Wouldn’t it be lovely to listen to a story in the middle of a pony club about horses and their babies, or at the planetarium about the sun, moon and stars? Add to that sing-along activities and a joyous ride to the destination, it is an experience that kids will never forget. That’s exactly what Priti Sudarshan is out to do with Story Voyage.
An economics post graduate and mother of 2, Priti worked with financial institutions in Mumbai before deciding that storytelling was her calling. Story Voyage is a culmination of her desire to provide her audiences with more than just a story. We spoke to Priti about her unconventional storytelling choice, and its pros and cons.
Tell us about Priti, the storyteller and your journey to becoming a storyteller.
I am an outgoing person who loves telling stories. I am creative at heart and love music, reading and traveling. The yearning to do something creative with my time prompted me to attend a theater workshop. I loved cooking up stories since I was a child, and after this workshop the two things – my love for making up stories and telling them in front of people, came together.
Tell us the story of Story Voyage
I wanted to give my audience an experience beyond plain storytelling, an experience that they would take home with them and cherish. Story Voyage was born after a long thought process, after weighing all the pros and cons of creating an on-the-move story experience.
I wanted the kids to experience and enjoy the stories, and literally live the story. SoStory Voyage tells stories on-the-move. The choice of story depends on the theme of the voyage. The travel session is accompanied by loads of sing-alongs, games, etc. Once they reach the destination they meet the characters, or experience the setting of the story. For example, if the theme is ponies, the stories will center around ponies, and they will meet a real pony. The adults are as excited to experience the story this way, as kids, and the story leaves a deep mark which can never be erased.
As a traveling storyteller what are the challenges you encountered/encounter and how did/do you overcome them?
The logistics are one of the most challenging parts. Once the place and theme for a voyage is decided, I have to coordinate with the bus provider for transport tickets, activities on-the-go to prepare for, food has to be taken care, etc. So it’s not like only preparing for the storytelling session, but the preparation for the complete journey, to ensure the audiences have a pleasant experience.
How have the stories in your life influenced your style of storytelling and the way you place stories?
Stories play a very significant role in my life, me being a mother of two. I love telling stories to my kids and they are my biggest critics. My younger one responds positively to any mention of a story, whatever his mood may be. I love telling impromptu stories, a fact which I discovered lately. Most of the times I let the audience build the story with me, so even I do not know what will happen in the end!
How different is the experience between different kinds of audiences that you work with?
I work with a age group of 3 to 10 years, which means that I invariably have an adult audience as well, as most of the kids are accompanied by a parent on the voyage. Most of the times parents tell me that this was an experience that they enjoyed the most. That gives me motivation to work harder and improve.
Any particular incident/anecdote from your sessions that you would like to share with readers?
Loads of them, but I always feel proudest when kids recognize me and my stories even after a long gap. They come up to say ‘hi’ and parents come and tell me that the voyage brought back their childhood memories.
Any suggestions to our readers and other storytellers on how they can help in keeping stories alive?
I am still learning and do not have a lot of experience as a storyteller. However, there are a lot of storytellers, all around the country, whom we hardly know or meet, but who have valuable wisdom to share. If we can bring these storytellers together at an all India level, it would offer immense scope to exchange and learn from each other.
———
To know more about Story Voyage visit their Facebook page here.
Don’t Miss: We love storytellers as much as we love storytelling. On Tell-a-Tale, we’ve featured a lot of talented storytellers, in the past.
Are you a Storyteller? If you’re a storyteller who is actively pursuing storytelling and would like to be featured in this column, drop us a mail at contact AT tell-a-tale.com or reach out to us via Facebook.