Once Upon a Time in Walton......
...there was a Festival of Storytelling...
...where amazing storytellers wove fantastic tales at Walton’s Between the Tides Festival 17-20thSeptember. Check out the online Festival Programme for all these magical events! Here are some highlights:
On Friday evening
Come to the Nose at 5.30 pm for Wise Rams’ Theatre production of Sundream. Step back to the long, hot summer of 1976 where Jackie, a straight-talking local from Jaywick, looks back on her first romance. Fifty years later, another heatwave brings an unexpected friendship with the ever-optimistic Dave…..
On Saturday
At East Coast Studios, there’s the Tiganites – interactive stories starting at 11am and repeating on the hour till 5pm. Children can dress up and join young Mildryth from the mythical Welltun-on-the-Nice, crossing the treacherous waterway of the Swire to Herewic and, on the way, come face to face with a giant!
At the Amphitheatre, from 10 am till late afternoon, expect magic, music, plenty of stories (and the odd Tendring Beast) as the East Anglian Folklore Centre stages a series of songs and storytelling events, kicking off with a family town crying competition.
At Walton Library at 11am, Katharine, an interactive pop-up event, explores Katharine of Aragon from a fresh, female perspective Grab some headphones and listen to snippets of its immersive soundtrack, the Katharine Mix. At 12pm, local historian Roger Kennell will paint us a picture of Walton as an early seaside town in My Hat, Some Sand! And at 2pm Tara Price reads her Rusty the Orange Seal followed at 2.30 by James Campbell reading his Funny Life of Sharks. Also at the library at 3pm the storytellers of tomorrow are acknowledged in the Young Writers’ Awards.
At 3pm at the Nose, you can enjoy Waspi Women, written by Rose Lawes, highlighting the fight for justice for all women born in the 1950s who are affected by changes to the State Pension age. Performed by local choir Women in Harmony led by Lisa Strong.
On Sunday
The Tiganites are at it again at East Coast Studios every hour from 10am till 5.
Throughout the day you can join many storytelling events at the Amphitheatre. The Butterfly House Puppet Show by Handmade Theatre is at 10.15 (and again at 2.45pm), followed by story and song with Gemma Garwood at 11, and folk stories from Charlie Rose of Earth and Bones at 12.30. At 1pm local legend Gerry Donlon shares his stories and Lorna Mackinnon reads her Poetry by the Sea at 3.30. At 4.30, don’t miss Catch of the Day, a story round with John Law, Gerry Donlan, John Row, Gemma Garwood and Mer Richardson. This session will be BSL interpreted.
The mesmerising John Row weaves Family tales at Bathhouse Meadows from 12.30pm. As John says:
Stories give strength and hope in the most desperate of times as well as helping us laugh at archetypical villains and monsters.