Welcome!



Upcoming Events



Storytelling at Oxford Bookstore Chennai
(Haddows Road, Nungambakkam) --
Storytelling on Recycling and Eco-systems,
by Storytellers Asha, Sandhya, Sudha, and Karpagam.
Sat 28 Jan, 4:30pm.
The Event Poster is here.


Training in Storytelling Therapy
(Using Storytelling for Therapy) --
 
The WSI is co-leading the Storytelling Therapy component in a year-long Diploma Course in Expressive Arts Therapy.  This Course is being offered by the East-West Center for Counselling, and Women's Christian College.  The Course is open to men and women, and runs from Dec 2011 to Nov 2012. 
a
Info about the Expressive Arts Therapy Course is here.  An An introduction to Storytelling Therapy is here.  (One may register for individual segments of the Course.  Customised training sessions in Storytelling Therapy will also available.)


***

1st Sunday of each month:  The Chennai Storytelling Association holds a monthly-meeting in which members describe projects, and tell stories and receive feedback.  Location: Nungambakkam area.




Storytelling Workshops


Storytelling Workshop for Adults

This Workshop is designed especially for Parents, Teachers, Screen Writers, Human Resource Managers, and People interested in becoming Professional Storytellers.

Days and Times:
Six consecutive Sunday mornings, 10am to 12 Noon.  Starting on Sunday 18 March.

Location: 
Near Nungambakkam High Road. 

Workshop fee:  Rs 3,000.

For additional info about the Workshop, please call 98403 94282, and click here.



Storytelling Workshop for Children (Ages 7- 12.)

To be announced.

This Workshop is designed to help Children to improve their own storytelling.  The emphasis is on helping the children to become increasingly aware of, and to able to articulate, their own thoughts and feelings.

The Workshop would help Children to develop their
Communication Skills, Creativity, Logic, and Compassion for others.




Storytelling Workshop topics include:

Story Content --
Types of Stories.  Finding and Creating Stories.  
Elements of Stories.  
Symbols in Stories.  
Story Structure.  
Story and Place.  Story and Community.  
Story and the Past.  Story and the Future.  
Story and Personality Development.                                

Story Performance --
Breathing/Singing/Moving and Storytelling.  
Styles of Speaking in Storytelling.        
Acting-out Characters (Role-playing).  
Audience-Participation in Storytelling. 
Singing-and-moving Stories.      
Story Mapping/Painting/Drawing.
Ways of Coaching Storytelling.  
Storytelling accompanied by Illustrations, Puppets, and Props.

In these Workshops, participants explore and tell
1) Traditional stories (folktales, epics, legends, myths, etc);
2) Experiences from everyday life; and
3) Original creative stories.
 



Additional Storytelling Workshops

"Storytelling Workshop for People in the Business World".

"Storytelling Teacher-Training: Helping Children to Create and Tell Stories" (pdf)
Topics and activities include:
* Ways of starting with personal experience stories, and adding elements of fantasy.
* Visualising and painting stories.
* The magic of acting out characters.  Transforming body and voice to enact characters.  Ways of having characters speak dialogue to each other.

"Storytelling for Parents and Children Together"

"Introduction to Storytelling, and Coaching Your Storytelling"

"Story Workshop for Screenplay Writers" (and Others in the Fields of Stage and Screen).


Storytelling Workshops can be custom-made for 1) teachers, 2) parents, 3) parents and children together (Family Storytelling Workshops), and 4) members of communities or organisations.  These Workshops can include: video recording and playback for study purposes; and videoconferencing with experts.




Recent Activities  

20 Jan 2012
WSI Director Dr Eric led Workshops in "Science Fiction Story Writing and Telling", at the 13th National Science Fiction Conference (at Bharathiyar University, in Coimbatore).  An article about the sessions is here.


23 Dec 2011
The WSI presented Christmas Storytelling at Oxford Bookstore Chennai.  The storytellers were Asha, Trupti, Sandhya, and Eric.  The stories included, "A Christmas Carol," "The Gift of the Magi," "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and "The Nutcracker" (the story upon which a very popular western ballet is based).


23 and 24 Nov 2011
Storyteller Helmut Wittman of Austria conducted a two-session Storytelling Workshop, and gave a Performance.  Details are here. 

Nov 2011
The WSI e-newsletter (Nov 2011) is here.
On Fairy Tales, and Child Development.

15 October 2011
Videoconference between people in Chennai and Bloomington (Indiana, USA).  In Chennai,
1) India's National Folklore Support Centre Director Dr Muthukumaraswamy presented a paper about the Patukalam (final battle) episode of the Mahabharata.
1) A professional Mahabharata storyteller performed in Tamil (with English translation), and
2) WSI Director Dr Eric introduced the concept of "Ethnographic Videoconferencing" -- the paper is here.
A recording of the videoconference is here .
Additional info about the event is here.

1 October 2011
WSI Director Eric led a "Storytelling Workshop inspired by Tribal Storytelling", at the Festival of Indigenous Storytellers, Fireflies Ashram, Bangalore.  Information about the Workshop is here.  The Festival (and Workshop) is being planned to occur in various locations in India.  If interested, please let us know.

17 September 2011
Dr Anita Ratnam led a Storytelling session at Oxford Bookstore Chennai.  She brilliantly activated the children to physically act-out the characters. A number of times, she even led the children in "story parades" around the space.
Photos are here.
A newspaper review is here.

