In the mid 90s Cindy-Lee Harper created The Storytelling Garden, the first agency exclusively for Storytellers.
Her mentorship enabled several Victorian tellers to begin telling stories for a
living.
How did you get into
storytelling?
Down Bridge Rd in Richmond was the first and best Faery shop. My
response upon seeing it? “Look, look! A Faery Shop! Let’s go in!”
The upshot of spotting a faery shop in the mid 90s was learning that
they held storytelling sessions for adults. I was utterly entranced and dragged
a tolerant group of friends along to an evening of wine and words.
Afterwards my friends insisted that I could do that. What? Tell
stories for a living? You can’t earn a living from telling stories, I scoffed.
The thought stayed.
I became driven by the desire to meet other storytellers, hear
stories and tell one. Typical me, I had to have a story prepared before I even
went to my first Storytelling Guild cafe. I was so nervous. I listened
enthralled and trembling told my first tale, The Standing Stones. It went well
and I was hooked.
Several months into this journey I took the plunge to tell stories
for money! My first gig was at a child care centreI was so nervous, I was too
sick to eat breakfast.
When did you start the
agency?
I was married at the time and was able to work part time and start
my storytelling business. I did the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme and
understood enough about marketing to successfully promote myself. I sent out
fliers and began cold calling in my local area, gradually spreading out. It was
hard selling myself with each call and eventually used some of my part time
wages to pay a friend to make the calls.
The work began rolling in. Each program was meticulously prepared
and planned with an existing knowledge of early childhood education. I was
aware of how preschools planned their programs. When I branched out into
Primary schools, I researched the curriculum needs and what I had to offer that
met those needs and tailored my offerings accordingly.
You contributed to the
work that storytellers are still doing and developing in the Early Childhood
sector. Would you talk a bit about that?
I developed my style based in my own performance experiences,
training as an English, Speech and Drama teacher and work with young people. I
had not had much to do with young children when I started but I understood
teaching. I understood expectations of teaching, about learning outcomes and quickly
ascertained the learning framework the teachers had to meet.
I created programs on themes that I knew preschools covered, spoke
to why storytelling would be of benefit and did my best to tick as many boxes
for time poor teachers as possible. The idea was to become the incursion of
choice for each preschool I went to.
Soon I had more gigs than I could provide a service for. After
agonising, I opened the Garden gate to other storytellers, who also had an
interest in early years storytelling, and invited them to join us at the
Garden.
The Storytelling Garden website still exists and many of the same
features are still on the site. Go to www.storygarden.com.au to check it out.
There were eventually ten incredibly different and talented
Storytellers in the Garden. We needed a united front as an agency, so everyone
developed programs they were comfortable with. This did not stop tellers
developing their own interests and client bases.
Most Garden clients booked back through the Garden because of the
level of professionalism. We made sure they booked back by calling them all at
the beginning of each school year so they had their choice of dates.
Would you talk a bit more
about how you encouraged Storytellers to develop?
Having the Garden tellers gathered in one place was always
delightful for me. I really enjoyed listening and watching the enthusiasm and
development of ideas. I actually called them Story Gatherings.
We had some inservice training, by sharing amongst ourselves and
having each teller share their speciality. Discussing practical storytelling
tips for working in early childhood was very important. I have a love of
puppets and they work extremely well with the 0-8 age group. As the children
got older, I used fewer props and with older teens and adults, none at all.
I liked to use Auslan (Australian Sign Language) key word signing as
actions for little ones. This works well
for all age groups, would get the occasional child with a disability excited
(and feel very included), enable children without verbals to participate and
give children a secret language. We had a few incursions ourselves with Mother
Goose, Baby Sign and Aboriginal storytelling.
Garden tellers branched out into string stories, drawn stories,
picture stories, puppets, treasure boxes, boxes within boxes, baskets, anything
and everything went.
I also used a lot of songs, rhymes and poetry. They are all small
stories. I used them to break up the stories, get children moving and joining
in. There was always a child who participated silently. They would be entranced
and be doing tiny tiny actions. They were participating in their own minds. I
feel that it is very important to allow children to receive the story however
they do and not expect particular reactions.
I feel that the most important thing I shared was that children were
welcome to receive the storytelling however they did, they were welcome to the
story and they were well come. I understood that the small interruptions (of,
“We’ve got bunk beds” or “My daddy has a penis”, which always got an
“Excellent” from me) were the children’s way of giving back to you. They just
wanted to share as you were sharing with them.
I enjoyed that period of my life enormously.
(pics: Cindy-Lee's treasure chest of stories is legendary. If Australian Storytellers ever create a museum of story props, the treasure chest deserves pride of place!)
