Kate Lawrence: Victorian storytellers are building up to a busy 2014

How long have you called yourself a Storyteller?

About 2 years

What has been you involvement in Storytelling Australia (Vic)?

I have hosted the Stories by the Fire event at Newport Folk festival for SAV, attended an AGM and a couple of other events.

What do you love the most about storytelling?

I love it when you can hear a pin drop because everyone is deep in an imaginary world of images from the story and it feels like I am a leader of an expedition through the story.  We are there, in that world.

What is your favourite story?

At the moment I think it is a story I tell at Summer Solstice called A Snowlballs Rent.  It is set in the Scottish Highlands and it is about justice, and triumph and nature.

What is the most memorable moment you have experienced either as a listener or a teller?

Recently I had a very memorable day where I told three or four stories about bullying to 70 grade threes and it was magical.  It  was pin drop moment and afterwards the kids were very generous in their praise.  I went from this session riding high, to a session at the school where my children attend and I know very well.  That was my mistake – I thought I had it sussed, these kids knew about story, they knew how to listen, I could get away with an old story some of them might have heard.  It was hot day, the teacher didn’t listen and then started talking to a child at the back, then a tap was turned on behind me and first one child then several more started walking to the tap, and then one child walked right across the front of me and said ‘I’ve heard this story before’, and continued to get a drink.   It felt like my heart was on a plate in front of the children, and they kicked dust on it.  It was a good lesson for me in treating every audience with beginners mind.

Describe a busy week?

I am not just a storyteller, I also do group process work and personal development stuff so a busy week will have me doing a whole host of things, preparing stories and remembering them to tell, planning work, designing group process, coaching clients and studying, reading, emailing... And looking after three kids, an elderly mother and best of all walking the dog in the forest where I live.

What are you planning at the moment?

I am doing a little bit less storytelling this year but I my extended family, some of whom I don’t know, are having a once in ten year gathering and I have offered to tell a family story.  So now I have to find, craft and practice what really will be an historical story, for this event.  I am dreading and looking forward to it in equal measure.

Learn more about Kate: HERE

Roslyn Quin: Victorian Storytellers are building up to a busy 2014

How long have you called yourself a storyteller?

I have been tentatively calling myself a storyteller since 2012, but only got comfortable with it mid last year. I didn't know what I was before that... Mostly I just referred to myself as a folklore obsessed chatterbox!

What has been your involvement in Storytelling Australia (VIC)?

I joined Storytelling Australia in early 2012. I was doing research for my 2012 Melbourne Fringe show 'The Red Bird and Death', and joined immediately. I was thrilled to meet other storytellers, who were all very welcoming and enthusiastic to meet a newbie. I attend everything I can - I'm a bit of a fan girl for other storytellers!

What do you love most about storytelling?

I once had a lady come up to me and tell me about a story that I had told, that her favourite part was about blood all over the floor and the heroine's shoes sticking to the floor and how graphic she'd found that image... The lovely thing was that I never mentioned the shoes sticking to the floor. That was something her mind had painted for her. Storytelling, I think, is something that happens in the space between the teller and the listener.

What is your favourite story?

I don't think it will surprise anyone to learn and I love stories about death. I think I'm getting a reputation for being the dark one in the Melbourne storytelling scene. Godfather Death, The Soldier and Death...they're all my favourites. Monsters are also a favourite topic and feature heavily in my original tales too.

I enjoy how humanity externalises things it doesn't understand, fears, things its uncomfortable with and looks at it through story as a familiar unfamiliar 'other'. 

What is the most memorable moment you have experienced either as a listener or a teller?

Actually, the most memorable experience I have had is when some co-workers from my day job came to see my Melbourne fringe show of storytelling. One particular guy was very, very doubtful about the whole 'storytelling thing' and I'm sure he only came along as it was in a bar, he had an iPhone, and his girlfriend made him.... By the end of the show he was my biggest fan, asking to try on my storytelling jacket, playing with the puppets and reliving the stories to me. That, and the first story I ever told to a stranger. It was to a market stall-holder - I traded a tale for one of his embroidered patches. 

Describe a busy week.

Aside from the usual full time job, teaching and studying martial arts, and stage kittying and MCing at cabaret and burlesque shows, I am also performing at the Fed Square Fresh Air Festival this weekend, performing at Ladders to the Moon, maintaining my social life, and fitting in a date while trying to keep my house relatively neat. I think there're some appointments in there too... This is why I have my calendar synced between all my devices!

What are you planning at the moment? 

At the moment I am working on some short film projects and perhaps some YouTube stuff, helping out with Ladders to the Moon, a show idea for mid/late 2014 (shhh! Secret!), and preparing for some interactive character performances at events such as the 2014 Goblin Ball... This year I am the Fire Goddess - so it will be fun to run a whole kingdom for a single night again! 

Visit Roslyn at her website HERE

Phil Rush: storyteller, poet and raconteur (one that got away!)

One of the things I love most about the Australian summer festivals is the opportunity to meet with other people working in the oral tradition.  At the Cygnet Festival 2014 I had the pleasure of meeting Phil Rush, originally from Victoria.

