What's On
Bedtime Tales with Taffy Thomas
Friday 7th October 2011 - 6.30 pm
Come in your pyjamas and don’t forget your teddy bear. Listen to
stories with Taffy Thomas before it's time for bed.
For 6 years and under. Ticket includes a free milky drink.
Venue: St John's Church Hall
Tickets: £8 (concessions £6)
Early Bird online discount price: £7 / £5 (until 15 Sept)
Click here to Buy Tickets online
Taffy will also be performing a storytelling walk at the Festival
and holding a workshop. See Take Part.
Taffy Thomas MBE
The Storytelling Laureate
Taffy Thomas trained as a Literature and Drama teacher at Dudley
College of Education. He then taught for several years in
Wolverhampton. He founded and directed the legendary folk theatre
company, Magic Lantern, travelling Europe illustrating folk songs
with shadow puppets and much more!
He founded and directed the rural community arts company,
Charivari, with their popular touring unit, the Fabulous Salami
Brothers, which he fronted and performed in, until a stroke at the
age of 36 sidelined him. He turned back to story-telling as
self-imposed speech therapy.
Taffy has a repertoire of more than 300 stories, tales and
elaborate lies collected mainly from traditional oral sources, which
he is happy to tell in almost any situation. He is now the most
experienced English storyteller, having pioneered many storytelling
residencies and appeared at the National Storytelling Festival in
the USA and the Bergen Arts Festival in Norway. In 2001 Taffy
performed a new collaboration for the Blue Peter Prom at the Royal
Albert Hall.
In 2006 he was storyteller in residence for the programme of
summer residencies at the National Centre for Storytelling in
Jonesborough, Tennessee.
He is currently artistic director of Tales in Trust, the Northern
Centre for Storytelling, in Grasmere, the Lake District. In the 2001
New Year Honours List he was awarded the MBE for services to
storytelling and charity. He tours nationally and internationally
working in both entertainment and education and is also a patron of
the Society for Storytelling.
In October 2009 Taffy accepted the honorary position of first
Laureate for Storytelling which will run for two years from January
2010 to January 2012. As Laureate for Storytelling, Taffy received
seven wonderful objects as a gift, including: 1kg bag of dried
beans, a simple compass, a packet of love hearts, a clear glass
bottle, a tall white candle, a silver, lucky charm bracelet and a
whistle.
With Taffy's head bursting with stories, riddles and folklore,
professional storyteller Giles Abbot once commented, "when Taffy
goes it will be like a library burning down".
www.taffythomas.co.uk
Taffy Thomas on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxoFqGxhilcTube