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The storytelling scene here in Chennai is evolving rapidly. The Chennai Storytelling Association (CSA) has approximately 250 members. It is a group of mostly Chennai-based people who have demonstrated some serious interest in storytelling.
In the late 1990s (about 17 years ago), Geeta Ramanujam founded Kathalaya in Bangalore. To the best of my knowledge, this was/is the first organisation in India dedicated to the Revival of Storytelling.
Also around that time, Cathy Spagnoli from the USA (www.cathyspagnoli.com), a professional storyteller (and author of numerous books about storytelling), came to live in Chennai.
Cathy met Jeeva Raghunath, who had been a teacher. Cathy encouraged Jeeva to become a professional storyteller. Jeeva has become the leading Storytelling Revival storyteller in Tamil Nadu, performing and teaching in both Tamil and English. (Cathy now lives in Washington State, USA.)
Eric Miller studied with, and did office work for, professional storyteller Laura Simms (www.laurasimms.com) in his hometown, New York City, in the early and mid-1980s.
Laura is one of the founders of the global Storytelling Revival, which began in the late 1960s. In 1986, she presented the New York City International Storytelling Festival. Miller first visited India in 1988-90, and returned in 2002. In 2003-2004, he did his doctoral in folklore verbal arts-related fieldwork with members of the Kani tribe in the southern end of the Western Ghats in Kanniyakumari District. In 2005 he came to Chennai, and has been here since.
The World Storytelling Institute was founded in Chennai in 2007 by Miller, Jeeva Raghunath and Magdalene Jeyarathnam. (Magdalene is a psychological counsellor, and is helping to develop “Therapeutic Uses of Storytelling”. Magdalene and Miller were married in Chennai in 2006.)
Jeeva eventually decided to work independently, so she is no longer formally a part of the WSI – but they often collaborate.
In 2012, Dr. Sandhya Ruban (a dentist, WSI Storytelling Workshop attendee and trainer, and founder-director of her own communication-and-soft-skills-training organisation, Eloquens) travelled to Singapore to attend an edition of the Singapore Storytelling Festival.
Upon Sandhya’s return to Chennai, she said to Miller, “We should do a Storytelling Festival here in Chennai also!” He agreed and the WSI presented the first annual Chennai Storytelling Festival in February 2013 (theme: ‘The many applications of storytelling’). This has been followed by CSF 2014 (theme: ‘Storytelling and Healing’/‘Therapeutic Uses of Storytelling’); and CSF 2015 (‘Storytelling for Teaching and Training’). The theme of the not-yet-finalised plan for Chennai Storytelling Festival 2016 (Friday 5-Sunday 14 February 2016) is ‘Storytelling and Inter-cultural Communication’ and will include Travel, Tourism, Translation, Visiting other lands and worlds.
Two years ago, Geeta Ramanujam said to Miller, “Let’s start an Indian Storytelling Network!”. The result is www. indianstorytellingnetwork.org
A couple of months ago, Asha Sampath (a WSI Storytelling Workshop attendee and trainer, and founder-director of her own storytelling organisation, Tale Spin) decided a group might be formed in Chennai of people actively doing storytelling performing (and instructing) work.
This group has come to be known as ‘Chennai Storytellers’ (www.facebook.com/ chennaistorytellers). So far there are 22 of us. Anyone who publicly performs as a storyteller at least “once in a while” in Chennai is invited to join Chennai Storytellers. Please contact Asha (ashasam@gmail.com, 98408 33953).
A window to the past and the future
The culture of India features a strong awareness of the educational value of storytelling. The frame-story within which the animal fables of the Panchatantra are related communicates this awareness clearly:
Once there was a king who had three sons. These princes seemed dull. They were unable to learn by conventional educational methods. Their father, the king, was very anxious about their futures and, as a consequence, also about the future of the kingdom.
Finally, an aged scholar named Vishnu Sharma was called upon. He promised to help the princes become intelligent and bright within six months. His method: he would tell stories to the princes, and draw them into discussions about the stories. Sure enough, after six months, his plan succeeded.
The Panchatantra is one of the most popular collections of animal fables in the world. These stories, along with the Jataka Tales (which illustrate principles of Buddhism), episodes from epics, and folktales in general – also known as Grandmother Stories – help to make India one of the richest story and storytelling centres in the world. This is a resource the rest of the world calls upon.
Any topic can be presented in story form. This can make the material more meaningful and memorable.
History, for example, is often taught in terms of great events, their dates and locations, and the names of the people involved. Or, it is taught in terms of economic, sociological, or cultural factors. Potential learners often find these approaches to be “dry”.
Teaching with stories may involve finding or composing characters that embody facts and abstract ideas. If listeners can relate to these characters and their adventures, the listeners tend to pay attention to the story, think about the issues that the story raises, and absorb and retain the information the story contains.
Regardless of whether a story’s characters may be humans, animals, divinities, aliens, etc – all stories are about situations. Participants in storytelling events – both tellers and listeners – may project themselves into story characters, and imagine themselves in story situations. The participants may find reflections of themselves in stories.
Participants can consider if they might do things the same way or differently from how the story characters are doing things. This gives the participants imaginative practice for living their own lives.
Storying can offer a window to the past and to the future – while it also always presents options for behaviour in the present. Storying can help participants to understand and empathise with other individuals and cultures. In the storying process, connections and understandings are formed, both within and between people. Upon hearing stories, similar experiences from their own lives often spontaneously come to listeners’ minds.
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