storytellers

peter chand

Peter Chand has been telling stories in schools, libraries, museums, and other community settings for over a decade.  He specialises in telling stories from India, many of which he has collected himself and performed all over Britain, Europe and India.  Peter is often asked to be part of school events including amongst others; Diwali celebrations, Black History Month, Book Week, National Storytelling Week, and many projects that celebrate diversity. He has a huge sense of fun and a deep understanding of stories from his heritage.  www.chandstory.com

pie corbett

Pie Corbett is the inspiration behind the Story Museum’s Storymaking Schools Programme, advising on programme design and running hugely popular teacher workshops. A former head teacher and English Inspector, Pie wrote the poetry objectives for the National Literacy Strategy and played a key role in emphasizing the importance of storytelling within its recent revision. Pie has written over 200 books for children and teachers, runs writing workshops, performs poetry and tells stories across the country. His inspirational in-service training sessions are highly valued for their insight and humour.

adam guillain

Adam is an experienced primary teacher and education consultant, practised in multicultural storytelling. He is particularly fond of Russian and West African stories and his performances include songs and music on the guitar or piano. Adam runs drama and creative writing workshops, as well as teaching insets. His books for children include the popular Bella Ballistica series. During 2006 he was writer-in-residence for the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden.

vergine gulbenkian

Vergine began working on the craft of telling traditional tales in 1991 after studying drama. Her interest led her to research the rich Armenian oral tradition and in 1994 she made a documentary video in 1994 with Richard Eayrs about the ashugh (epic singer) tradition followed by an MPhil (Oxford) thesis in 1996 about continuity in the craft of storytelling amongst diaspora Armenians. Vergine performs traditional tales and epics in venues that include the South Bank Centre, the Battersea Arts Centre, the British Museum, the Barbican Centre and in museums, schools and storytelling clubs around Britain. Her style is grounded, direct and simple, with folk songs an integral part. She has recently been combining science education with story, devising performances for Oxford University's Pitt Rivers, Natural History, and History of Science Museums.

hugh lupton

Hugh Lupton is a storyteller, writer and poet. He has worked as a professional performer since 1979. In the mid eighties he formed the Company of Storytellers (with Ben Haggarty and Sally Pomme Clayton) which toured and ran workshops and festivals. More recently, he has collaborated on an acclaimed sequence of Greek epics, a repertoire that explores the deep veins of  English history and on Beowulf and stories of Robin Hood and the English Radicals. Throughout his 30-year career he’s toured constantly as a solo performer with a large repertoire of myths, legends, folk-tales and ballads. Several collections of his re-tellings of folk-tales have been published and his first novel appears in October 2010.

daniel morden

Daniel is one of the UK's most popular storytellers. He has performed all over the world, from Haiti to Hawaii, as well as at London's Barbican Centre and the National Theatre. He tells a wide range of traditional stories, including fairy tales, riddles, nursery tales and Greek myths. He has written six children's books, including Dark Tales from the Woods, which won the 2007 Welsh Books Council Tir Na Nog Prize. He is in constant demand to visit schools, both as an author and storyteller.

adele moss

Adele has pursued her passion for storytelling, both a performer and a facilitator, in a wide variety of settings since 1996, including schools, theatres, nurseries, libraries, museums, the Botanic Gardens, festivals, places of worship, day centres, clubs and a young offenders' unit. She loves finding stories to fit a special theme or occasion as much as putting together her own. She encourages active and lively participation from her audiences, often using movement and song. Her range of material is wide and multicultural and she also draws on the Jewish tradition. She has worked with interfaith groups and collaborates with a Muslim storyteller. She is particularly interested in the capacity of story to create connections between people.

chris smith

Chris Smith PhD, who leads our research and outreach programmes, is a storyteller, musician and author. In 1994 Chris moved to Oxford and trained in performance storytelling with the internationally renowned storyteller, Ben Heggarty, and in therapeutic storytelling with Alida Gersie. Since then he has performed in festivals, museums, companies, prisons and many schools. Before becoming a storyteller Chris spent 15 years running charity and community projects in the Middle East, where he collected many of his stories.