Tag Archives: confidence

The role of the storyteller in wellness and well being

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a charity in Surrey enquiring about a storytelling session for a wellness and well being day.  Within a couple of days I received a second message from a housing project in Bedfordshire and a third from a school in London both inviting me to participate in well being days.  There is nothing terribly remarkable about a series of e-mail enquiries which happen to concern the same subject but in the past decade I have never been invited to work at wellness and well being events.  Sure enough, like London buses, three events turned up at once and wellness and well being is now firmly on my agenda.  The question is what should a storyteller do at such events?

Wellness and well being are to do with mental health and how you feel within yourself.  It’s an inter generational issue and concerns loads of important things like happiness, confidence, self esteem and self worth.  It’s about everything that can be knocked or crushed when we feel vulnerable or lonely.  If well being is defined in terms of how we maintain and nurture a positive outlook in the face of problems like bullying, family trauma and stress then it’s clear that storytellers have a role to play in its promotion.

Storytelling is an ancient art form but as an activity it’s inexpensive and universal.  Some people do karate, some go rock climbing and some tell stories.  Belonging to a storytelling club or attending storytelling events can be a great way of meeting new people, feeling a part of a group and sharing something creative.  Storytelling can transport a person out of their day to day existence, building confidence through participation and even changing a person’s emotional state leaving both the storyteller and the listener feeling good about themselves and (in some cases) empowered.  It’s difficult to quantify the long term benefits of storytelling as it relates to wellness and well being and whilst storytellers may not offer a solution to how we nurture and maintain a positive outlook stories undoubtedly offer respite from a chaotic world and pathways for resilience.

So what am I going to do at the Wellness and Well Being events I’m attending?  Well I am quite unashamedly going to do exactly what I’ve been doing for almost 10 years; I’m going to tell my favourite stories.  I’m going to tell stories that I have magpied off other storytellers, from books and the internet and I’m going to tell them in my own unique way.  You see its my long held belief that if I enjoy myself my audience will respond positively not just to my story but to the enthusiasm I bring to the narrative and this will lifts their souls and put joy in their hearts.  If my audience walk away with smiles on their faces having had some fun then I will have done my job.

If you want to read more about wellness and well being here are two very useful links to external websites.

NHS Choices

Mind (UK based charity)

If you are interested in finding out more about these types of session or other sessions that I offer contact me.

Non-verbal storytellers

John Kirk is a storyteller and drama facilitator specialising in drama workshops and theatre for young people.

As a storyteller it is not unusual to have people in the audience with a limited understanding of English.  When I presented Private Peaceful I devised a hand out to accompany the session so that learners could follow up the story afterwards.  A hand out is all well and good but what if your audience can’t read?  Well, most of my pieces incorporate a strong visual element so that even if the story is too much for the individual there is something for them to engage with.

I recently visited a school for children with learning difficulties.  I presented Dracula and The Unlucky Mummy to the students (I’d chosen the pieces realising that they are perhaps my most visual and silly) before running a short training session with staff from local schools.  We began the session by articulating what we saw as the challenges in our own working environments to imaginative writing.  It was in this forum that staff spoke about the challenge of working with individuals who for one reason or another, are non-verbal.  In the past I have used this blog to reiterate my belief that we are all storytellers and to discuss Stanislavski’s Subtext but in this piece I’d like to share some ideas about enthusing and empowering non verbal groups with storytelling.  Many of these ideas are inspired by people I have met and worked with over the years and from observing other brilliant professionals at work.  I hope that you will find them as useful as I do.

John Kirk is a storyteller and drama facilitator specialising in drama workshops and theatre for young people.

Encouraging Free Choice  If the objective of the session is to get your young people to be imaginative then you may have to empower them with the idea of a free choice first.  I can express my free choice orally when I tell stories but this isn’t possible for everybody.  One idea for encouraging non verbal free choice is through multiple choice activities in which questions and instructions stimulate the young person to narrative decisions.  Examples of possible instructions might be “pick up the object you think is found in the room”, “move to where you think we should set the story” or “point to the name of the character”.  This can be a slow process but through simple instructions and reinforcing the rules of your activity through repetition you will soon empower young people to tell their own stories.

Storyboarding  Another idea for encouraging free choice in storytelling might be for the young person to draw a cartoon strip story.  Using a simple template of boxes or arrows to indicate the direction of the narrative a story can be structured by the young person.  Such storyboards could then be annotated with assistance.

