Beyond The Border Wales International Storytelling Festival

I attended and performed at Beyond The Border Wales International Storytelling Festival and created a plenary poem capturing soundbites and the atmosphere. There was an eclectic mix of narrative performance explored through live music, literature and traditional storytelling.

Beyond The Border celebrates the finest musicians and storytellers from Wales and the World, including Sweden, Finland, Italy, India, Belgium, Norway and Palestine….

Expect fables and myths, music and magic, love stories and laughter, fun and games for children and fairy tales for grown-ups, all in the beautiful grounds of our castle by the sea.

I managed to have a chat with legendary storyteller Taffy Thomas MBE, the mysterious illustrator Katherine Soutar and the magical Tinc Y Tannau. Take a listen to the audio interviews, the poem I created and join the conversation…

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Photos include Taffy, Katherine, Tinc Y Tannau and the festival site.

BIOGRAPHIES

Taffy Thomas MBE

Taffy Thomas trained as a Literature and Drama teacher at Dudley College of Education. After teaching for several years in Wolverhampton he founded and directed the legendary folk theatre company, Magic Lantern, illustrating traditional stories and songs with shadow puppets and circus skills.

He founded and directed the community arts company, Charivari, with their popular touring unit, the Fabulous Salami Brothers, which he fronted and performed in. After a major stroke at the age of 36 Taffy turned back to story telling as self-imposed speech therapy, which turned into a new career.

Taffy has a repertoire of more than 300 stories and a glorious cloak that depicts them.

Find out more www.taffythomas.co.uk

Katherine Soutar

Katherine specialises in themes of folklore and storytelling, making these narratives visible is her passion. She works primarily in watercolour and inktense on paper, but also use mixed media. Katherine is cover artist for the History press Folk Tales and Ghost Tales series and also work with individual storytellers on their projects.

Find out more www.katherinesoutarillustration.com

Tinc Y Tannau

Sianed Jones and Ailsa Mair Hughes sing and play the Bass Viola da Gamba at the same time. Together they conjure up rich four part harmonies and rhythms that are intoxicating on these ancient resonant instruments that can be bowed or strummed like a guitar. Tinc y Tannau perform playful improvisations, original songs, 16th century voice and viol pieces and unusual settings of ancient Welsh poetry. The ancient influencing the now whilst careering joyfully into the future.

Find out more www.tincytannau.co.uk

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