Stroud Story Cabaret Thursday 8th December

Stroud’s Story Cabaret, Thursday 8 December

We’re ending the year with songs and stories from the Emerald Isle.   Austin Keenan and David Metcalfe will be enchanting us with stories and songs of ‘The Sons of Erin’. 

Stroud Story Circle presents its successful quarterly entertainment event.  Stroud's Story Cabaret is a storytelling and music event that features storytelling and musical talent from around the region, showcasing both familiar names and fresh talent to make a vibrant and exciting evening.  Each session is a potent mix of performances from a guest storyteller and musician and floor spots from the audience and members of Stroud Story Circle. 

Our December performance on Thursday 8 December is going to be a magical night with two fantastic performers from Herefordshire and Bath.  Herefordshire storyteller Austin Keenan will be telling a tale from the mists of Ireland’s legendary past, ‘The Sons of Turann’.  Bath-based folk-singer and storyteller David Metcalfe will be singing stirring songs from Ireland's troubled history of conflict, famine and faith.

Also performing ... YOU! This is event is also YOUR chance to shine. Floor spots welcomed – bring a story, song or poem – or just come to listen. Floor spots should be ten minutes or less, and the only rule is no reading is allowed!

7.30 for 8pm £6 (concessions £5).

Five Valleys Foyer Hall (British School), Gloucester Street, Stroud.

Drinks and snacks will be available at Star Anise Arts Cafe.

Bookings: Star Anise Arts Cafe 01453 840021.

Contact: Kirsty 01453 840887 info@kirstyhartsiotis.co.uk

Our featured performers:

Austin Keenan was born and brought up in Scotland but has lived the last 25 years in Herefordshire. While living in a community, he became interested in storytelling after seeing an episode of Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth. He then developed his storytelling skills by practising on the children living in the community.

When he moved away from the community in 1994 he became actively involved in local storytelling groups and has been fitting storytelling work around his occupation as a self-employed woodworker ever since.

In the past five years he has become particularly interested in early Celtic mythology.

David Metcalfe has been playing guitars and singing traditional ballads for decades. He has performed regularly in and around Bath, including the Priddy Folk Fair, the Bath Fringe Festival and the Bath Literature Festival, as well as at numerous informal events and sessions elsewhere in the South West and further afield.  He is the lead musician of Dark Tarn – watch out for their new album, Earthy Strong, coming soon.

David is a founder and regular performing member of the storytelling company Fire Springs, founded in 2000.  Fire Springs have staged the ecobardic storytelling epics Arthur’s Dream, Robin of the Wildwood, and Return to Arcadia and pioneering compilations of history, myth, and intercultural encounter, such as Voices from the Past, Vanished Voices, Tales from the Saxon Shore, Pilgrims of Love and Dark Age Deeds of the Celtic Saints.  He is a co-author of An Ecobardic Manifesto: a vision for the arts in a time of environmental crisis (2008).