatre and as a
storyteller since the early 80s, when she started studying literature and drama
at Rusden.
She charted a course through part time
study and teaching, community theatre, and then more study with John Bolton in
the early 90s. After that, she set up
Soulworks Theatre, writing and performing mainly solo commissioned works.
‘I moved to a studio at the Convent in July
2011 and wanted to establish something there because it’s a natural place to
hold a storytelling event,’ she said recently.
‘It’s a place is full of history. It
resonates, it reverberates with stories.
And it was also a place where I knew I
could make storytelling visible.
‘There are already regular storytelling
events happening at Trades Hall, Rocket Clock Story Slam and Willow Bar hosts Willow
Tales, but I wanted to do something a little different. I wanted to focus on
traditional stories and create an opportunity to develop relationships with
other storytellers, with the support of the Convent because I could create the
space.’
She is delighted that the Melbourne
storytelling community is growing rapidly at the moment, and wanted to support
that.
‘It was also a great way to find out who
was passionate about traditional stories.’
Among her participant tellers in 2012 have
been Clare Coburn, Monica Tesselaar, George Filev and Ashley Ramsden from the
UK.
‘There have been lots of people more than
happy to participate,’ she said.
‘And the Convent is very happy. It feels
like it has legs as an ongoing event.
We’ve sold out five shows in a row and
people have given very warm feedback.’
While Rocket Clock and other events have
taken off as competitive storytelling events, Niki is interested in doing something
different. She used to do Theatre Sports at the Athenaeum and disliked the
competitive nature of that. She admits to being a bit of a ‘purist’ and not
particularly interested in the competitive side of ‘slamming’.
Although she’s not particularly a purist
about separating storytelling from theatre.
‘They are part of the same animal, because
theatre arose out of storytelling.
‘I have a particular passion for Jungian
psychology and for the workings of the soul, and to me traditional stories are
containers of the inner workings of the human soul. When you unlock them the
insights in those stories are extraordinary. They’re treasures that belong to
all of us, and if we don’t keep telling them we’ll lose them.’
‘One of the good things about the Convent
is that the audience is not the regular storytelling audience. A new audience
is discovering and enjoying traditional stories.’
Niki has maintained a presence on Facebook
and Twitter to keep that moving along, cultivating her followers.
‘Among them, there are 20- and 30-somethings
looking for community, eco-friendly, home-spun entertainment,’ she said.
‘A lot of people are going to poetry slams
or spoken word events, and storytelling is an extension of that.’
Her family has historical links to the
Convent, going back to the 1920s, so it is significant that she has a studio
there now. ‘Telling stories in the Bishop’s Parlour feels like inviting people
into my lounge room. I feel very at home there.’ She says the place is
mysterious, which may add to its attraction.
‘There’s a long waiting list of people
wanting studios. There are writers, visual artists and animators who do
storytelling via other mediums. But the
Convent has a policy on diversity, and they have been very supportive of what I
have done there. It’s a very supportive place to be.’
‘People walk away from Enchanted Evenings
saying “I feel so nourished”,’ she said.
‘Having directed a lot of theatre productions
and taught a lot of workshops I’ve had an incredibly rich training for
storytelling. It’s like a ripe field I feel I’m harvesting.’
