The Story Forge – passing the baton

Posted: January 2nd, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Blog | Tags: , | 1 Comment »

Welcome to 2017. I am groggy with the jetlag of landing back in the UK. It was an interesting New Year’s Eve, midnight rushing West to meet us as we flew East towards the sunrise.

It’s a time of change and one of these changes is that I’m handing over the running and administration of Sheffield’s The Story Forge. I’ve been hosting the club since the middle of 2009 and the time has come for the torch to be passed on. Freshly molten words will still cool in the quiet waters of the Don. Stories will still get forged. I have great, great hope for 2017 and the future of the club. Not least because Hugh Lupton is bringing Beowulf in January.

Most of the details for the club will be the same. The email address. The location. And so on. I with the new team the best of luck!


Flyer

The new flyer for The Story Forge carries the DNA of Christine Cooper’s flyer of old! Click to enlarge.

After seven and a half years, there’s a lot I’m proud of. One of those things has been bringing world class storytelling to the little upstairs room at The Fat Cat. So to sign off The Story Forge, here’s a list, as best as I can remember, of every show we’ve hosted. How many do you remember? What have I missed?

Simon Heywood – Tales of Darkest England
Tim Ralphs – The Kaleidoscope
Rachel Rose Reid – The Little Tailor
Sophie Snell – Seven Deadly Sins
Peter Findlay – A Silent World (How Anansi stole us stories)
David Hague’s – Old Jack
Kat Quatermass – Tales of Love and Loss
Dominic Kelly – The Gift
Christine Cooper – The Battle of The Trees
Ben Haggerty – The Blacksmith at The Bridge of Bones
Shonaleigh – The Tower of Bagel
Helen Stewart and Honor Giles – Love, Death and Divine Intervention
Tim Ralphs – On Our St George’s Day
Simon Heywood – Robin Hood
Nell Phoenix – Fairy Tales for Fearless Adults
Rachel Rose Reid – I’m Hans Christian Andersen
Ursula Holden Gills – There are fairies in the gutter
Richard Trouncer – Pub Gods
Raymond Greenoaken – The Music of What Happens
Jo Blake Cave – The Smiling Fox
Sarah Rundle – Gawain and the Green Knight
Clare Murphy – The King of Lies
Simon Heywood – Vortigern
Guto Dafis – Jackie Kent and The Devil’s Purse
Moni and Ivor – The Dragon Lover
Giles Abbott – Caught on the Horns
Ruthie Boycott Garnett – Here’s to the Hare
Emily Parrish-Hennessey – Loki
Cath Little – Castle Arrianhrod
Cat Gerrard – Body without Soul
Daniel Morden – Tales from the Mabinogien
Raymond Greenoaken – Alistair Begg
Nell Phoenix – The Kiss of Forgetfulness
Ana Lines – The Barbecued Husbands
Alys Torrance – Cracking the Tale Bones (Inuit stories)
Tim Ralphs – Can the Mountains Love the Sea?
Cath Edwards – Pirates!
Cath Little – The Apple Tree Woman
Amanda Smith – Choices and Regrets
Mike Payton – Bullfighting Widows and Haunted Cows
Sarah Lise Wilkinson – A Girl with No Hands
Red Phoenix – My Passport says Storyteller
Tim Ralphs – Bed of Arrows

The Story Forge featured on Sheffield Live!

Posted: July 10th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Blog | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »

Way back in October we had one of the most crowded Story Forge open floor sessions yet. In part, this was because the Off the Shelf festival was ramping up and the city was buzzing with excitement about spoken word events.

Sheffield Live sent Laurence Peacock who listened, made some recordings, interviewed me, some tellers and some listeners. He’s created this really good introduction to the club experience.

You can read more about The Story Forge here, not much has changed since that post was written all those years ago! Perhaps it’s worth saying that the club has just celebrated it’s fourth birthday and that if you come along in July you’ll hear Simon Heywood telling you the story of Vortigern along with all the usual frolics.

The Story Forge

Posted: January 10th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: | 7 Comments »
“The tongue is like a red headed match. We strike it, “Ta-Dah-Dy” on the rough roof of the mouth and with that spark we light a flame. And then? Then the lungs are bellows and these words melt in the crucible of the ear, cold-black, red-warm, white-hot and we forge dreams.”

Upcoming events and details on facebook.

A little post, all about The Story Forge!

What? The Story Forge is an open mic Storytelling club based around tales from the floor with guest spots every other month. Come along with a tale to share or just to sup good beer in fine company and listen to the glorious cascade of words. Folk tales, urban myths, riddles, the odd song and poem, it’s a verbal banquet in narrative hot sauce. When we have a guest along we ask you to throw £4 in the tin as it comes around, on open floor nights £3 a piece is plenty, or whatever you can afford.

Where? Our regular venue is upstairs in The Fat Cat, on Alma Street, Kelham Island. More about them here: http://www.thefatcat.co.uk/location/location.htm The pub is a short meander from the Shalesmoor Tram Stop, with parking in the pub car park.

When? Third Tuesday of the month! (Except for December, when things get a little mixed up.) You can get reminders by joining The Story Forge Facebook group, or by asking me to add you to the mailing list. We aim to start at 8.00pm, so turn up a little before that. Tim and David will be taking turns to MC, and we should be eager to sign you up for a spot to tell in. There may be cake. There may be cats.

Who? You, me and all our favourite people! Tales from regulars, beginners, strangers and friends. Can you dare to miss out? Check the home page for details of upcoming guest artists.