|
Since 1981, Ben Haggarty has been one of the prime movers of the revival of the art of professional storytelling in Britain. He is internationally respected for both his tellings of traditional tales to adults and children, and for his knowledge and understanding of stories and of diverse storytelling traditions.
Equipped with an extensive repertoire of over 350 carefully researched, full-blooded, traditional narratives, he can explore many themes evoking many moods. He tells his stories with glee (in the original sense of the word). They range from 2 minute jests and folktales to 2 hour long fragments of Epic Mythology. He has a particular interest in unveiling the concealed deities that lurk in the shadows of European Wonder Tales. He is also passionate about the Mythology of the Bronze and early Iron Ages. His repertoire includes such epics as ‘Gilgamesh’, ‘Midir and Eadaoin’ and most recently the modern myth, ‘Frankenstein’, commissioned by the Hay Literature Festival 2002 – all performed with musicians. He can absorb audiences in many settings whether it be ‘full-on’ performance storytelling for adults in Black Box Studio Theatres, ‘site specific’ work in museums, heritage or environmental sites, or in libraries and schools. All he needs to work this particular form of magic is a silent space, an audience and time.
Ben Haggarty was the first apprentice taken on by Welfare State International Theatre in 1977. His mentors include Alan Garner and the late PL Travers. He has researched epic singing traditions in Central India, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic.
He was a founder member of Britain’s premier touring group of storytellers, ‘The Company of Storytellers’ (Ben Haggarty, Hugh Lupton, Pomme Clayton). He directed Britain’s first ever storytelling festival in 1985 and is responsible for programming the storytellers for the ‘Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival’ at St Donats Castle in Wales. Held annually on the first weekend of July, it is Britain’s premier storytelling festival attracting in excess of 2,000 people (‘what makes this festival is its generous, intelligent atmosphere.’ – The Times). For further info check the website: beyondtheborder.com. He is also the founder of ‘The Crick-Crack Club’ which is currently presenting termly events at the Barbican Pit Theatre.
Ben Haggarty has been featured on many TV and Radio Programmes and was one of four international storytellers featured in an hour long TV Documentary for ARTE in France. He was a consultant during the selection of stories for Jim Henson’s ‘Storyteller’ series. In education he made significant contributions to the National Oracy Project (1987 - 1992) and has addressed the annual meeting of the Senior OFSTED English and Drama Inspectorate. As a performer he has appeared in international storytelling festivals in France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Greece, Israel, America and Canada. In fact he has performed in 23 countries. He has worked for English Heritage, the National Trust, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Museum of London, Shakespeare’s Globe etc. He is well known for his storytelling at the British Museum ‘Sleepovers’. The Crick Crack Club has been consulted about programming by the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican Centre, and many other arts centres and local councils. In 1999 he was invited to deliver a lecture entitled ‘The Art and Alchemy of Traditional Storytelling’ for the RSA. In recent years he has also pioneered a year-long skills development course for performance storytellers. In November 2000 he took up a two-year lottery funded residency in Gloucester as Britain’s first ‘Official City Storyteller.’ He is currently continuing to work with Chinese-American Cellist, Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project for whom he devised and presented the narratives for the family concerts on their 2002 world tour, in such venues such as The Carnegie Hall, New York.
Ben Haggarty says, “The most challenging task facing a storyteller, today, is to make the stories of the past have valid meaning — now. There are no scripts in storytelling. Each telling of a traditional tale is a unique improvised event. It is an interpretative art in which the tellers are simultaneously the authors, directors and performers of their words.”
“My job,” he continues, “is to try, in the dynamic moment of performance, to engage directly with all the potent energies existing between audience, story and storyteller — in this way ‘a happening’ may occur, something immediate, magical and memorable.” His work aims to demonstrate his passionate beliefs that “all contemporary issues have always been contemporary issues and that the collective voice of our ancestors affirms that existential transformations for the better, though conditional, are real possibilities...”
“ I was spellbound – I don’t use the word lightly – as Ben turned the austere lecture theatre around us into a flickering cave of wonder… If you have a chance to hear the tales which have shaped the dreams of humankind, tales of the gods and monsters that haunt us still, then sit down and listen. You might just discover that you, too, find the plot.” The Times (2000)
“... and what a story this one was - not a simple one of unwitting, but a playful one that unravelled itself mischievously in Haggarty’s quietly skilful telling.” The New Statesman
“Haggarty tells his stories with enormous relish and gusto…” The Independent
“Haggarty is a commanding presence comfortable in the epic style – though one of the pleasures of the evening was the fine balance between the epic and the familiar... His language is simple to the point of starkness; not metaphorical, driven by action, strong, in harmony with the speech of his body... This listener left wishing that there had not been three halves but three whole nights of tales.” The Times (2001)
“Haggarty has that wonderful, rare gift for drawing you into a narrative from the very first word. He told his tales with such nimble description and crackling passion that you forgot to wonder about the wisdom of telling children a bunch of tales about dark magic, forbidden love and gruesome deaths… Haggarty and the Silk Road Ensemble cast a narrative spell that you didn't want to end… For sheer storytelling magic, it would be hard to beat Sunday's trip down the Silk Road. Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble tells stories with sweet, exotic strings.” The Diamondback, Maryland
|
