BEN HAGGARTY
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HANNAH BRAILSFORD
Hannah is a professional storyteller based in Southend on Sea, who tells both traditional and modern tales to young and old alike. Driven by a passion to engage and inspire communities with storytelling, she draws on her acting background to take her audiences on playful and poignant journeys into folk, fairy, wonder tales and myths and legends from around the world. Described as, ' Captivating, compelling, high-energy and fun.', she provides storytelling for schools and families through her company Tiny Tales Storytellers and pop up spoken word and music nights for adult audiences with Spinning Yarns Theatre. https://www.hannahbrailsfordstoryteller.com/ 
STEPH BRITTAIN
Steph's love for storytelling developed whilst studying Kathak dance in Paris and Delhi and it continued to grow during her MA in Drama and Movement therapy. She trained in performance at Acting International in Paris and Drama Centre London. She performed at Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester, Arcola Theatre London and for the BBC. She trained in storytelling with Jo Blake, Ben Haggarty, Nick Hennessey and Nell Phoenix and has been performing recently in venues across the Isle of Wight. She is a new member of Pandvani 108. Steph brings us: The Romance of Mis and Dubh Ruis - A story of one woman's grief, wildness and love. Transformed into a wild creature by the pain and despair of loss, Mis appears to be an unreachable and dangerous force, living wild in the mountains. But can a love affair transform her again, can her own passion be healing? Contains Sexual references. https://www.facebook.com/storytellingecotherapyforestschool 
SHONALEIGH CUMBERS
Shonaleigh Cumbers is a storyteller. Not just any storyteller. She’s a Drut’syla. She’s a living tradition holder. It’s a tradition you probably won’t have heard of. It’s a tradition that flourished in Jewish families, but that was almost wiped out during the holocaust: as far as we know, Shonaleigh is the last Drut’syla, whose telling and teachings are filled with the wisdom, depth and humour of her bubbe, her grandmother, Edith Marks, from whom she learned her craft. https://shonaleigh.uk/ 
CAT WELDON
Local author Cat Weldon approaches mythology irreverently! It was while she was researching for her books that Cat was drawn into the deeply bonkers world of Norse Mythology. Chock full of dragons, Gods, magic, and riddles all hanging together in a giant tree, these stories are fascinating – and ripe for a fresh retelling. You might have heard of Thor and his magic hammer, but what about Loki and his boat made of dead men’s toenails? Or Vidar with his one really-massive-wolf-killing shoe? Cat has questions and together with the audience she hopes to find some answers! Cat says that ancient mythology is often treated with a reverence which prevents storytellers from exploring the truly hilarious, bizarre and wyrd elements. In her hands, these stories are dramatic, but also silly and ridiculous, and educational. Cat was the featured author of Jorvik Viking Centre in 2022, and regularly visits schools across the UK to share ancient myths with young people. Cat’s stories (and books) are aimed at ages 9-12 but are suitable for curious people of all ages. She has worked with the Ipswich Arts Association and with 'Authorfy' to create resources for children and young people to aid in engagement with history and literature. Her work has been described as hilarious, vibrant, and engaging. www.catweldon.co.uk 
Vickie Holden-Swinton - Vickie of The Listen Inn!
