International Storytelling Festival Singapore 2020
 

About

 

Presented by The Storytelling Centre Limited and The Arts House, StoryFest is an annual festival that celebrates and showcases a variety of styles, repertoire, and cultural arts presentations of storytelling from Singapore and around the world. With the theme ‘The Heart of Story’, StoryFest Online 2020 invites audiences to experience the power of stories and be inspired to build their own community as they listen to the messages at the core of stories.

The Festival features Local Commissions – the Young Storytellers Showcase, ‘A Dance of Stories’ presenting emerging storytelling talents, and The Singapore Showcase, ‘The Heart of Story’ featuring local storytellers and familiar faces from the Singapore spoken word scene. Our Family Shows promise a participatory treat for all, with plenty of singalong stories and talking animals to look forward to!

The different facets of storytelling will be presented through various Presentations by practitioners from Singapore – from exploring mandala storytelling methods, to devising your own personal narrative and discovering anthropomorphism in Literature.

This year the Festival explores the world of puppets with ‘A Puppeteer’s Journey’ – an interview celebrating a pioneer puppetry expert from Singapore. The Festival celebrates the spirit of ‘The Heart of Story’ with free online storytelling videos to inspire conversation, the sharing of spoken stories and the creation of a community that is actively engaged in oral tradition.

2019 : Make Believe 2018 : Be Legendary 2017 : Stories for Change

 

Festival Organiser

The Storytelling Centre Limited is a non-profit organisation based in Singapore. Our core mission is to foster and advance the art of storytelling through performances, collaborations, artistic exchanges, mentorships, training and community outreach.

The Storytelling Centre Limited firmly believes that stories are storehouses of Singapore’s unique multidimensional legacy. The oral traditions of folktales, mythology, legends and fables are avenues for preserving, showcasing and developing Singapore’s rich and diverse heritage. Our focus is on ensuring the sustainability of the art form by nurturing emerging Young Storytellers.

Flagship programmes:

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Festival Team

Kamini Ramachandran

Creative Producer

A pioneer in the field of storytelling in Asia, Kamini is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts with a Bachelor’s degree in English Language & Literature (Hons) from the University of Reading (UK) and a Master’s degree in Arts Pedagogy & Practice from Goldsmith’s, University of London (UK).

A respected artist educator Kamini is a specialist storytelling lecturer for tertiary level programmes. She founded the non-profit organisation The Storytelling Centre Limited to advance the art of storytelling. She is passionate about the nurturing of emerging artists and established the Young Storytellers Mentorship Programme.

She is the creative force behind MoonShadow Stories, which spearheaded performance storytelling for adult audiences in Singapore and has produced World Storytelling Day in Singapore since 2005.

She has been featured twice at the Scottish International Storytelling Festival, Federation of European Storytelling Conference, Festivale Internazionale di Storytelling Roma in Italy, Festival at the Edge in England, Alden Biesen International Storytelling Festival in Belgium, Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival in Wales, Sharjah International Storytelling Festival UAE, Hans Christian Andersen International Storytelling Festival in Denmark, Sydney International Storytelling Conference, Chennai International Storytelling Festival, Georgetown Festival in Penang and more.

Kamini was commissioned by the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) to produce a site-specific storytelling experience, The Hidden, as part of the Monuments Series. Described as “Singapore’s most mesmerising storyteller” by Professor Tommy Koh at the International Summit of the Book, she is one of today’s most unique voices in storytelling.

Tabitha Surita

Festival Manager

Tabitha graduated with Distinction from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts majoring in Arts Management. Currently the assistant manager at The Storytelling Centre Limited, she manages artist coordination, programme scheduling, financial accounts and administrative work of the company. She has many years’ experience in office management for media and construction companies. She interned at The National Gallery of Singapore’s events management team, and assisted in The Children’s Biennale 2017 and the Yayoi Kusama exhibition.

 

Donna Lee

Production Manager

Graduating from LASALLE College of the Arts with a degree in Arts Management, Donna has since worked in concerts, events and sporting sector. In her final year, she obtained a place in the highly competitive internship program at Running Into The Sun (RITS), a concert promoting company. Upon completion of the internship, Donna was offered a full time position that turned into a 4-year spell with RITS, working on large-scale concerts such as SM Town, Jason Mraz, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, Cesar Millan, Big Bang and many more in various high-profile venues in Singapore and in Kuala Lumpur. Taking on roles such as producer, front-of-house manager, artiste liaison, ticketing and sponsorship management, Donna has a diverse portfolio in managing, planning and executing projects efficiently.  Since 2015 she is a freelance producer and has dabbled in many more events in the music, sports and event industry. 

 

Nur Diyanah Said

Production Coordinator

Diyanah is a graduate of the Bachelor of Arts Management (Hons) programme at LASALLE. She has been actively involved in various festivals such as Poetry Festival Singapore and the Singapore International Festival of Music. She has worked on the Singapore run of Ramesh Meyappan’s Off Kilter and produced works like Bhumi’s Charlie and Every Brilliant Thing. She is currently the Company Manager for Bhumi Collective.

 

Sarah Amalina

Marketing Assistant

Sarah is a graduate of the BA Arts Management course in LASALLE and is currently the production coordinator at The Storytelling Centre Limited.  She has a breadth of experience in artist management and festival management, which include events such as the Singapore International Festival of the Arts, the Singapore International Film Festival and TEXTURES. She dabbles in stage management and has worked with Spacebar Theatre as a stage manager for two productions: thisisemeraldgirl and The Utama Spaceship, which was part of M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2020.

 

Media Centre

Media Release (PDF)

For more information, please contact:

Tabitha Surita
Festival Manager

The Storytelling Centre Limited
E: [email protected]