| WOSAS : F585 |
WOSAS/CD210/track6 R627.wav |
|
Bench, The
|
|
|
|
|
| Sound recording, story; The Bench, a dilemma story told at the second West London Storytelling Unit Clubnight, at The Last Chance Centre, Hammersmith, London, 19th May 1983 | |
|
|
|
| A story about a bench that shrinks in the cold, told by an unidentified storyteller. | |
|
|
|
| audience:- | adult; contributing storytellers |
| recording quality | |
| condition:- | fair |
| completeness:- | complete |
| duration:- | 0 hours, 4 minutes, 20 seconds |
|
|
|
| The West London Storytelling Unit Clubnights or The Storytelling Unit Clubnights were begun by Ben Haggarty, TUUP and Daisy Keable in 1982 shortly after beginning to work together as the West London Storytelling Unit (W.L.S.T.U). They took place on roughly a fortnightly basis during the atumn and winter months, in community centres in Acton, Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith. The clubnights were an opportunity for anyone to come and tell a story, or perform music on the condition that it had a toe-hold in tradition. The performance of original poetry and the reading of original writing was actively discouraged as there were plenty of other fora for 'new writing' elsewhere in London. In 2007 Ben Haggarty explained that the clubnight format was in part inspired by the College of Storytellers, but with the aim of doing something less bourgeois, for a younger audience and which was not dominated by Idries Shah's mission to promote his vision of Sufi storytelling. The clubnights also took inspiration from the anarchy of the London Musicians Collective clubnight events in Camden. The clubnights led Ben Haggarty to inaugurate the First UK International Storytelling Festival at Battersea Arts Centre in London in January 1985. After the 1985 festival a few further clubnights were run, before ending in 1986. The clubnights were superseded by the formation of the Company of Storytellers who pioneered the touring of adult evening shows throughout the UK, and by the formation of the Crick Crack Club in 1987, which focused on the programming and development of professional storytellers, their performance skills and their repertoire for adult audiences. | |
|
|
|
| storytelling:- |
storyteller male |
|
|
|
|
| White version of flyer for clubnight 2 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Blue version of flyer for clubnight 2 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Clubnight letter written my members of The West London Storytelling Unit | |
|
|
|
|
|
| Letter written to Time Out listings magazine about listing the clubnight | |
|
|
|
| Click to enlarge images | |
| administration:- |
storyteller; promoter: Ben Haggarty storyteller: Daisy Keable; Georgiana Jerstad; Georgiana Keable storyteller; musician: TUUP; Godfrey Duncan |
| storytelling:- |
Hammersmith, London, England: The Last Chance Centre
19 May 1983 storytelling club: West London Storytelling Unit Clubnight storytelling club: Clubnight 2 |
| gift from:- |
storyteller: Ben Haggarty |
email to The LCIS