Preview: Story Threads: The Singapore Showcase reconnects audiences to the unique thrills of listening to stories in person

Story Threads: The Singapore Showcase invites audiences to get caught in a web of captivating tales woven by Singapore-based storytellers at the top of their game. 29 July 2022 – Presented by The Storytelling Centre Limited and Arts House Limited (AHL) StoryFest is bringing six storytellers from varied backgrounds together for Story Threads: The Singapore Showcase, to finally reacquaint audiences with the much-missed oral tradition where teller, listener and story all live and breathe within the same space.

From 19 to 21 August 2022 at The Arts House, The Singapore Showcase alumni Verena Tay, Stephanie Dogfoot, Hafiz Rashid, and Melizarani T. Selva will be joined by newcomers Daryl Qilin Yam and Wesley Leon Aroozoo, and each will be working their magic to enthral audiences with tales of love, loss, legend, and lore. At this much awaited in-person storytelling session, audiences can get to:

● Revisit the urban legend of kepala anjing (dog head) and unearth bone-chilling superstitions
● Rediscover the Chinese creation myth of Nu Wa as a tale of selflessness, patience and nurturing
● Unravel the heartbreaking Javanese legend of the truntum motif through a revelatory interpretation of batik
● Listen in as the goddess of shadows, Chaya Devi, talks to her infant about his destiny as Shani Deva, god of karma
● Trace the symbolism of the visiting butterfly through personal memory and ancient lore
● Join a canine family’s journey through the rabies outbreak of the late 1800s

Extending the experience from the physical sessions, excerpts of the six stories will be available digitally on the StoryFest YouTube channel from 22 August 2022 till March 2023.

Story Threads: The Singapore Showcase is part of the 2022 edition of StoryFest, the annual international storytelling festival that celebrates and showcases a variety of styles, repertoire, and cultural arts presentations of storytelling from Singapore and around the world. Along the theme of Story Threads, StoryFest invites audiences to experience the in-person and invisible connections that bind us through the power of telling and listening to stories.

Sim Wan Hui, Director of Venue Programming at AHL, said, “As a co-presenter of StoryFest, AHL is pleased to support the art of storytelling and the efforts of our storytellers. After two challenging years of living digitally, we are glad that the Festival is returning to the intimate space of the Play Den at The Arts House, Singapore’s home to the literary arts. We look forward to experiencing the magic of storytelling in the company of other rapt listeners.”

Storytelling as a tradition relies on a three-way connection: much of storytelling relies on the nonverbal signals exchanged between the story, the teller, and the listener. Over the last two years, StoryFest has had to reimagine storytelling, and how to digitally present a tradition that has historically been live, without compromising its core values. After two successful online festivals, StoryFest aims to continue fostering connections through Story Threads. StoryFest 2022 welcomes audiences in Singapore and from around the world to participate in listening to stories told across many months, spanning time zones, and presented through different mediums. This year, the Festival pays attention to the durational process of nurturing storytellers and creating stories, across time and space.

StoryFest’s Creative Producer, Kamini Ramachandran shared, “Story Threads takes a closer look at what it means to connect, in a period when our assumptions about contact have been tested time and again. Discover the ties that bind: across the globe, across generations and across mediums, with us. Despite not having had a tangible presence over the last two years, we hope that the stories we have told, and are yet to tell, will pull you in once again.”

Story Threads: The Singapore Showcase runs from 19th to 21st August at The Arts House. For more information, visit their website here