Friday, November 18, 2011

Meet the Regulars - Su Squire aka 'Tilly the Tale Spinner'

Su Squire telling at Tales from The Undercroft, Norwich

Once upon a time...

A girl called Su (who later became Tilly) discovered that she was in love with stories.  Stories of all shapes and sizes.  Stories of her homeland and those of far flung places.  Stories of people’s lives – their struggles and their triumphs. As a child, Tilly was taken to the local theatre to see a pantomime.  It was here, sitting enchanted on a red velvet seat in a darkened auditorium that something jumped up and down inside her shouting ‘Eureka!’  She had discovered the key that would lead her into a wider, wilder world of stories.

The years that followed found Tilly exploring her discovery through performance, writing, directing, storytelling, acting the fool, facilitating and producing work, though work seemed a strange word for it when it was so much fun. On her mission to let others in on the secret of how much fun all these theatricalities can be she worked with as many people as would open their door to her: children and young people of all ages and attitudes, adults who wanted to remember more about how it felt to have fun and be free, people who found this crazy world a tough place to live and needed some help to conquer old patterns of behaviour and remember who they really were and of course anyone who just wanted to meet others like themselves.

Whilst working with the Blue Moon Theatre Company and as Tilly the Talespinner, she found that she especially enjoyed the discoveries that she was making in the world of storytelling, finding particular delight in the retelling of old stories in new styles thus making them come alive for new audiences.  During this time she also discovered the hidden treasure that lies in the very heart of these timeless tales, their ability to help us all make sense of the world in which we live, to heal old wounds and provide ways in which we can tell the tales that have shaped our own lives.

Alongside the tale telling, Tilly also began to explore the particular enjoyment that can be found on the streets by getting together with other creative types, dressing up in strange clothes and surprising strangers. Affairs of the heart took Tilly away from her homeland of Somerset to the county of Norfolk at the beginning of 2007.  Since that time her story has taken some very unexpected twists and turns which, were she to describe them to you, you would hardly believe and consider them to be fantasies in themselves but then, life is a story (they don’t call it his-story or her-story for nothing).

So on to the next chapter of the story…

Who knows?...
Anything is possible!

As Tilly the Tale Spinner Su has spun her tales far and wide throughout the British Isles in schools, theatres, village halls, drop-in centres, festivals and community events. She has also worked extensively in the primary school environment, at community events and children’s festivals as a storyteller, children’s theatre performer and workshop facilitator. As both Su and Tilly she has a growing repertoire of stories relating to the natural environment and she believes that more than ever, it is vital that we find ways of developing a respectful relationship with nature by listening to the wisdom of our ancestors.

She also offers workshops in storytelling for people of all ages in which particpants explore theme, style, narrative and technique using a number of different creative and enjoyable techniques.

For more info on Su check out her website: http://www.tillythetalespinner.moonfruit.com/ 

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Two themes in just one night- Tales from the Undercroft Samuin Special


In an attempt to take the world of grown up storytelling clubs by storm and continue our tradition of 'telling on the edge', the regulars at Tales from the Undercroft meet on the 2nd November had not just 1, but 2 themes. The first half of the night was devoted to super-short stories, specifically stories that are no longer than 3 minutes. The theme for the second half was Spooky Stories: tales of ghosts, monsters or anything else that makes you think twice about turning out the lights. As Undercroft regular Tall Tale Liam  put it....

A challenge was thrown down to the tellers this month - could they find a story that was less than 3 minutes long? Doubts were expressed from the cloistered benches and someone even produced a timepiece ... the challenge was on ... up stepped Rita and immediately drove the doubters from the field with a compelling and emotional tale that provoked a collective heartfelt sigh from the audience at the end. And how long was the story? A mere 5 words. The art of brevity had been established and succeding performers drove home the message that the short tale was not only alive and well, but also full of wit and wisdom.  A mysterious hare, a student that had been turned into a donkey by his wicked uncle (or at least that's what the owner of the donkey was duped into believing by the clever students), a master swordsman defeated in combat by an old man with a sharper wit, the woman, who whilst drowning, still managed to get the better of her husband, and the brave Irish champion who inadvertently assisted a corpse in a final spasm of murder and several other colourful characters paraded themselves before our eyes (believe me ...they were there) during the short sharp tale section. 
  
During that emotionally turbulent period all our hearts went out to the inimitable Joy when she took it upon herself to remind the audience, in a tone that would suffer no doubting, that 'all my stories are true'. All the other tellers nodded in agreement, somewhat embarrassed by their own omission of such an important fact in the preambles to their own stories.


Laurie Steel telling a tale about a man with no tale to tell.

Next, when the laughter had ceased and tears were mopped up, we endeavoured to terrify our audience with tales to honour the season, although in truth most of us went for weird, wonderful and in my case just really silly.  Trolls, dismembered hands, Death, Youth, sacks of skin and bones, Old Nick, ghouls and ghosts marched like a macabre army out of the bricks, through the audience and headed up the steps toward the bar, leaving the pale-faced audience gripping their glasses tightly in the face of the emphatic visions of the otherworld and it's grim population. It was with both relief and joy that we seized upon moments of applause to spare us from the terror of it all. Perhaps the most chilling story came from Kelly Kanayama who led us down a dark ghost road in Japan to meet the defenceless crying girl whose mouth, eyes and nose slipped from her face when she looked up to greet the drunk in whose company we were in. As the drunk fled the scene he gratefully fell into the company of that old familiar staple of the Japanese street, the noodle seller. As the noodle seller raised his lamp to bring light for the drunk's comfort, Kelly lent forward and gently blew the lamp out, and we were all plunged into the faceless darkness of the haunting child ....you had to be there to see it.
Whilst Tall Tale Liam by his own admission: appeared to be attempting to acquire the mantle of teller of the longest tale by resuming a story that he began three months ago ... the tale of the Fisherman, his Son, and the Sorcerer of Tricks ...and then, at risk of being pelted with rotten fruit (luckily no one had any) proceeded to leave the tale unfinished ... he promised, with the kind of conviction that only a teller of dubious truths can, that the ending would be told at the next Undercroft gathering. Veiled threats were uttered around the room at this violation of storytelling protocol and we've yet to discover whether Liam will make it to the next gathering unscathed.


A growing audience at the Undercroft (If you look closely you can see their terrified faces)

Special thanks to Laurie Steel for getting the whole club under way, many moons ago, in the Workshop and the Black Horse, and making the posters and flyers for the new venue. Also to Jim Kavanagh for his new Undercroft Graphics and to all those who joined us this night. Just to remind you that our next gathering is on the 7th December (7.30 for 8.00 start) with tales of Yule to Misrule.  Anyone wanting to tell can email me at theyarnsmith@yahoo.co.uk or put their name down when they arrive.