Daniel Morden has been telling traditional stories since 1989. He has told tales all over the world, from the Arctic to the Pacific to the Caribbean. He is known for his lucid retellings of Greek myths, and his passionate performances of Welsh tales. He is the author of several collections of folktales, including Dark Tales from the Woods (Gomer, 2006) which won the Tir na n-Og Award. In 2017 he was awarded the Hay Festival Medal for his storytelling.
Storytelling Weekend
Fri 16 June 2023 - Sun 18 June 2023
Tutors
/ Daniel Morden & Phil Okwedy
Course Fee
/
From
£350 per person
Genre
/ Storytelling
Language
/ English
The folktales, fairy tales and myths of our ancestors are the building blocks for every story that has been told since, including plays, novels, poetry, and screenplays. The ancient tales continue to inspire poets, artists, authors and dramatists today. Shocking, magical, touching and profound, our traditional tales define human experience. Oral storytelling is experiencing an extraordinary revival, with groups regularly gathering to hear and tell traditional tales all over the country. This storytelling course is a chance to learn how to adapt and tell the myths, legends and folktales that are our birth-right. This course will focus on the craft of oral storytelling, and performing our stories to an audience. By the end of the course, everyone will have developed a short piece to perform in front of your co-storytellers in a supportive environment, and to develop further after the course ends.
Daniel and Phil will curate a weekend of activities suitable for those who are brand new to the craft of storytelling, and also those with some experience – including storytellers who have been on similar courses with the tutors in the past.
Tutors
Daniel Morden
Phil Okwedy
Born in Cardiff of a Welsh mother and Nigerian father, Phil Okwedy is a performance storyteller and myth maker who draws deeply on his dual heritage and multiple cultures. He regularly performs in storytelling clubs and has featured at Beyond the Border and Aberystwyth Storytelling Festival, as well as at Kea Festival in Greece and Fabula Festival in Sweden. In 2018 he published his first book, Wil & the Welsh Black Cattle (Gomer, 2018), a set of Welsh folktales framed around the mythology of the ancient cattle drovers. In 2021 he was awarded a place on Literature Wales’ Representing Wales writer development programme and in 2022-23 he toured his first storytelling show, The Gods Are All Here, around Wales, weaving together myth, folktale and Phil’s own personal story sparked by the discovery of a series of letters from his father in Nigeria to his mother in Wales.