A group of Paeroa women are hoping to bring history to life with the town’s first storytelling event.
The informal Sunday afternoon performance, scheduled for October 6 at 2pm, will feature around 10 storytellers, led by master of ceremonies Rino Wilkinson. Each will present a story of their choosing, speaking for seven to ten minutes.
The organisers of the event, Glenys Lewis and Sybil Woolmore, said the idea came about from their friend Patty, who heard of a storytelling festival while visiting Texas, USA.
There is no set theme for the event, although the ladies hoped participants would be interested in speaking about Paeroa and its history.
“There’s just so many interesting people in Paeroa that have got… stories about the history of Paeroa, but they’ve got stories of their lives as well,” Glenys said.
“But that’s the thing, with stories you never quite know what they are.”
The event will be casual and relaxed. Everyone is welcome, and with entry and afternoon tea costing only a gold coin, they hoped people would be open to giving the concept a try.
“We want to keep it informal, not a frightening thing where people go, ‘oh, I couldn’t get up and stand and tell a story’. We just want them to be relaxed and able to share it,” Glenys said.
Several speakers have already been secured – Sybil, a poet and author, is one of them – and the ladies said there were bound to be some interesting tales told.
“One of the speakers is a gentleman that’s done an around the globe expedition and he was on [a] support ship, back in the 1970s,” Sybil said.
“He’s got lots of different stories about feeding Mars Bars to polar bears and all sorts of things… There will be some really interesting stuff, I think.”
DETAILS: Storytelling and afternoon tea, October 6, 2pm at Paeroa Little Theatre. Gold coin entry, no booking required. Prospective speakers should contact Glenys 020 425 0244 or Sybil 027 224 7349 to register their interest.
