Vita

I am a storyteller interested in our times, changes in society, human rights and equality - in everyday life, art and politics. Community has always been a utopia for me, rarely found. I keep looking and creating spaces where we can negotiate reality.

In the squatted house on the Schönhauser Allee, where I was lucky enough to live in the early 1990s, people fought like cats and dogs in the plena. They were fighting to be heard, they had different ideas of what a community should look like. There was outside pressure, everything had collapsed - and there was a small window of chance. Neo Nazis were roaming the streets, and there were hardly any police around - and it was not clear on whose side those may have been on. There was so much potential. It was upheaval. And thrilling. And disturbing. Social theatre. And there was the Volksbühne - chronicalling it all. Bloody brilliant.

In Glasgow, where I grew up, just about anyone will share a story with you, if you are willing to listen. Probably its like that anywhere. Storytelling as a way to make connections and negotiate our world. Stories are a more interesting way of communicating information than facts and they stay longer in our memories. Those are everyday magical moments that we all experience where life meets theatre.

Storytelling is part of theatre and theatre is a way of expressing our feelings, joy, anger, frustrating - and negotiating reality - questioning, critising, making fun of and reinventing society.

My shows have always been that - a mix of myths, politics, at the time of the referendum, my show on Scotland was about independence. Later it was as much about Brexit as the corruption of the heads of the Scottish National party. And the damage done by Nicola Sturgeons husband by embezzling 600 thousand pounds of money donated by the people of Scotland to

Who are the original storytellers of Scotland? The Travellers or nomads. That tells us a lot about the Scottish attitude to anti-elitism.
There is a lot of jostling about who knows them. So there is hierarchy in Scottish storytelling, just like everywhere. I think - tell stories of your own experiences. Do not wait till you are given permission. Your time is now.

I have spent years creating a stage for other people to tell their stories. In the countryside of Laos for five years. In 16 cities of Germany. I like it. But I also like to have a voice myself. We all deserve to have our stories heard. Every last one of us. This is our time.

I started a small company, to make it easier to create such spaces. The Storytelling Arena, began as a storytelling stage in 2015 and a limited company in 2019. We do not have any core funding. So project for project, I create a space with all the administration work that entails to create a dialogue on the issues of our time through storytelling.

QUALIFICATIONS

Diploma in Acting Directing

Theory & Practice,  Cultural Sociology, The Academy for the Dramatic Arts Ernst Busch, Berlin

MA Degree in German

German language and literature. Subsiduary Subjects - French and Business Studies, University of Edinburgh, Scotland (MA, Hons; 2:1)

Certifications

  • Psychodrama Instructor - Psychodrama Forum Berlin (2015)

  • Trainer of Trainers, TOT, IHK Berlin, AEVO tested and certified (2015)

  • Trainer of Trainers Intercultural Knowledge (IKAP Thailand / SE Asia, 2007)

Further Training

  • Forum Theatre (Partizipatory, Thematic), Centro do Teatro Oprimido,
    Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (2001), Artistic Director:  Augusto Boal

  • Giant & Multi-Sized Puppet Theatre on Global Themes
    Bread & Puppet Theatre, Glover, Vermont, United States
    Artistic Director, Peter Schumann (Germany), 2001 and 2019