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My Love Affair with Stories...
Perhaps it was my father's influence that I began practising the art of storytelling. Perhaps it was a natural progression from all the solo theatrical performances that I had been doing previously. I attended a storytelling course organised by Asian Storytelling Network and the National Book Development Council of Singapore in 2003 and have never looked back since.
To make my stories come alive, I use all of my vocal and physical theatre training. I choose my stories carefully, adapting folktales with strong characters or creating original tales with a twist. Where possible, I invest my quirky brand of humour, especially in my stories for adults, to titillate and tantalise... For my full storytelling resume, please visit: http://www.moonshadowstories.org/VT-Storytelling%20Resume-3%20Jan%202009.pdf. Some Reviews “Verena Tay started the evening off with a story about The Little-Man-With-Hair-All-Over. Describing the exciting adventures of this little man (he fought ugly monsters, rescued four damsels in distress and married them), this story proved that size and appearance are not as significant as true courage and determination, which always triumph in the end. Tay was an amusing storyteller, aware of some men's preoccupation with "size" and making use of this to tickle the audience by adjusting her pants to give an impression of a "big" man. The ease with which she changed her voice, deepening it or making it high-pitched to suit the character she was playing was commendable and one could imagine each character's appearance and mannerisms just from her descriptions.”
~ Nadia
Binte Ibrahim, ‘Once Upon a Time…’, Review of The Male Instinct,
“Verena’s retelling of The Gravedigger and her eerie singing whisper, “Di mana hatiku? (Where is my heart?)”, by a corpse whose body parts are stolen, still lingered in my ears long after the session was over. Such was the potency of the tales that night which teased and tantalised the sense and made them dance to the tune of each beautiful tale recited by a compelling storyteller.”
~ Chand,
‘Spooks up their Sleeves. Supernatural Weaves’, Review of The
Unnatural, |
I've
always loved stories, real or fiction. As a child, I would read quaint
fairy tales and novels about far away places. But I loved listening to
my mother and aunts tell family stories even more. Strangely, the only
folktale that I recall anyone ever telling me was Momotarosan. On maybe
just two or three occasions just before my bedtime, I sat next to my
father, who lay down on his resting mat in his bedroom, and
listened to him bring to life that famous Japanese tale about a boy
being born from a peach and his adventures fighting the onis with
the help of his trusted friends: the dog, the monkey and the bird.
In
addition, I have been telling stories in my own right
and through ASN, Talespin, Storytelling Association (Singapore), the
Storytelling Circle and other groups. I have also conducted
storytelling-related workshops during the annual Asian Congress of
Storytellers (2005 & 2006) and with various community groups. During
the fall of 2007, I had the pleasure of telling stories for the first
time beyond Singapore, thrilling both children and adults in upstate New
York and New Orleans.