Sept-Oct 2011
The WSI e-newsletter (Sept-Oct 2011) is here.

Two events in Madras Week 2011
25 August 2011
Location: Nocchi Nagar 2nd Street (behind Santhome Church).
"Storytelling by the Sea / Kadalooram Kathaisolluthal".  Community members told Folktales about the Sea (in Tamil).   Invitation as pdf file, and as jpg file.
Photos are here. 
This event supported the effort to establish a Living Museum about the Heritage of Sea-Fishing in the neighborhood; additional info about this is here.
and
28 August 2011
"4th Annual Living Statues of Marina Beach Walking Tour".  Brief Dramatic Enactments of each Statue (in English and Tamil): Kannagi, NSC Bose, Thiruvalluvar, George Pope, Bharathidasan, and Auvaiyar.
The event is listed here.

WSI Director Dr Eric Miller has written a paper entitled, "Aspects of the Storytelling Revival in India".  Feedback would be most appreciated.

5 and 6 August 2011
Chennai Coastal Carnival for Children!
A Festival to Promote Coastal Conservation.
At Marina Beach (near the NSC Bose Statue).
Organised by the Center for Environmental Education, with Cultural Events facilitated by the WSI:  Performances and Exhibitions by Men, Women, and Children of Chennai's Sea-fishing Communities (in Tamil language).  The Children performed a skit on "A Day in the Life of a Fishing Village", featuring their own stories, songs, poetry, and essays.  Photos are here.

9 July 2011
Dr Eric, Director of the WSI, was the Oxford Bookstore Chennai storyteller this month.  A review is here.

25 June 2011
Launching its YEAR OF STORYTELLING, World Storytelling Institute and Oxford Bookstore Chennai presented  a Storytelling (with Arts and Crafts Activities) Event for Children.  Ms Trupti Sayani was the Storyteller.  Photos are here.

8 May 2011
World Storytelling Institute and Oxford Bookstore, Chennai, presented a free Storytelling Session.  This was the end-of-Workshop performance, by participants in the current Storytelling Workshop for Adults.  Approximately 18 Adults and 3 children attended.  Photos are here.

25-30 April 2011
World Storytelling Institute and Oxford Bookstore, Chennai, presented a Summer Storytelling Festival for Childen.  6 Storytellers in 6 days, 5-6:30pm daily.  Adults told stories, and the children did artwork to express their visions of the stories.
Photos are here.
Three articles relating to the Festival are here.

3 April 2011
Before the CSA monthly meeting, Storyteller Sally Pomme Clayton in London spoke with us in Chennai via Skype videoconference.  A photo of the videoconference -- from the Chennai side -- is here.

5 March 2011
California-based Storyteller Cathryn Fairlee's performance of "Folktales about Strong and Clever Women" at the Savera Hotel here in Chennai was very well-received!  Cathryn's website is here, and an article about her visit to Tamil Nadu is here.

8 February 2011
CSA monthly session of Storytelling for Adults (first Tuesday).  Today's topic was, "The odds were a million-to-one against me, but I did it anyway."  Photos are here.

6 February 2011
Before the CSA monthly meeting, Storytellers Johanna and Scott Hongell-Darsee in Albuquerque (New Mexico, USA) performed for us, and spoke with us, in Chennai via Skype videoconference.  Photos of the videoconference are here.

5 February 2011
Presentation for Chennai School Librarians on "Using Storytelling to Facilitate Reading and Writing" -- the notes are here.  This Workshop was organised by the Madras Library Association, at Anna Library in Kotturppuram.  A two-page essay based on these notes, "Storytelling and Story-listening, and Children's Intellectual, Emotional, and Social Development," is here.

January 2011
The WSI/CSA provided four storytelling sessions in the Chennai Sangamam 2011 folk performing arts festival.  Photos and video of these storytelling sessions (along with essays about Chennai Sangamam over the past three years) are here. 




Chennai Storytelling Association

The Chennai Storytelling Association began on 14 Nov 2010.

A primary mission of the Chennai Storytelling Association is to develop and share lesson plans for training adults and children in the art of storytelling, in English and Tamil. 

For access to these lesson plans -- and to join the e-mail group in which they are being discussed -- please become a CSA member.  Annual membership is Rs 600.

The CSA is seeking to facilitate:
1) Regularly-scheduled Storytelling Workshops for adults (on Sunday mornings), and  Storytelling Classes for children (on Saturday mornings) -- please see above.
2) Monthly sessions of autobiographical storytelling (for adults), open to the general public, at coffee shops and such.  (A list of Storytelling Associations around the world that organise these kinds of storytelling events is here.)
3) Regularly-scheduled Storytelling Performances for
children (in English and Tamil).
4) Visits to the Tamil countryside, to meet and study with storytellers there, and to hear and collect their stories.

We are also developing methods of (audio and visual) translation that can be used during storytelling events.

Chennai Storytelling Association membership benefits include:
1) A monthly meeting at which we discuss methods of storytelling, and the progress of our various storytelling projects in Chennai.  Guest speakers at times appear in-person and via videoconference at these meetings.
2) An e-newsletter every four months; and occasional storytelling-related news items via e-mail.
3) Access to lesson plans for training adults and children in the art of storytelling.