Born in 1939, Phil worked as a teacher for 36 years. He was drawn to the country and spent most of his teaching years in one and two teacher schools. In the early 80s he took on the job as Educational Consultant for an area that included Rosedale, Malacoota, Tubbut, Omeo, Swifts Creek …  In 1957, alongside the teaching, Phil began working as a Methodist preacher (later the Uniting Church).

With his teaching and work for the church, Phil has been in a great position to refine his craft and absorb stories. No wonder they say, ‘Phil Rush has a story about anything’.

Read the full article about Phil HERE

Jan "Yarn" Wositzky: Victorian Storytellers are building up for a busy 2014

How long have you called yourself a Storyteller?

 Since 1983/4 when we put together the show 'The Fruitcake of Australian Stories' a show that ran in Melbourne for five weeks, and was billed as a cultural cabaret from black, white and olive Australia.

What has been you involvement in Storytelling Australia (Vic) 

 Doing the odd gig here and there.

What do you love the most about storytelling?

 It's the essential breathing in and out of our lives - we breath in life, we breath out stories.

What is your favourite story?

 Not possible to say.

What is the most memorable moment you have experienced either as a listener or a teller?

Listening to Brian Hungerford for the first time at Woodford Folk Festival telling the story of Tam Lin (which he called the story of Janet, because she is the hero, not Tam Lin), where an audience of hippies, bikies, old country ladies, folkies, intellectuals and others were totally enthralled. It was a revelation.

Describe a busy week?

Writing, phoning, driving, going to a gig, playing banjo, trying to cook, writing, cooking up a show, entrepreneuring a gig, writing, rehearsing, building the garden, going to the market, writing, meditation.

What are you planning at the moment?

BILARNI - a show about Bill Harney, Australia's greatest yarn-spinner and in the 1950s the 'expert' on Aborigines.

Thanks Jan. You forgot to mention that you will be in Canberra April 18 - 20 with 'Bilarni' and  appearances at the National Folk Festival, so I'll say it for you. 

Check Jan's website for details and his gig list: HERE

Teena Harnett: Victorian Storytellers are building up for a busy 2014.

How long have you called yourself a Storyteller?

 I've been a storyteller my whole life but have only dared to say that's what I do professionally for the last few years! 

What has been your involvement in Storytelling Australia (Vic)? 

 I joined the organisation last year so I'm very new! This year I'm helping to co-ordinate a storytelling gig with Storytelling Australia (Vic) and BOYD Community Hub to celebrate World Storytelling Day.

What do you love the most about storytelling?

The transformative effect that stories have on the teller and the listener. I get completely carried away telling a story and I'm cocooned in another world when I hear one. I think they are so powerful and healing as well as entertaining.

What is your favourite story?

 Mmm, I can't choose just one but as a teller I adore telling 'La Calavera (Lady Death) and 'The Girl Who Loved the North Wind'. As a listener I love ALL stories.

What is the most memorable moment you have experienced either as a listener or a teller?

 Watching and listening to Jackie Kerin with her Kamishibai is very exciting for me!

Describe a busy week?

This week is a good one to describe as I had 'Enchanted Evening' on Sunday night - volunteering telling stories at an old people's home in Moorabbin and preparing for an upcoming gig as well as all the other everyday things like a job and running a house.

What are you planning at the moment?

As well as helping coordinate the event with BOYD Community Hub and Storytelling Australia (Vic) to celebrate World Storytelling Day, I'm also planning a storytelling event to be held south of the Yarra river as I live on this side of town and always find myself heading north for anything story related! I'm in the process of sourcing venues and thinking about dates etc. I have a gig coming up on the 16th so I'm planning what stories I will tell for that.

Have a wonderful, creative and story-filled year Teena.

Learn more about Teena HERE

Dreaming and Planning Day with Kate Lawrence 2014

It was a small gathering for the AGM and Dreaming and Planning Day but effective. Thank you to those who sent apologies - we appreciate it.



Storytelling Vic is lucky to have Kate Lawrence as a member. Kate has a passion for stories and telling but is also skilled in leading groups though creative discussion, towards cohesiveness and stronger connection.

Perhaps one of the unique things about traditional oral storytelling groups like ours is the diversity of minds that the art form attracts. It seems that no two of us use, share, perform, recite or think about storytelling in the same way. This is surely a strength to be valued.

We all have some work to follow up on the day and members will hear the results in due course.

Thank you Kate; it was exhausting, a reality check and inspiring.


More about Kate HERE



pics north to south: Kate, JB Rowley and Jan (Yarn Wositzky), Gael Cresp and Ann E Stewart.

Kamishibai Library of Swaps has been updated 2014

For those interested in Kamishibai storytelling, there is a Library of Swaps hosted on UK Storyteller Derek Carpenter's site. To get a story out, you have to put one in. However if you are not the artist type and don't have any original stories to exchange, you can negotiate with the maker.

Derek's website has just been renovated. Its worth a visit, as not only can you check out the library, you can learn a little about this form of Japanese paper theatre storytelling.

Pictured is Derek on Skype, at home in Newcastle on Tyne, having just received (as pdfs) a set of story cards which have been sent from Australia. Magic or what!

Learn more about the Kamishibai Library of Swaps  HERE