Ah, the best laid schemes of mice and men and the Australian Storytelling Guild, NSW. In an alternate, covid free universe, we are gathered around supping on soup, basking in the glory of another successful Sydney International Storytelling Conference at our AGM. Instead we find ourselves, alone at home, on Zoom. Yet still we remain connected by our mutual love of story and the internet.
The postponement of the International Conference, while a massive disappointment, was undoubtedly the right choice for the situation. Members however, might not be aware of the hundreds of hours of work by the Christine Carlton and the Conference subcommittee that had preceded the decision. An exciting program of workshops with presenters from all around the world had been organized and our keynote speaker, the incredible Jan Blake from the Uk was locked in. The bookings were rolling in and we were all looking forward to catching up with old friends and new. The Conference has always attracted new members, motivated current members and served to revitalize the committee. And though we feel its postponement deeply, the committee is already looking ahead to 2021 and considering our options.
Conference Convener Christine Carlton has also spear headed a subcommittee which has seen teams of students from the Sydney University of Technology put together creative business proposals to help promote the Guild’s public profile. This exciting co-operation with UTS is continuing and expanding as Liz Locksley and Christine are now interviewing UTS students for Internships with the Guild over the coming year.
While we chose to postpone our Conference, in the US, the National Storytellers Alliance scrambled to put their conference online and Storytellers NSW were invited to host a Live Online Storytelling as part of their virtual event. Christine Carlton organized a formidable troop of tellers for “Voices from Down Under” and our contribution was hailed a great success. The storytellers were, Christine Carlton, Kiran Shah, Anna Jarrett, Lilli Rodriguez-Pang, Jackie Kerin, Jenni Cargil-Strong, Anne E Stewart and myself.
Our recent online initiative is The Stone Gnome Story Slam. This event provides members the monthly opportunity to share a 7 minute story. Each month has a new theme and while it is a competition, fun and light-hearted approach prevail. We hope more members will join in and challenge themselves to share a story in the warm supportive online environment. (I am open to bribes of chocolate)
The Guild’s Inner West and Blue Mountains Story Circles have continued to meet regularly throughout the year and have now moved online. The Blue Mountains Circle is led by Kirah Shah and Jill Webster, while Michael Patterson and Liz Locksley lead the Inner west Circle. In the two groups, members share stories, give and receive feedback, practice skills, nourish and nurture their love of storytelling.
The Guild also continues to be an institutional member of the Federation of Asian Storytellers (FEAST) allowing our members to benefit from their many webinars and online story swaps. Kiran Shah is our Feast representative and the person to contact should you wish to know more.
As Covid restrictions are to remain in place indefinitely we are looking forward to presenting more workshops online. Last weekend the Guild was delighted to partner with member Jo Henwood, for her wonderful online workshop “Story Writing for Performance and Print” And over the next two months we partner with Member Jenni Cargil Strong to bring you her workshop series “Stories for a More Beautiful World”.
Prior to covid restriction we held many other wonderful storytelling events:
Lunch and Tales on the Northern Beaches, hosted by Sue Alvarez and Christine Carlton. All who attended enjoyed a tasty Thai meal while enjoying stories from guild members and friends. Sue and Christine’s event became so popular that they had to have two sittings!
In March we had member Jill Webster give a workshop “An Adventure in Improvised Storytelling” in Ashfield. It was a lively and inspirational workshop where we played with puppets and stretched our storytelling brains, our storytelling skills and opened our hearts.
November saw the Guild partner once again with the Australian Fairy Tale Society for Dark Enchantment: Blood, sex, death, abandonment and loss, trickery, treasure and triumph. Though the turn out ws smaller than we hoped, all enjoyed some riveting performances as well as the wealth of fairy tale knowledge shared. A truly magical day at Dulwich Hill.
In October we hosted the Story Skills Sessions; Naturally Funny with Caroline Welkin NZ and The Emotional Landscape with Christine Carlton. It was a very well attended day at Summer Hill, where we had a riotous morning exploring humour, and then a thoughtful, inspired afternoon discovering was to infuse our stories with emotion.
Tales Told Live at the Friend in Hand Pub at Glebe wound up in September. Christine Greenough ran the Sunday event for 3 years as a platform for experienced storytellers and the Guild’s emerging tellers to share their stories in a professional setting. We witnessed some brilliant storytelling over the years as well as many wonderful musical acts as well. The decision to finish up was in part, due to the Pub being sold. Many of you, however, will have warm memories of Sunday afternoons well spent with good company and fabulous storytelling.
I shall close with offering my thanks to all our members who attended workshops and events throughout the year, whether in person or online- your presence and continuing enthusiasm for storytelling makes it all worthwhile. And an extra big THANK YOU to our small committee team for your continuing support, your enthusiasm, your hard work, your running around and your turning up to yet another zoom meeting. Thank you Vice President-Liz Locksley, Secretary-Kiran Shah, Treasurer-Michael Patterson, Conference Convenor-Christine Carlton and Committee members Christine Greenough, Judy Mitchell and Dorothy Makasa
Warm Wishes
Lindy Mitchell-Nilsson
President 2020