Launching CAMPFIRES, our storytelling project

Updated 21 February 2022

We are excited to have launched our storytelling project CAMPFIRES, as part of our Once Upon A Time In Slough programme.

Created and designed by our Community Programming Board (CPB), CAMPFIRES brings together five community groups with storytellers to create fascinating fables to be told around the campfire.

These co-created stories will be shared between the groups, and then in a public performance in March 2022.

Update: The public performance is on Saturday 12 March starting at 1pm. You can book tickets on Eventbrite.

The storytellers have been paired with community groups from within Slough to discover untold and untaught stories. Through a series of three workshops, led by the storyteller, community members will explore techniques and ways of storytelling, thinking creatively about their community and its place within Slough.

Within this collaboration, the storytellers will develop their own story, inspired by the workshops and the stories they have heard. The storytellers will then perform their stories to the community groups, in their own celebratory sharing, so that they experience the joy of storytelling and the power of their stories ahead of the public performance in March.

Book public performance tickets now on Eventbrite

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Meet the community groups and their storyteller

SHOC & Bryony Reynolds

SHOC (Slough Homeless Our Concern) is a day centre that exists to provide care for the homeless in Slough and those at risk of becoming so. It is the only centre within a 20-mile radius that offers the homeless both crises care and long-term transformational help towards independence.

Bryony Reynolds is a highly reviewed performer and has worked as a professional storyteller for the Young Shakespeare Company as well as local community groups. Her theatre highlights include playing the title role of Macbeth in Bard City’s ‘Macbeth’ directed by RSC’s Owen Horsley; performing in the award-winning puppetry adaptation ‘Macbeth the Musical’ (White Bear Theatre); as well as performing in numerous Off-West End theatre shows. Alongside this, Bryony also works as a poet, puppeteer, drama facilitator and Arts Award advisor.

Młody Las/Lesna Polana & Oli Savage

Młody Las/Lesna Polana, a Polish Folklore Group based in Slough. Their classes incorporate Dancing and Singing from Various Regions of Poland, learning Dance Technique, Vocal Repertoire, Rites and Folk Tradition as well as Fun and Dancing Games. They have performed at concerts across Europe and beyond!

Oli Savage is a storyteller and theatre maker from London. His work uses space and place to create emotional stories, drawing on folk traditions and fairy tales. Currently, he is exploring the area of eco-theatre, to see how stories and storytelling can help in the fight against the climate crisis.

Chalvey Community Partnership & Winging It

The Chalvey Community Partnership (CCP) launched in February 2020, and it includes a group of community representatives who are dedicating their free time and expertise for the betterment of Chalvey. The aims and objectives of the group are to work in the interest of the community of Chalvey, focusing on key issues ranging from health and wellbeing, to housing and regeneration and community safety.

Winging It is a collective of five people – Jivan, Jude, Liz, Piers and Vishal that began in the noughties. They started as part of the West Wing Rep Company, where they developed a love of creating stories, and improvisation as well as having fun! Winging It have run weekly drop-in improv sessions as part of the Open Doors project in Central Slough, supported Slough Museums 202020 project by showcasing personal stories of Slough workers from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, devised and performed stories in verse in an online Christmas Variety Show, as well as being regular members at Slough poetry night Innerverse.

Slough Young Carers & Katy Cawkwell

Slough Young Carers run by Aik Saath – Together As One, was established in 2014 when a representative from SBC attended one of Aik Saath’s regular volunteering sessions to deliver an awareness-raising presentation. The young people there that evening, many of them young carers themselves, were inspired to do more for Slough’s young carers. Slough Young Carers has been a co-produced service, led by young carers for young carers.

Katy Cawkwell brings 25 years’ experience of devising and performing storytelling shows, and running storytelling workshops and projects, both in schools and in the wider community. She currently lives in Devon and her main connection with Slough has been through giving birth at Wexham Park Hospital over 10 years ago! She is very much looking forward to discovering more about the city and its people through the Campfires project. Katy especially loves telling stories round a fire and has been doing this with teenagers and staff with Forest School Camps for many years. More details: www.katycawkwell.co.uk

SANAS & Theophina

SANAS – St Kitts & Nevis Association Slough – is a registered charity formed in 1998. SANAS’ purpose is to provide activities to enhance the quality of life for the local community and strive to build a strong united community in and around Slough. Their aim is to support local nationals from St Kitts and Nevis, and the wider community by improving health and well-being; bringing families and communities together; developing community partnerships and managing a community cafe.

Theophina is a writer, essayist, avid lilaphile and award-winning published poet. Her main interests are centred on Black British culture with a particular focus on Black fiction, and Black women within the LGBTQ+ community.

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