Vergine Gulbenkian’s journey with storytelling began 28 years ago.

Participating in the “Share your stories” workshop by Vergine Gulbenkian, the UK-based storyteller, at The British Council, I was exposed to traditional stories and how to explore different styles of storytelling through a range of exercises.

At the workshop Vergine shared how as a child, she had heard stories from her Armenian grandparents, who fled Turkey due to genocide and how to enjoy the stories which led her interest in performance to reciting poetry and then drama. Vergine focussed on communication through performance and how to develop work for different audiences.

As reported by Neeraja Murthy in The Hindu, Vergine saw a film on Mahabharata and the richness of stories made her hungry for more. Quoting her from the article “The beauty of a story is that it works on a subconscious level and that is why I can’t stand when people interpret, analyse or tell morals in it. It needs to be left open and works like magic which is why it is important especially for children.”

“When I tell a story, I respond to the audience every moment and we are co-creating because we are alive to the moment.”

Confessing that it is not easy to make a living out of storytelling Vergine is quite intrigued by the modern day business Story Tellers from India, as she feels Stories connect to one’s soul emotionally and make even the mundane look magical; they create an impression on the young minds and relax and stimulate adults.

• #StoryTelling #StoryTeller