Reviews and comment from the Demon Crew - creative writers at De Montfort University, Leicester.

Thursday 7 March 2019

From silliness to success - with Funmi Adewole

When you hear "Storytelling Workshop", what is the first thing that comes to mind? For me, it was sitting down and taking notes on how to write or tell a story, but Funmi Adewole managed to teach her workshop with a twist: it was dynamic, interactive and fun. 

Funmi began by having everyone introduce themselves, breaking the ice, which really set us up for success for what was about to come. After telling us a story and discussing the different ways we could embellish it, she got us moving

We walked through the room, mostly laughing at how silly we felt, but everyone was having a great time. After that, we stood in a circle and sillier things followed, making us more and more comfortable. 

She built us up to the moment where we were split into groups and were supposed to plan and, embellishing, retell segments of the story we had heard earlier. After rehearsing, every group has its own little show and I cannot put into words how much fun and how interesting it was to watch the ways people worked the segments out. 

Proud of their success, everyone applauded, smiled and then watched Funmi retell her story, embellishing this time. As she spoke, she made us believe in the fictional world and carried us straight into it. 

If you ever have the chance to attend one of Funmi's workshops, you shouldn't miss it. It's a different experience and words can't do it justice. 99% of the people there weren't performers, but you could tell that 100% had a great time. 

P.S. We finished the workshop by doing 'the strange animal's dance' and you would have needed to be there to understand what I mean by that. 


Valentina Verba

No comments:

Post a Comment