Homo Narrans: fairy tale and storytelling experiential workshop – Stella Tsigou

All people are potential storytellers. In this introductory workshop we will talk about the folk tale and we will confront its weight and lightness. Also, we will explore orality and connect with the storyteller within us – the homo narrans, the man who has learned to inhabit spiritual worlds involving times that are not present and places that are the stuff of dreams.

Workshop structure

Daily, and for 4 days, we interact in a three-hour workshop, where we will discuss the folktale and its genres, orality, the difference between reading aloud and oral storytelling, and we will work practically in the following areas:

How do I access my material?
How do I use my imagination?
How do I appropriate a fairy tale?
Mnemonic and fairy-tale motifs
Extralinguistic and paralinguistic elements in oral narration
The symbolism of fairy tales and our personal meaning
The narrator’s body and breath

The 5th day will be followed by a presentation of the participants’ work (narration to the audience).

Within the framework of the workshop, specific work material will be provided (folk tales from various countries), while the participants can also bring a folk tale of their choice on which to work.

The workshop is aimed at storytellers, group animators, educators, parents, as well as anyone who wants to walk in the world of fairy tales and storytelling.

Stella Tsigou is a storyteller and writer.

He was born in Thessaloniki, where he lives and creates. He is a graduate of the Theater Department of the School of Fine Arts of the Athens University of Fine Arts. with postgraduate studies in theatre, European Literature-Culture and Creative Writing. He teaches theater, creative writing, the “secrets” of fairy tales, as well as the art of oral storytelling, to young and old.

He has been trained in the art of oral storytelling through workshops and seminars with Greek and foreign storytellers, as well as through continuous personal research on a practical and theoretical level.

He has been narrating professionally for more than a decade and has orality, the connection of voice, body and interiority as the central axis of his research and narrative work, as well as the composition of the material of each narrative performance according to the age group of the audience to whom it is addressed or the special needs of. Her repertoire includes fairy tales from the Greek and international oral traditions, as well as her own compositions based on oral traditions. She has to her credit storytelling performances for children and adults in art and culture or entertainment venues, schools, libraries, prisons, etc. and participation in Storytelling Festivals inside and outside Greece. She is a member of the Greek Storytelling Professionals Association (S.EP.AFI.) and a certified adult trainer.