UPDATE: this event has now sold out! Email [email protected] to be notified of any cancellations
Winter is just around the corner and Christmas is on its way. So what better time to introduce a seasonal storytelling event?
Mellt the Storyteller will bring us Tales for Midwinter and the Festive Season on Saturday 7th December from 3pm-5pm. There has already been high demand for tickets, but who is Mellt, teller of tales?
“I’ve always loved stories, always been a prolific reader,” says Mellt. “A very early indication of how much I loved stories comes from when I was five. While my father was out at work, heavy snow had fallen and, having ploughed his way home through the drifts, he opened the door, dripping and cold, to find me standing there with a book, greeting him with: ‘Daddy, tell me the end of the story.’ My priorities were clear very early on!
“During school Nativities, always the narrator, I soon realised that my best chance of being part of the stories, of shaping them rather than just repeating them, was to write and stage them myself. So I did and I haven’t stopped since!
“I’ve been a professional storyteller for about ten years now, and have performed countless times for various groups like WIs, but have also created and performed in my own complex productions, such as Pantheon, a theatrical piece which included eight dancers personifying human feelings, and Song of the Muses where I was Calliope, the Muse of Epic Poetry. I am a Registered Performer with the Arts Council of Wales’ Little Night Out scheme, something very important to me and the organisations who use it.”
Mellt weaves old Welsh myths, festive folktales and modern references into a dynamic performance. She describes it as "storytelling for grown-ups". The stories do not include graphic content, but they are not designed for children; that, she says, is a completely different craft.
“I’ve found influences everywhere, but it was Daniel Morden, an extraordinary, riveting storyteller, who first piqued my interest in performing as a teller of tales myself, having been lucky enough to do a weekend course with him and Sally Pomme Clayton. Carol Ann Duffy, the former Poet Laureate, was another influence. I loved The World’s Wife and the way she brought these forgotten women to life through reciting her poems.
"My stories, though predominantly prose, do have poetic elements, and I like to draw on characters who stay in the shadows; never more so than when I took all the female characters, mortal, immortal, and animal, from The Four Branches of the Mabinogi and gave them a voice for Wondrous!, my most ambitious project ever, with thirty performers, staged at Theatr Clwyd. I told the Branwen story myself, aided by two dancers, and it is still one of my absolute favourite performances.
Mellt’s Tales for Midwinter are varied and imaginative.
“Some are based on old traditions, like The Oak and Holly Kings, but there’s also my favourite folktale, and then others drawing on the spirit of Winter and Festivity, concluding with The Bad Fairy’s Lament, a modern, anarchic and topical take on How To Reach The Top Of The Tree… or not," says Mellt.
“We do live in a world of stories, even if it feels that we actually live in a world of commentary. Myths and legends abound, stories offering us enormous insight into ourselves, bolstering us, helping us understand the world, showing us how to make our way in it.
“I am delighted to be performing at Gladstone’s Library because it is such a very storied place, from its origins and history, all the stories already on its shelves, the stories of the people who come here to research and conjure their own tales, all adding to the story memory. And because stories change with each telling, this will be a one-off event. Grown-ups need stories as much as children do...”
Mellt has very kindly waived the majority of her speaker fee so the Library benefits more from each ticket sold.
UPDATE: this event has now sold out! Email [email protected] to be notified of any cancellations