Blue Mountains Story Circle Meeting #3
Date/Time: Sunday 28 July 2019, 2-4 pm
Venue: Kiran’s home
Attendees: Jill Webster, Lorinda Curnow, Jonathan Drew, Barbara Castledine, Mal Castledine, Julie Gorell, Kiran Shah
Ebba Bodame and Reilly McCarron were unable to attend.
Welcome
All present were welcomed to the BM Story Circle, under the auspices of the Australian Storytelling Guild, run by Jill and Kiran to provide an opportunity for Blue Mountain storytellers to share their craft, resources and learn from one another through stories and discussions. This is our third meeting (and the first to be held on a Sunday). At present Julie and Jonathan are not members of the Guild.
Sharing of events (past, present, future)
Jill shared snippets of last Guild meeting Storytelling Hotpot Workshop/AGM on 20th July. Members shared a variety of skills through various activities that seemed to have a common theme of transformation (one example was a frozen tableau where there was a melting of one emotion into another, embodying different characters and moods etc). Jill also shared a prop she’d made, still a work in progress of a lovely arch to define a space, see photo).
Jonathan talked about his ongoing volunteer storytelling session every Saturday in the field of mental health using song, Greek myths, Bible stories, fairy tales and Arthurian legends. There is usually a commentary and discussion following his session.
Julie works with narratives of others in a family support setting. She’s also interested in family stories (especially from her mum’s Scottish heritage).
Barbara who has been unwell has done some storytelling recently and is part of a seniors’ group from her church that meets on Friday. Mal, who’s part of the Silver Fox quartet shared some of his volunteer singing work in Country NSW.
Lorinda does Baby Rhyme Time and Storytime at Penrith Library. She recently did an Australian version of the Peddler of Swaffam at a pop-up library event for the Kingswood Community.
Kiran talked about attending Kay Yasugi’s puppet show at Penrith library on 18th July. On 24th July she also participated in a FEAST webinar led by Alton Chung from the U.S. She also had some resources to pass on.
Story sharing
Jill told an 8-minute story while Jonathan sang a song.
Other Comments
Jill and Kiran (as individuals, not as Guild members) will be hosting a storytellers’ gathering for residents of the Blue Mountain in a partnership with Springwood Neighbourhood Centre. Our next meeting will be at their premises at the Hub on Wednesday 21st August from 1-2.30pm.