A Good Story Told Well

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This weekend I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with a select band of Yew Tree Youth Theatre actors as they read stories to gallery going children at the Hepworth Wakefield.  We’ve been reading A Christmas Carol – and it’s gone down a treat – just as The Snow Queen did last weekend. 

One of the best things about this project is being reminded of how unifying story telling is – at one point we had three generations of a family listening to young people tell traditional tales that have been passed down through decades and sometimes even centuries.  One of our storytellers summed it up nicely by saying, “The outside world stops when you’re listening to a story.” To which I would add that this is a precious thing indeed in a world where technology allows the outside to be constantly banging at your door.

Obviously YTYT are in the business of making stories – it’s what we do best and this year we have told so many.  Every company has had the opportunity and pleasure of making stories all year round in the productions of every scale we create.  One would think that just reading a book would be a piece of cake comparatively, but not so. Insightfully one of our storytellers declared after their first reading slot, “It’s an art.” And he was right – to engage your audience, to make sure your style of reading is pitched at their preference, to make the story come to life and paint the pictures of the story is indeed as artistically valid as anything else we did. This artistry is compounded by the close proximity of the audience. Everyone who took part in the storytelling learnt something and gave something all at the same time.

One of the audience, who wasn’t a child, said, “It’s nice to have a story read to you and because you were enjoying it I enjoyed it too.” I enjoyed listening to two new acquaintances – the storyteller and the listener – talk about the experience they’d just shared which had clearly been heartening on both sides.  As we wind down for Christmas there’s something restorative about enjoying the simpler things in life one of which is a good story told well…I hope you have chance to indulge in this at some point over the holidays…


“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas” Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol

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