Welcome!


Beginning Saturday, 11 July, 10am-Noon --

A Storytelling course: eight two-hour sessions, on Saturday mornings.  This course will be for adults, and is being designed especially for teachers, parents, counsellors, tour guides, and anyone interested in becoming a professional storyteller. 

Topics will include developing your abilities as a storyteller, and as a coach of other storytellers.

Please click here for more information.



Recent Workshop

“Storytelling Teacher-Training:
Helping Children to Create and Tell Stories”

Topics and activities included:

* 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.




Additional Workshops

"Introduction to Storytelling, and Coaching Your Storytelling"

"Helping Teachers and Children to Tell Stories" (pdf)

"Storytelling for Parents and Children Together"

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.




Additional Information

Mission Statement

Introduction to Storytelling Studies

Storytelling-related Links




In the Press

1) About a WSI workshop, "A Few Tips on the Art of Storytelling" (in the Hindu, 10 Feb 2008).

2) About a WSI workshop, "Learning the Art of Narrating a Story in a Telling Manner" (in the Hindu, 1 Sept 2008).

3) About the WSI and Storytelling Tourism, "Now Tourists Can Go Down Story Trails" (in the Times of India, 1 Nov 2008).

4) About the WSI and Storytelling Tourism "Now Storytelling for Tourism Promotion" (in the Hindu, 4 Nov 2008).

5) About the WSI's work with members of Chennai's sea-fishing communities, "A Whale of a Tale" (in the Hindu, 4 March 2009).

6) Recapturing Grandmas Telling Grand Stories (in the Hindu, 29 April 2009 ).




Articles by Eric Miller, Director of the WSI

1) About the heroine of a Tamil epic, "In Praise of Citizen Kannagi" (in the Hindu).

2) About a folk performing arts festival in Tamil Nadu, "Ideas for Chennai Sangamam" (on the Chennai Sangamam website).

3) "Conducting Folklore Interviews via Videoconference" (in the Education Newsletter of the American Folklore Society).

4)  "Chennai and Videoconferencing: Videoconferencing for Performing, Teaching, and Discussing Tamil Language and Performing Arts" (in  International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil, Conference Proceedings).

These and others of Eric Miller's collected writings, can be found at Storytelling and Videoconferencing.




Storytelling Tourism

This Year:
The Places of Kannagi Tour, 2-15 November 2009.

Last Year: 
Tour Theme: "Tharisanam: Vision of the Other."  1-16 November 2008.  A group of 18 people came from the USA.  A wide range of Storytelling styles was shared with the visitors, in Chennai and vicinity.  Presented by the WSI, in partnership with local communities and individuals.


Guided Tours of Chennai's Sea-fishing Communities.
Presented by the WSI in partnership with residents of Chennai's sea-fishing neighborhoods -- including Ayodhyakuppam, Nadukuppam, Nocchikuppam, Nocchinagar, Domikuppam, and Srinivasapuram.  This experience begins with a multimedia presentation -- co-narrated by community members -- featuring video recordings, 500 photos taken by community members, and storytelling by community members.  Then there is a guided tour of the fish market area, and of the working area on the beach -- including discussion of the boats, nets, engines, fish, weather, etc.  One-hour or longer, for individuals or groups. 

The WSI is developing visual and aural methods of simultaneous translation, from/to Tamil and other languages.




Performance of "The Sea Story"Drama with Folk Songs, and Open Microphone for Storytelling.  Plus -- Exhibition of Paintings and Photos of the Sea.

6pm, Saturday, 31 January 2009.
Nocchikuppam Community Hall (Santhome High Road; opposite All-India Radio; near the Lighthouse and Gandhi Beach), Chennai.  Free admission.

Featuring Grandmother Stories, Raja-Rani Stories, Tenali Raman Stories, Animal Stories, etc.





Bio-data of the Co-founders of the World Storytelling Institute

Director; Specialising in Storytelling for/by/with Adults.
Eric Miller is a native New Yorker, transplanted to Chennai.  He has studied with and worked for (as office and festival assistant, and video documenter) numerous professional storytellers in the USA, including Laura Simms and Diane Wolkstein; and is near completing a PhD in Folklore at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).  He has taught courses in writing, literature, drama, public speaking, and storytelling at St. John's University, Fordham University, and New York University (all in NYC); and is presently Assistant Professor of Story and Storytelling at the Image College of Animation, Arts, and Technology (ICAT), in Chennai.  Mr. Eric has also worked extensively in the video industry, in which he specializes in facilitating videoconferences.  A number of his writings can be found at
http://www.storytellingandvideoconferencing.com <eric@storytellinginstitute.org>, 98403 94282.

Specialising in Storytelling for/with/by Children; and in Storytelling in Corporate Environments.
Jeeva Raghunath is an international professional storyteller and author.  She tells and writes in Tamil and English, and is based in Chennai and Singapore.  She has been working with teachers and children for ten years, to help develop children’s communication skills through storytelling, speech, and drama.  Ms. Jeeva also enjoys using principles of storytelling to help adults in corporate settings to improve their communication skills.  As a trainer, she believes in simplicity, and learning through fun.  <jeeves1@rediffmail.com>, 99401 80380.

Specialising in Storytelling and Drama Therapy.
Magdalene Jeyarathnam is founder-director of Chennai's Center for Counselling, which offers numerous training workshops, including Approaches to Counselling Children (featuring Storytelling, Drama, Play, Dance, and Art therapy).  Ms. Magdalene has also integrated these methods into the CFC's counselling services, and counselling-training, in relation to adults.
<magdalene@centerforcounselling.org>, 98841 00135.

Additional WSI Trainers:

Dr. Prithika Chary, Storytelling and the Mind/Brain/Emotions.

Sheetal Rayathatha, Storytelling and Children.




Storytelling-related Events and Services offered by other Individuals and Organisations in Chennai

Storytrails offers Guided Tours with Storytelling of various Chennai neighborhoods and professions. 

The great Subbu Arumugam; his son, apprentice and co-performer Gandhi Arumugam; and his daughter, singer and co-performer Bharathi Thirumagan, offer Performances and Workshops in the Tamil Storytelling Genre, Villupattu (Bow Song).  Mr. Subbu speaks mostly in Tamil; Mr. Gandhi and Ms. Bharati are also fluent in English.  Background information can be found here.  Subbu Arumugam and family can be contacted at 44 2489 2391.