Using Sound and Movement  Perhaps you aren’t looking at the narrative but are exploring the atmosphere and tone of a story.  This could be done through sounds and working in a group as an “orchestra”.  Offering an idea as a starting point such as “the city” or “the seaside” encourage the group to respond through simple sounds or body percussion.  What does volume or pace say about mood?  This is as much a listening exercise as a sound making exercise and will require your group to work with sensitivity toward the contributions of other people.  Continuing on a musical theme you might encourage the group to express their story, mood or a character through movement or dance.

John Kirk is a storyteller and drama facilitator specialising in drama workshops and theatre for young people.

Using Props and Objects  It may be possible for the participants to use objects to tell their story using objects or props (placing items as the story is told and moving and animating them according to narrative).  Whilst this is a structured activity it would be encouraging an almost child like play.

As a drama workshop facilitator I have used these activities with varying degrees of success when working in Primary and SEN environments and when devising in Secondary and Sixth Form environments.  I think that these ideas appeal to young people because they are easy to access and own and they are fun.  These games encourage a group to risk being wrong without the consequence of failure.  In terms of the non verbal storyteller, used correctly they play to particular strengths rather than underlining weaknesses.

The success of these ideas inevitably depends upon the level of ability within a group and will require patience (your group may not get them the first time) and a variety of accessible stimulations (props and objects which appeal to the different senses, music or imagery).  In exploring and nurturing what an individual can do we hopefully create an environment in which they are able to tell more and more sophisticated and interesting stories.

 

 

 

Wave your Flag

John Kirk is a storyteller and drama facilitator specialising in drama workshops and theatre for young people.“Did you see Dolly?”  That is usually the first question I am asked when I admit that I went to the Glastonbury Festival 2014.  My audience is then disappointed to learn that I went to watch Michael Rosen instead of the first lady of Country Music.

What I did see at Glastonbury were flags.  Hundreds of flags.  These flags came in all shapes and sizes, carrying the colours of foreign lands and regional territories, the emblems of sports teams and companies and the messages of the people (“Will you Play at our Wedding Dolly?”).  The flag bearer and their tribe are usually fairly ordinary, muddy people.  You won’t necessarily find a costume or a philosophy at the other end of a flagpole and therefore the flag is not necessarily a symbol of counter culture.  A flag will help you find a tent or a friend.  It might get you on television and will generally serve as a safe way to help you stand out in a crowd of 200,000 people.

John Kirk is a storyteller and drama facilitator specialising in drama workshops and theatre for young people.Another arena where people fall behind flags are sport’s events.  This summer we have had a plethora of international competitions, opening and closing ceremonies, with all their pomp and circumstance.  Integral to these pageants have been the anthems and flags and the manner in which these standards have set the tone.  Who can forget the raw passion of Brazilian fans, bedecked in their bright yellow shirts as they sang their anthem a cappella.  Compare this to in 2008, when Boris Johnson got the Union Flag caught in his belt during the Olympic Closing Ceremony.  What did these moments say about two nations?

The ideas of what a flag might mean in relation to personal and national identity is very interesting particularly in the year that Scotland decides whether to remain part of the union with England.  Of course there are many important considerations but if the Scots voted with heart rather than head then how a person feels might lead Scotland to the Saltire.

John Kirk is a storyteller and drama facilitator specialising in drama workshops and theatre for young people.

In my capacity as a storyteller and drama facilitator I encourage self expression and the discovery of identity.  Through heritage projects (Hackney Museum and the Guilden Morden Fire) I help young people to discover their local history and to consider their legacy whilst promoting tolerance and diversity.  In drama workshops I initiate games and activities in which participants explore ideas and issues and challenge the way in which groups articulate themselves and their opinions through vocal and physical technique.  Many of my successes are defined as soft outcomes but often it won’t feel that way to the individual.  The ability to speak confidently in a group and have your opinion listened to can be life changing for some people.

Like the anthem or the flag much of my work can be linked to pride, confidence and self esteem and expressing identity whilst understanding place within a wider community.  My view is that unlike the Glastonbury crowd or the Commonwealth athletes, most people’s flags will be purely figurative.  You don’t need to march behind a banner to be you but if you’re going to wave a flag at least wave it properly!