Vickie has worked as a writer, performer and storyteller for twenty-something years, and can regularly be found working hard at the Discover Children’s Story Centre as well as on Zoom, YouTube, at festival, events, in schools, and at other performing gigs both for adult audiences and families. A born daydreamer(!), Vickie loves funny, characterful, interactive storytelling and more info about Vickie and her work can be found at www.thelisteninn.co.uk 
FAY ROBERTS - SPOKEN WORD STAGE
Fay is a performance poet, a musician, a storyteller, an events host, an accidental voice actor, Artistic Director for Spoken Word at PBH’s Free Fringe, and an enormous geek. During weekdays, ze persuades people to make lists and say no to shiny things. For every role, there is a different hat, and a spreadsheet to match. Zir first full collection, Spectral, came out with Burning Eye in March 2022, and ze describes it as “a kind of poetry concept album, with illustrations”. Fay describes zirself as a “peripatetic, percussive, performance poet with a penchant for project management.” What People Say About Fay: “We need more poetry like this... funny, confident, modest and a really bloody good poet to listen to.” Hollie McNish “…Fay’s brave, quietly-defiant, joyous poems are some of the best of what the spoken word world has to offer and prise apart the binaries to release a world of gloriously sensuous, immersive wordery.” Kate Fox “With the calm of a Summer pond and the voice of an ASMR specialist, Fay is a velvet cushion of a poet, threading words together with the weft and warp of a witch with a PhD in word crochet.” Scott Tyrrell http://linktr.ee/fayroberts 
Mic Master Lyon - SPOKEN WORD STAGE
Having released two Ep’s, one LP and eight singles in 2022 plus one single already in 2023 amounting to a total of 31 tracks with three accompanying music videos, under his own record label: Royale Recordings, Mic Master Lyon shows no sign of stopping there as he pushes out new and continuously improving content every month. Residing in the Suffolk area from a young age, Mic Master Lyon has gradually been mastering his craft as a rap artist, songwriter, poet and music producer. He has performed at The Spirit of Beowulf Festival (a day festival in Woodbridge), after winning a poetry and song writing competition to earn his spot on stage. Followed by Switchfest (a multi-genre live show in Ipswich) and then most recently he brought a splash of urban flavour to The Woodbridge Ambient Music Festival (a three day arts and music festival). Mic Master Lyon has also performed both rap music and poetry at numerous open mic nights all around Suffolk over the years. In 2023 we will finally be getting professional recordings of his spoken word poetry along with philosophical and inspirational speeches.. Plus a whole lot of music composed under another alias Xenarith, so there is no question that we will be seeing this rising star take his talents to the world stage in the near future! We advise to make sure to keep a close eye on this one as he evolves. Email: byronhand34@gmail.com Social Media: Facebook | Instagram Listen Here on YouTube Music Listen Here on Spotify 
SIMON HOOTON After a career in countryside management, and decades of interpreting the countryside through guided walks, talks and courses, I have taken the chance in retirement to try and use drama and stories to inspire people to care about their environment and tackle climate change: the science is working well enough. Essentially, I am trying to build a suite of stories to help people love their environment and become passionate about nature. I have been a performer, director and writer for amateur dramatics especially pantomime and see story-telling as a natural addition. Workshop - Environmental stories for folk over 10 years old. Looking at the way people have interacted with their locality to draw out the distinctive characteristics of East Anglia's special landscapes like The Broads, The Brecks, the coast and its estuaries, and the woods, heaths, rivers and meadows of the countryside around us. In doing so, seeking to show how special it is, how it can be threatened by people's actions and ways to enjoy and appreciate it even more. As such this is work in development and builds on short stories I have written and included in talks, evenings of extracts from nature writing created for the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and The Bank Arts Centre, Eye, and short 'radio plays' that I write and perform with a groups called 4x4 based out from Wymondham. I have taken part in two Suffolk Skalds in the past.
Simon will be bringing his passion for our world to our Ceilidh on Friday and will be running a workshop on Saturday. 
BEAR WITCH PROJECT
We are delighted to welcome Bear Witch Project as our Saturday evening featured band. ! Their music weaves lyrical stories framed with skillful music... They are an acoustic originals band with folk roots encompassing vocals, guitar. violin, bass and cajon. Bear Witch have played Harlequin Fayre, Mersea Regatta, Cosmic Puffin, The Sculpture Yard, The Mad Hatters Festival and many other venues in Suffolk and around. Have a listen to their tunes in the link below. Bear Witch swill be supporting our featured tellers https://www.facebook.com/Bearandthewitch 
ELLY TREE Bringing passion and flair to music you can dance, listen, laugh and cry to, Helen Woodbridge, otherwise known as EllY Tree, sings original, intelligent and irresistible folk songs performed with a driving rhythm and a voice that seems to “summon up the gods”. This is weirdly wonky punk folk. 
Boudicca Border Morris Eclectic dancers dancing both traditional dances and original ones. We aim to have fun and link some of our repertoire to local history and legends. www.facebook.com/BoudiccaBorderMorris/ 
Hell’s Bells Alternative Morris bring a sassy twist to Border Morris dancing. Formed in 2016 and based in Castle Hedingham, it’s a mixed band of dancers and musicians hell bent on having fun! Our dress style is Steampunk and our dancing is a combination of traditional and contemporary. We love what we do and hope you will too. www.facebook.com/hellsbellsmorris 
STOOKEY BLUE
The band's name comes from a local delicacy - a cockle from Stiffkey, a village on the North Norfolk coast whose name is often pronounced 'Stookey' or 'Stewkey'. The cockle can have a blue tint to its colouring due to the mud in which it lives. There's more about it on this Information Britain page. Also, please note, we are Stookey Blue and not Blues - we play folk music and ceilidh dance music, not the blues! :) |
