No. 1 
Sandra had a difficult story to tell her audiences (people of all ages involved in child protection or interested in Sandra’s past) about paedophilia and her own childhood. She has spent all her adult life working in child protection, has written a book about the disappearance of one little girl and her life as the daughter of a paedophile. The material the performance was based on whilst controversial was well researched. 

Sandra had a very definite idea as to the story she wanted to tell (content) and what she wanted her audience to understand about paedophilia. Many hours were spent extracting the important messages from Sandra’s book she wanted included in a performance, the storying process, each being performed over and over again until Sandra was happy with what the audience would hear and see. Each audience being very different on each platform Sandra would be telling her story.  It was therefore important when storying Sandra’s material to ensure this relational flexibility was factored into the performance. 

In storying Sandra’s book as a performance we created for Sandra a way of delivering a powerful tale (living with a paedophile) she could tell with confidence; an incredibly difficult piece of material the audience responds positively to every time.   


No. 2 
Malcolm wanted support with a speech he had been asked to make about living on a council estate in Northern England. His session was entitled ‘participation and engagement as a resident living in a council house’ and he was keen to make parallels with other experiences in his life.

Malcolm had previously written his account about being a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II. He was one of 4 children from blind parents who found himself as a young soldier captured and held prisoner only a few months after joining up at the age of 17.

Malcolm spent 5 years living in a close community with other men he had little in common with as a prisoner and 60 years living in a council flat on an estate with other council tenants.

Working together we began with Malcolm’s story of his experience as a young soldier captured and interred by the German army. This was the story Malcolm was comfortable telling. With each session we discussed aspects of the story, performing each part until it was clear precisely what Malcolm wanted his audience to understand, finally translating his tale of war into a story about community engagement and participation.

In storying Malcolm’s experience as a young prisoner of war we took a simple tale of survival and turned it into a powerful message about living together Malcolm is proud to tell.  When our work was finished and Malcolm’s performance applauded he said to me, ‘I don’t know how you got that out of my story’.