Mary Medlicott, Storyteller and Author - Storyworks

Posts Tagged ‘Festival at the Edge’

Storytelling Starters ~ Leafing

Saturday, April 28th, 2018

I’ve just been leafing through the battered little notebook where I keep note of riddles and sayings, also some little poems and verses I love. At the back there’s also a list (very incomplete) of stories that have struck me at one time or another. There, the title I’ve given to one particular story has put me in mind of something that was said a couple of weeks ago in a pub I sometimes go to down in Wales. At the table reserved for local people (and I’m glad to be seen as one of them), we were talking about the dreadful weather (as you do!) and how late Spring has seemed to be in arriving. And as we communally made moan on this subject, one of the locals who has a wonderful way with words summed it all up by observing how the trees were ‘reluctant to leaf’.

All change:

(more…)

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Posted in All ages, Folktales, Nature stories, Personal experience | No Comments »

Storytelling Starters ~ What next?

Saturday, December 31st, 2016

P1080494When things are rough, you sit tight. That’s the conventional wisdom. Yet when things are tough, you surely must also keep your eye on possibilities for improvement, the chance for things opening up.

It’s completely clear from the newspapers and TV that, for many of us, it feels like it’s been a horrible year. Syria, Brexit, Trump – whatever your politics, it feels like the world has got itself into the most horrendous mess. Frightening too. Maybe it’s all in the stars, the personal mirroring the public and vice versa, but numerous friends have also been declaring of late that it’s been a tough year in their own lives too.

So at first I felt completely flummoxed when I began thinking about this week’s blog. What could I possibly say? What story might there be? What pictures? Then, most unexpectedly as I floundered around, a little tale popped into my mind. It’s a tale of personal experience, though not my own. I heard it a long time ago and it’s got nothing at all to do with New Year as such. Yet as I thought about it, the story felt to me like just the right thing. For what could be better for this New Year than the idea that something wonderful might occur,  something that could bring a sense of a new dimension of life and hope?

The story: Opening Up (more…)

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Posted in Adults, Personal experience, Personal Tales, Themes | 4 Comments »

Storytelling Starters ~ Attitude

Saturday, April 9th, 2016

COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_Tableau_vivant_Nederlands-Indië_TMnr_60050223[1]Our local cinema, the Ritzy in Brixton, has a  giant noticeboard above the entrance with names of the films it’s currently showing. Occasionally this noticeboard shows a birthday greeting, presumably to someone local. At the start of this week, there was a quite different message. It was:  

IF YOU’RE GONNA TELL A STORY, COME WITH SOME ATTITUDE, MAN.’

Of course, that message caught my attention.  I wondered if it could be a quote, perhaps from the great jazz artist, Miles Davis. A documentary film about him was due to be shown with a Q and A session to follow. Then the message persisted in getting my attention whenever I thought about it during the week.  Attitude is a word with so many connotations. Often, it’s used with ‘good’ or ‘bad’ to convey a suitable or unsuitable approach, especially from pupils, students or persons at work. It can be feisty, even threatening. ‘Don’t give me that attitude.’

Attitude: a theatrical form (more…)

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Posted in Adults, Age Range, Dealing with Stories, Performance | No Comments »

Storytelling Starters ~ So many stories

Saturday, July 26th, 2014

Sometimes it proves very difficult to hold together the different levels of story that come your way in this hard world.

Festival at the Edge (more…)

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Posted in Adults, Performance, Personal experience | No Comments »