Telling the listener

A hands-on practical workshop for experienced storytellers

The focus is on:

• Crafting a narrative which satisfies
• Crafting a performance which captures the listener

Watch this video introduction

Each workshop is tailored to the individual group, and consequently will vary. The outline below shows a typical three-hour session.

Workshop preparation: homework

Before the workshop, participants receive the text of a folk tale.

At home they:

• Write a skeleton of the story, using just keywords (i.e. not full sentences). Typically a skeleton might be no more than 25 words.
• Consider how they might craft the narrative into a story they can perform, and how best to “capture the listener”.
• Then (and only then) they watch my recording of the story in the video gallery.
• Making notes, they analyse and critique both the way I have crafted my narrative and the way I perform it.

Workshop: phase one

Following a short ice-breaking activity, participants work in small groups, discussing insights gained from their homework and critiquing my recorded performance.

These photographs are of a July 2022 workshop for the Storytelling Association (Singapore).

The discussions continue in the plenary, allowing ample opportunity for the group’s specific interests to be covered.

Workshop: phase two

Working in a small group, participants are given the skeleton of a new folk tale.

In the light of the previous discussions, they consider how to craft this skeleton into a performance.

Finally I perform the tale to show my approach to crafting and performing it. Again this is critiqued in small groups and the plenary. 

The final group photo of the Storytelling Association (Singapore) workshop.

Want a workshop?

In-person workshops

First check my current plans to see if I am travelling to your part of the world:

• Performances
• Workshops
• Travelling in the wider world

And of course, I always welcome new invitations.

Online workshops

I have conducted many highly successful online workshops.

Send a mail to discuss your needs and explore possibilities.