Under the Banyan tree: Darwin Storytelling Festival 2010
Storyteller Profiles
Alexandra McCallum
Alexandra McCallum told her first stories sitting on the peeling lino of her family’s kitchen floor. In twelve years experience enthralling audiences around Australia, she has been a featured teller at National festivals in Brisbane, Perth and Tasmania and has also told in the Queensland Art Galleries Asia Pacific Triennial, the Museum of Brisbane and the University of Queensland. She has told in numerous libraries, schools kindergartens and community centres and has a often used story on projects which link communities of different ages and backgrounds. As a community cultural development worker she has particular experience working with young people (including young people at risk and those with special needs) and in cross cultural environments.
She brings a background in theatre and an addiction to words and eight years experience in the community sector to bear on her active welcoming workshops.
Gail Robinson
Gail Robinson is an accomplished community consultant and professional storyteller with over 25 years of professional practice. Gail works both cross-culturally and across artforms, exploring storytelling practices. Her work creates a network of narrative discovery. She delights in making the ordinary become extraordinary! Her work embodies performances, workshops, management/ facilitation of cultural development projects, story creation conference presentations and conference ‘weaving’! Each of Gail’s storytelling performances is a unique experience! Whether based on myth, folk-tales, gathered stories or her own stories, each listener can…expect the unexpected… expect to laugh, expect to learn …expect to be entranced!
Lillian Rodrigues-Pang
Storyteller, Writer, Percussionist.
Prepare to be entertained!
A dramatic, involved and passionate storyteller, Lillian is a pleasure to witness. Born to a Native American Indian mother and Portuguese father right here in Australia. Lillian grew on the food of story.
As a story performer Lillian captivates her audience. With recent theatre, street theatre, cabaret, national folk festival, school and conference appearances Lillian's performance list is impressive. Themes related to culture, mythology, identity, language, caring for oneself and each other, acceptance and sheer floating joy are interwoven into her performance. Lillian is a performer who can adapt to any stage, developing a magical connection with the audience as she involves them and draws then into the world of story.
Although it is working with story that feeds Lillian's passion for stories in our ordinary and extraordinary lives. Throughout her life Lillian has found that story has woven its threads; as an economist, a career of a brother with mental illness, a woman, a mother, a youth worker and language teacher – story has remained her soul food. Lillian works with the true essence of story – energy, community and sharing with people of all ages and cultures.
Kiran Shah
Kiran Shah has been a professional storyteller since 1999 and together with Sheila Wee, has been instrumental in reviving the oral tradition of storytelling in Singapore. Apart from working locally in schools, museums, theatres, parks and for various government ministries in Singapore, Kiran has also performed internationally at the Australian National Storytelling Festival in Brisbane and Perth, at the Children’s Storytelling Festival in Jakarta and at the Skye and Lochalsh Storytelling Festival in Scotland.
Kiran enjoys telling stories to anyone, anywhere. She can tell to 1,600 children at an assembly programme and to just four in another setting. Kiran enjoys telling a wide variety of stories. She tells stories using props for the youngest listeners, tall tales, personal stories and wisdom tales, that teach without preaching. She is particularly interested in Asian folktales and feels strongly that they must be shared with a younger generation as a way to vappreciate our rich cultural heritage.
Anne E Stewart
Anne is a storyteller for everyone from age two to ninenty-two! She has programs for schools, libraries, art centres, museums, galleries, theatres, historic sites and more. An acclaimed storyteller with an international reputation.
Anne is a versatile performer, with the energy and voice to engage any audience. She regularly conducts sessions related to history, arts and culture for general public, tertiary and secondary audiences. She has a wealth of stories and sessions for primary and pre-primary students.
Her focus is on multi-cultural storytelling, and stories shared between cultures. Along with traditional anglo-celtic stories of Australia's history (for example, the history of Victorian gold fields), Anne also has knowledge and cultural permission to pass on many Indigenous Australian stories.
Anne also brings stories from further across the globe, including Ireland, Africa, Italy, China, Japan, and East Timor.
Verena Tay
Verena Tay brings stories vocally and physically alive in her unique fashion, drawing from her more than twenty years of experience in acting, directing and writing for local English-language theatre in Singapore. A co-founder of MoonShadow Stories (http://www.moonshadowstories.org/), she has been telling stories at community venues across Singapore, much to the delight and enjoyment of adults and children. She has also successfully coached members of the Storytelling Association (Singapore) in the craft of telling stories through her workshop, Beyond Storytelling 101, for three consecutive since 2008. In addition, she is an established writer and voice and speech teacher. For more information about Verena, please visit http://verenatay.com.…
Jesse Windwanderer
Jesse's ambition to be a professional storyteller began when he read
'The Alchemist' at the age of 14, and connected with the idea that the
world helps those who follow their dreams. He completed courses in
story medicine and therapeutic storytelling, worked as an education
assistant at Princess Margaret Hospital and a production assistant for
Theatre d'Espirit, helping children aged 12 to 16 put on plays. He has
done a residency at a School in Jakarta where he helped to enliven
their English program through storytelling, had a story filmed by the
Education Department for their Distance Education Program and performed
at various festivals including Denmark Festival of Voice, Whiteman Park
Ground Water, Fairbridge and Fremantle Festivals, plus many schools and
children's parties. He is the current president of the Storytelling
Guild of Australia (WA) Inc.
Jenny Hill
Jenny Hill is a professional storyteller with extensive experience in performance, education and community projects. Her performances include The Odyssey, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Celtic, Russian and Middle Eastern Tales as well as contemporary ones. She conducts workshops and training programs for both children and adults, and teaches storytelling in the Early Childhood Education course at Notre Dame. As well as a focus on performance Jenny has a deep interest in the therapeutic potential of stories, listening to their resonances, and their reflective qualities. She is co-ordinator of ‘The Story Studio’ and the ‘Storytelling Training Program’ in Perth WA
Mary Lou Keaney
Mary Lou Keaney is known as one of the oldest fairies in the business and one of the most memorable. Having cut her storytelling teeth on pre-school story-times in the Darwin Library, she was ready to take on Melbourne’s first fairy Shop, Wonderwings. She has gone on to create Fairy Lou who is always ready with her wand, wishes and stardust and a fabulous and engaging collection of stories for everyone. But watch out, she is shameless and you will be drawn into the stories.
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