POLLY TISDALL
WALSALL ASIAN LIBRARY USERS GROUP
In 2012 Polly worked with Walsall Libraries to design and facilitate a 6 week-long course in Traditional Storytelling for members of the Walsall Asian Library Users Group: residents from Walsall and the surrounding areas from different backgrounds, united by their love of stories.
The workshops explored what is meant by Traditional Storytelling in different cultures and times and equipped participants to choose and tell their own traditional story in performance, in their own words.
Alongside exploring story structure and story mapping techniques to help participants to prepare their story, Polly also introduced practical rehearsal exercises: looking at the use of the voice and of the body in traditional storytelling.
The course culminated with a sharing of the stories in performance and a celebration of the group's achievements - with lots of applause and laughter!
Polly's work with the Walsall Asian Library Users Group was funded by the National Lottery as part of the Walsall Asian Heritage Project.