Storyteller Festival 2023

It will take place from 15th -17th September, with 6 creative and cultural events at 5 venues around Stonehouse

After last year’s success, WonderZoo has come back this year with another Storyteller Festival. This is the third Storyteller festival they have created since 2021.

There will be workshops and evening events over three days. The workshops must be booked online at Eventbrite. All the events are free to attend, with generous funding from Plymouth Octopus Project.

This year we’re doing a more compressed festival than last year, with the idea

of it growing into a wider festival in the next year or two, with more organisations, groups and individuals getting involved.

This year, all the evening events will be run by young and passionate artistic producers, which will give a different feel to last year’s festival.

On Friday 15th Sept, there will be a Creative Writing workshop led by Peter Roe (Jawbone Publishing) at Oasis Project, 28 Manor Street.

He ran this workshop last year, which was enjoyed by all involved as it offered a friendly

space for people to explore and share their creativity through words.

Peter is passionate about helping people find their creative voice, no matter how

skilled they are as a writer; his workshops are all about having fun and

connecting.

On Friday evening, there will be a comedy event at Manor Street Galleries, Killer Queen Comedy, led by Josh Balch and Robin Marshall. The event will open at 7pm for people to find their seats, buy drinks and mingle, with the show starting at 8pm.

Expect to see great local comedic talent with two headliners, Cristina Varga, as well as a touring group of three performers normally based in Bristol taking to the stage, including two spoken word artists (T.S. Idiot and Pete the Temp), and a harpist, Emmy the Harp.

Saturday 16 th will have a creative workshop from 2-4pm at The Plot, led by Mindful Art Club. Artists Peggy Melmoth and Emma Sprawson will offer you some time for “coffee, creativity and company”, inviting people to get together and express themselves in a non-judgemental and caring environment with no expectations of how their art should be.

It’s a chance to have fun and make friends.

In the evening of the 16th , there will be an event called Pyre Night, organised by Poppy Jones, a published poet and well-known performer and events organiser. Poppy has curated an evening that will showcase female and marginalised gender performers, with spoken word and music. There will be MCMC Spoken (Megan Chapman) headlining the first half of the gig with politically potent spoken word and rap, then Anairda headlining the second half with original world folk-rock, with Latin influences, and multilingual lyrics about social issues.

The final day, Sunday 17th has a radio workshop run by Omnium Radio on Manor Street, from 12-2pm.

Learn how to become a radio presenter with Trace Jared-Davis.

Omnium Radio is all about helping people to learn new skills, express themselves and find ways to connect and flourish.

In the evening, there will be a Queer Out Loud event at Cawfee, Union Street, 6-9pm, organised by founder Mimi Jones, who is also Plymouth’s current Young City Laureate.

Mimi’s events welcome people who identify as LGBTQ+ to perform their spoken word, offering them a safe and welcoming space where they know they’ll be seen, heard and understood.

Full listings of events, including links to the Eventbrite ticket pages can be found on Facebook: (wonderzoo.storyteller.festival).

For queries or to book tickets without using Eventbrite, contact Chi and Slain at

wonderzooarts@gmail.com / 07799388953.