Hugh Lupton is world renowned as a storyteller and lyricist, specialising in British and Classical mythology. His interest in traditional music, in street theatre, in live poetry, and in myth, resulted in him becoming a professional storyteller in 1981. In 1985 he formed the Company of Storytellers with Ben Haggarty and Pomme Clayton with a view to taking storytelling to adult audiences. Their work was instrumental in stimulating a nation-wide revival of interest in storytelling. Hugh Lupton has also, over the last ten years, worked in collaboration with many musicians, like Helen Chadwick, Chris Wood, Rick Wilson, Liz McGowan, widening and challenging the possibilities of the form. His celebrated performances include: Praise Songs, The Iliad, The Odyssey, Metamorphoses, The Liberty Tree, Christmas Champions, On Common Ground and The Homing Stone. He has toured Africa and South America for the British Council and regularly performs in Europe and the USA. He has published several collections of folk-tales including the award winning Tales of Wisdom and Wonder.
Hugh Lupton is a Patron of Friends of Amari. http://www.hughlupton.com/
Daniel Morden is one of Britain's most popular storytellers. He has told and collected tales all over the world, from the Artic to the Pacific to the Caribbean. He is also an award winning author. His passionate performances of Greek myth with Hugh Lupton won them the Classical Association Prize in 2006 for "the most significant contribution to the public understanding of the classics".
Hugh and Daniel's work on the Greek epics (The Iliad, the Odyssey and Metamorphoses) has received wide acclaim. Their ‘Iliad' was reviewed in the Times:
"... I went to the Barbican the other day to listen to two of Britain's finest storytellers - Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden - recounting the Iliad, the tale of that great quarrel from which all western literature springs. The seats were uncomfortable... but the hours flew by. These two men had to do no more than tap into the ancient power of the spoken word to hold an entire audience in their thrall. A veil of typescript fell from my eyes. I saw Helen in all her intoxicating beauty standing amid the bloody chunks of a slaughtered stallion. I saw Achilles aglitter in gold armour before his black ranks of Myrmidons. I saw banquets and voyages, armies and oceans, battling heroes and ravening gods - all conjured out of thin air by a voice. Film is often thought to be a threat to literature. But the images that billowed and faded in that darkened auditorium were quite different from those that unspool across a screen. I could put my hands in front of my face and the pictures would not vanish. They were inside me. They belonged to me. They were part of the history of the whole of human life."
Roi Gal-Or, co-carrier of the School of Storytelling at Emerson College, UK as well as teaching storytelling at the University of Sussex in Brighton. He performs as a storyteller for various audiences and is a leader of international workshops dealing with group and personal development using stories, social games and biographical work.
Stella Kassimati is from Amari and chairs the International Association "Friends of Amari". She is a bi-lingual storyteller specializing in Folktales, Greek Myths and storytelling workshops. Stella was brought up with the myths and legends of the Greek Gods and Heroes, but it wasn't until she studied Storytelling that she realized their full power. Now her work revolves around sharing her passion with adults and children in the UK and in Greece.
Anne Crivits is a biographical counselor. She has been working with lines and labyrinths for 25 years. She sees lines as carriers and expressions of forces, when allowed to exist in themselves rather than signifying something else.
Exploration of the labyrinth is endless; and line drawing is Anne's way of guiding people through the process of finding their own way through. She will be leading the drawing and the building of the labyrinth in Amari.
Kathleen van der Weerd is a storyteller who loves many kinds of handwork and design. She likes to explore the ways in which stories can manifest in materials other than words: in cloth, clay, paper, shadow, and now in the lines and stones of the labyrinth. She will be telling most of the stories.
Together with Anne Crivits, they will be your guides through the labyrinth, each in her own way.
Michael Harvey is a leading contemporary storyteller currently on tour with Hunting the Giant's Daughter, a faithful contemporary retelling of Culhwch and Olwen (the oldest extant Arthurian epic) that has won rave reviews from theatres, literature festivals and major storytelling events. He has a broad repertoire and his work is rooted in the landscape and mythology of Wales. He has toured and led workshops extensively throughout the UK, Europe and South America.
In June and September 2011 Michael will be running a EU funded week long course for teachers in the art of storytelling in the Town of Llangollen in beautiful North Wales. Details are in the link below...
http://www.ectarc.com/european-training/storytelling_150.html
http://www.michaelharvey.org/
http://www.adversecamber.org/
Katerina Vlachou has studied English Literature in Greece at the University of Thessaloniki, Musicology in France at Paris VIII and Speech Formation in England at the Artemis School of Speech and Drama. She has been an EFL teacher for 10 years and has vast experience of teaching (and learning as she is fluent in three languages) a foreign language. She has taught Musicology at the University of Rethymno, Crete and Speech at the University of Thessaloniki. Currently, she teaches Speech at the National Theatre Drama School and at the School of Storytelling in Athens. She also tells stories in Greek, English and French.
Ross Daly is one of the world's greatest exponents of the music of the Eastern Mediterranean. Many years before what we call "World Music" appeared on the scene, certain individuals, like Ross Daly, had already understood the enormous value and vast variety of the world's various musical traditions and had dedicated their lives to their study. Today, Ross Daly continues travelling and performing in Greece and abroad whilst simultaneously directing the Musical Workshop "Labyrinth" in the village of Houdetsi on Crete.
http://www.labyrinthmusic.gr/ and http://www.rossdaly.gr/
