Welcome to
Storytellers
In 2017, sick and tired of working alone in a cold lab, chatting it up with the equipment, I decided to take a break from my career in engineering. Teaching performing arts had always been my dream, I took a leap of faith, and so Storytellers was born! Somewhere along the way, I realised I enjoyed teaching too much to return to engineering (for more information about my career [CLICK HERE]).
In 2017, I was living in Redbridge, Greater London. I was lucky enough to have my own studio where I lived (curious about my old studio? See an old photo I dug up below!). At the time I focussed mainly on preparing students for the LAMDA exams, and to participate in the Music and Performance festivals and competitions around London. In 2019, I hosted my first ever showcase, where my students performed their favourite pieces (verse, prose or monologue).
In 2022, I took time off to attend to my health, and focus on my move to Toronto, Canada (in 2023). I harboured hopes of being able to continue teaching. LAMDA is established in the U.K.as a prestigious school of Drama, and the highest grades (6,7 and 8) are worth UCAS points which count towards university admission. I knew my teaching practices in Canada would change but I wasn't sure how at the time.
The Storytellers’ Syllabus
I have spent the past 3 years considering how I can build on my experience working with the LAMDA framework to serve the community here in Canada. I have drawn on my knowledge and experience in performance, science, engineering and mental health to provide a more holistic approach to teaching performance skills.
The syllabus I am developing challenges students to engage with and perform wide variety of works written (and translated into) English. Students develop confidence in communication and performance by building skills and learning about the world.
Every generation is ‘the first’ to experience a certain struggle. This generation will have to contend with the consequences of wide spread AI use. The Storytellers’ syllabus adapts to provide the skills future generations will need to navigate a world devastated by AI. (for more information on my stance on AI use, please see here).
My syllabus is reflective of my leftist, liberatory political views. I believe if we do not actively guide the young people in our community, other less savoury sources will fill in the gaps and lead them to prejudicial beliefs that impinge on the rights of others, the way some young people are falling down the alt-righ pipeline (Scully, 2021). I encourage students to build skills in critical thinking, analysing sources, empathy to develop both transferrable skills, and a moral framework (Fornetti & Barbosa, 2024).
If you would like to see some reviews, you can do so here at my google business store front, or here on this website. You can view some of my old student results here on my facebook page, or here on this website.
Storytellers in it’s latest iteration belongs under the umbrella group Loud Tamil Media.
References
Fornetti, M., & Barbosa, M. (2024). The association between empathy and artistic practice: a cross-sectional study with medical students. BMC Medical Education, 24(1), 1156. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-06146-y
Scully, A. (2021, October 10). The Dangerous Subtlety of the Alt-Right Pipeline. Harvard Political Review; Harvard Political Review. https://harvardpolitics.com/alt-right-pipeline/