Rosie Mapplebeck: Storyteller

Rosie: Teller of Stories, Weaver of Dreams

“She creates great beauty in her stories and her warmth and humour are evident”
“Rosie has great musicality, understanding of story wisdom and confidence. She is a fine storyteller with a particularly strong relationship to the environment, nature and animals”
Clare Coburn, Australia

Rosie tells her own and traditional stories to all ages. She has a special fondness for the tales from the Scottish Travelling people and old ballads, which she also sings. Many of her stories are from her own experience of living among animals and birds and of magic. Her favourite tales are those where the characters make good through adversity.

She also writes poetry and short stories.

"I'll have you know that I am NOT a pigeon, but a beautiful peahen! I live with Rosie."

Rosie lives in a characterful cottage in Ayrshire, (a lush verdant region of Southwest Scotland) in a wooded wildlife garden she co-created. She has a holistic boarding cattery and is a complementary therapist, specialising in distant healing and healing for animals. She is training to be a Forest School leader. Bees, ducks and rescue hens, cats and dogs (and the occasional pigeon) live happily together under her loving care.

She is an accredited storyteller within the Scottish Storytelling Network, has enhanced disclosure, and is insured with Equity for public liability. She is listed as a storyteller and writer for event funding by the Live Literature Trust (Scottish Book Trust).

Rosie tells all over Scotland and the UK, from Skye to Barra, from Aberdeen to Galloway. She is also a regular teller at the Better Crack Club in Glasgow and hosts events at Su Casa in Ayr.

Public Storytelling Events in 2011 and 2012

1st Saturday of the month: Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, Alloway, Ayr, 12.30 and 2.30 pm, www.burnsmuseum.org.uk. Free with entry, (meet at reception)(stopped for winter, restarts March 2012)

July 9th: Poetry picnic at Robert Burns Birthplace Museum

July 20th: Straiton McCandlish hall, family story session 1-4pm

July 26th: Scottish Storytelling Centre, teller of the day, 11-5

October 28th: National Tell a story day: Burns Cottage, 11-5pm

October 29th: Burns Cottage, time for spooky tales 11-5pm

December 10th and 17th: Ayr town centre, 1-3pm for Ayr Renaissance

The Art of the Bard

Storytelling and ballad singing are among the most ancient of human traditions. Stories may be used to deliver messages, to teach lifeskills and to reflect the emotional developmental journey. In days before widespread literacy, the ability to weave tales and remember details was highly valued. The oral tradition has been (and in areas of conflict still is) used to relate news, history and politics and help unify society.

There are many layers to storytelling. A true skill will bring the tale straight from heart to heart as well as eye to eye and mind to mind.

Stories are a neutral place where the listener can, safely and with support, explore issues, values, traumas and trials. They allow humour and emotion to lift our learning out of the mundane.

Many ancient tales persist because they engage with universal human stories.

As stories are rarely 'fixed' they can be tailored to the individuals listening; going beyond entertainment into personalised teachings. Less performance, more delivery of truths.

“Rosie is a very generous storyteller who fully gifts her stories to her audience- she never ‘holds’ on to it for herself. She connects with her audience with authenticity and humour and brings a deep awareness of the inner life of the story.”
Joanna Parsons, Emerson College 2009

Uses of Storytelling

Participation in storytelling develops listening and engagement skills so necessary in today's fast-moving but non-reflective society:

It encourages full communication skills in our increasingly oral culture. (e.g. in schools, businesses).
It can encourage community or working groups to find a common place to work from and to bond.
It can be used in reminiscence and trauma work, using the teller as mediator to encourage recall, form and self-expression.
It can be used with the young to enrich the learning experience.

Storytelling develops listening skills; no listeners, no point in the telling: no listening, no story to tell.

“The best compliment-was 2 little boys-they were sitting at the front-when you said about the toy huntsmen they (twanged) their bows at each other. They wanted those toys, they were real to them”

Maria Papadogianni, Emerson College, 12.09

Watch Rosie on YouTube

“I don’t want to go; I want to hear more stories”
P2/3 Sunnybank Primary, Aberdeen

View Rosie at Emerson College in Forest Row, East Sussex, at the final performance of the three-month Now of Storytelling course, September-December 2009.