BRUTALITY AND BEATITUDE: The essence of performance Storytelling - Vayu Naidu Presence Workshop 22 March
Vayu Naidu will conduct the third of our Presence workshop demonstrations on 22 March, 12.30-4.30 here at Exeter.
These images are from Vayu Naidu Company's inaugural production, SOUTH (2002)
In preparation for the workshop, Vayu writes:
The oral tradition of storytelling is alive and kicking. There is no point in arguing whether it is the oldest form of narrative, it is as it is contemporary; the challenge is to demystify its archaic stereotype while making its presence in performance. The workshop will focus on Storytelling specific to performance and the elements that make compelling listening within a story, as well as what constitutes a mesmerising Storyteller. The participatory lecture focuses on definitions of Storytelling that includes an exploration of its anatomy. Vayu Naidu has constructed through her AHRC Fellowship and her Theatre Company, work that engages with emotive intention-movement-word as a process of telling, derived from a South Asian traditions.
We will also look at the work of Vayu Naidu Company, an Independent Storytelling Touring Theatre that has used Storytelling as its axis in its myriad forms of work – conflict resolution; domestic violence; Tsunami victims; Refugees.
Further information on Vayu’s work and related reading is online at the Presence Project Collaboratory at http://presence.stanford.edu:3455/Collaboratory/501
To book a place on the workshop, please e-mail Linda Dowsett at l.m.dowsett@exeter.ac.uk.
Vayu is currently Lecturer in the Department of Drama , School of Drama, Film and Visual Arts at the University of Kent. She was appointed following a post doctoral Fellowship in Creative and Performing Arts by the Arts and Humanities and Research Board (AHRB 2001-2004, now AHR Council) and was hosted by the Drama Department at Canterbury, University of Kent. Her work was titled: The Presence of Absences: exploring technique and manifestation in the contemporary performance Storyteller.
Vayu Naidu Company Limited was founded on the basis of creating new frontiers for performance and engaging transcultural practice in an interdisciplinary way. This has been supported by Arts Council England and all the above institutions as well are gratefully acknowledged for their support, including Gulbenkian Theatre. Vayu Naidu Company Limited is now based as the Leathermarket, London.
As a performance Storyteller, she has created new work, but significantly established both for general audiences, and students of performance in Higher Education an interest and methodology in Storytelling and cultures of oral traditions. Her work ranges from being a soloist, working with Contemporary Music composers and musicians, Orchestras, and world musicians, as well as in theatre writing for the stage, radio, and as an actor in television and film.
Vayu most recent new work includes NOTHING BUT THE SALT that has been on a South Asian Theatre Consortium tour after premiering in the Canterbury Festival at Gulbenkian Theatre. Her adaptation of MANNIMEKALAI and PSYCHE for composer Judith Weir was featured in Channel 4’s documentary on ARMIDA AND OTHER STORIES (Dec 2005 and February 2006).
Her work will be featured in Palgrave’s WOMEN AND NARRATIVE edited by Gerry Harris and Elaine Aston 2007, and has featured in Michael Wilsons STORYETLLING AND THEATRE (Palgrave, 2005).
The forthcoming production of Vayu Naidu Company is about Annie Besant’s Indian Home Rule.
Future workshops are:
Phillip Zarrilli and Kl;aus Seewald: 10 May
Fiona Templeton: 24 May
Bella Merlin: 21 June
Full details are at our Exeter Presence website at http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/performing-presence/events.php
All images courtesy Vayu Naidu Company.