Three emerging Wales based storytellers to be supported through Beyond the Border’s New Voices Mentoring Programme
Three Wales based emerging storytellers will be supported to develop their craft through Beyond the Border’s bespoke New Voices Mentoring Programme.
Beyond the Border – Wales’ International Storytelling Festival announced the new mentoring programme in July, with an open call out for new and emerging artists to apply. Beyond the Border is matching mentees with established Wales based storytellers, providing a small bursary for mentees and providing clear guidance and development opportunities across the next year. From a very strong field of applicants, the chosen three emerging storytellers are Ceri Phillips, Chandrika Joshi and Kestrel Morton.
Welsh language storyteller Ceri Phillips is based in Llandeilo, and will be developing his storytelling techniques, professionalising his work, and also working on a new piece, Stori’r Gerdd, that explores the narratives of Welsh poetry, as part of the New Voices programme.
Chandrika Joshi is a Cardiff-based storyteller who has been storytelling for many years as part of the Cardiff Storytelling Circle. She has a wide and exciting repertoire of Indian stories and will be developing a long show as part of the programme.
Kestrel Morton is based in the Vale of Glamorgan, and works with myth and legends to shape contemporary narratives with political and social themes, often exploring climate change and gender equality. They will be working on a long-form storytelling performance called, The Epic of Binderella, as well as developing storytelling techniques and looking at options for professional development.
Beyond the Border’s Engagement Co-ordinator, Tamar Eluned Williams, said, “These three storytellers are at the very start of their careers and we are really excited to see them develop their craft. We were really pleased with the number of applications we had for the mentoring programme reflecting the need for people wanting to develop skills at this time. The standard of applications was incredibly high and we know there are many more artists needing support. Hopefully we will be able to support them through other opportunities over the next year. The level of interest in the programme has made us all very excited about the potential of storytelling in Wales and the new generation of voices coming through.”
As well as supporting these three storytellers over the next 12 months, Beyond the Border will continue their CASGLU coffee and chat spaces for established and emerging storytellers to encourage rigorous discussion, exploration, and networking in the storytelling community. These weekly sessions are held on a Friday with the next session on Friday 28th August, exploring Storytelling & Language. Future planned sessions include the role of storytelling in facing the climate crisis, and professionalising as a storyteller.
Alongside this, the festival will also be announcing a programme of webinars and online workshops to help support storytellers at all stages of their careers.
Beyond the Border’s New Voices Mentoring Programme and CASGLU is part of its Reimagine, Redevelop and create Resilience programme which is funded thanks to crucial additional support from Arts Council Wales’ Resilience Fund.
Beyond the Border is committed to developing new partnerships and networks and to working with a range of communities surrounding Dinefwr and throughout Wales. BtB is keen to explore new ways to tour storytelling, to support freelance storytellers and create collaborations with other artforms, working together to create a more robust future for storytelling in Wales.
For further information about CASGLU and New Voices Mentoring Programme, please contact BtB’s Engagement Co-ordinator tamarwilliams@beyondtheborder.com
Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival is supported by Arts Council of Wales, The Major Events Unit, Creative Europe and the Federation of European Storytelling.