Storybox

Sunday November 27, 2011

A community storytelling project by Wide Eyed Theatre inspired by the principles of geocaching

East Kent based storytellers and celebratory artists Wide Eyed Theatre have launched a new story-swapping project in Canterbury City Centre which is running until the 17th of December.

Storybox, which is supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council England, aims to "engage children (and adults) in the story making process by engaging them in a treasure hunt and a treasure swap, culminating in a story made from all the swapped objects."

Clues have been distributed around the city centre. The clues lead treasure-hunters visitors to boxes where they're encouraged to swap something from their pockets for an item in the box - using the same principle as GPS-based "geocaching" games.

Each clue-finder logs what they have swapped, leaving a record of items exchanged. Wide Eyed Theatre's Bureau of Stories will then turn the items into a story which is shown for free 16th and 17th December at The Marlowe Studio.

A sustainable product of Storybox will be a 30page education pack, sent out to schools and teachers working with key stage 3 pupils in order to support literacy, numeracy and creativity through the ancient art of storytelling.

Wide Eyed Theatre’s Director: Vicki Oliver says “The story box was born out of a love for creating stories from found objects. It uses creativity and imagination, alongside investigation to find the story in an object. The project works with Wide Eyed Theatre's love for inspiring the storyteller in everyone. It teaches and demonstrates the way in which stories can be made, and how anyone has the ability to do this. The Storybox is a charming, unique and funny tale of two characters, Chester and Sheila. They begin their own adventure creating stories for the Bureau of Stories until one day they come across a problem that may put an end to stories as we know it.” 

For more information please visit www.wide-eyed-theatre.co.uk or www.facebook.com/pages/Storybox/286621058015375