Jacqueline Harris
Storywheel
Image: Marjan Wouda
Hello and thank you for coming by.
“Everything starts with a story”
-Joseph Campbell
I’m a writer, theatre maker, storyteller, teacher and trainer, making work that both tells stories and explores how and why we tell them, whether as myth, new fiction or real-life stories, and how these narratives shape our lives.
I often collaborate with other artists to experiment with new ways of doing this though performance, books, and the “Storywheel” workshops and retreats, creating space for groups to come and explore how story and life ‘talk’ to each other through creative expression.
One of my most recent collaborations was during the covid lockdowns, and was made possible through our very successful Kickstarter campaign: A book, created with the Dutch sculptor/artist, Marjan Wouda called “The White Dobbie: Story and Landscape”. It revisits an old Cumbrian folktale and the people and places that define it. The idea developed from a performance piece that we created called “In Skriker’s Footsteps”. It’s the first in what will be a series of books in an innovative series about folklore and landscape rooted in the north west of England, reimagined and explored through contemporary art and original writing.
The banner above is a section of one of Marjan’s images from the book.
For more info and sample pages click here:
Collaborations
Collaborations with visual artists, musicians, composers, film makers and actors have led to multi-media performance work, film and exhibitions. These have explored folktales, contemporary narratives and real life stories from Lancashire, Cumbria and the Isle of Arran, where I lived for four years.
Storywheel Workshops and Courses
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive”
- Joseph Campbell, mythographer
Storywheel workshops and courses are experiential and work with myth and folktale through storytelling and drama to explore how story and life dance together to create our perception of life moment to moment, opening up creative possibilities and new thinking that are there for us when we see how we do this.
As human beings we use stories to navigate our lives. This work is grounded in anthropological research about how and why we tell stories, over thirty years of working with story in the arts, education and heritage sectors, and an understanding of the relationship between story and life that asks how the stories we tell impact our lives, and what lies beneath.
Some courses are run live and others online.
