Fun fairytales and tall stories created by the imaginative care home residents are going to be turned into a book.
Pendine Park storytelling workshop with Jacqui Blore from WSO on the theme of Wales in Spring ; Pictured Story Teller Jacqui Blore with residents Noel Hughes, Tracey Wilde, David Thomas, Stephen Howard, Llillian Moulton and Stephen Gregory with Artist in residence at Pendine Sarah Edwards and Nicky Clarke, Pendine. Picture Mandy Jones
The highly original plot-lines are the result of creative arts workshops held at the Pendine Park care organisations in Wrexham
The amateur writers say they have had lots of fun taking part in the workshops led by professional storyteller and musician Jacqui Blore.
They started with a pilot session about 18 months ago which proved such a hit with residents that it was decided to continue the project long term.
Jacqui, of Wrexham, runs her own business, Piccolos Music and The Story Teller.
For the Pendine Park project she first holds an interactive talking session at the care home where she encourages residents to come up with ideas for different characters, events, plots and sub-plots. Once they agree on an outline for a story from beginning to end Jacqui takes on the task of writing up their ideas in traditional fairytale format. Then she returns to Pendine to read out the finished story to its talented creators.
Three stories are now complete and a further two are in the pipeline.
At the latest workshop Jacqui told the delighted participants that once all the stories were completed it had been decided to collate them together into a book.
The resulting anthology will be kept at Pendine Park for residents to enjoy time and again.
Pendine Park Artist in Residence Sarah Edwards who commissioned the storytelling project said it had been a huge success, greeted with boundless enthusiasm by participants of varying ages.
She added that there were also hopes to get enough of the books printed to provide a copy to each of the residents who took part.
She said all the stories were full of fun, intriguing twists and turns, and fantastical adventures.
Sarah said: “It’s been wonderful watching our inhabitants get involved in this project. They’ve really interacted well with Jacqui and come up with some brilliant ideas for how the stories develop.”
At the latest session Jacqui read out the newest fairytale invented by the care home residents, interspersing her narration with music and song.
It was a tale about a young Welshman, choir singer Bryn, who meets the love of his life, trapeze artist Myfanwy, in Blaenau Ffestiniog. In what develops into an exciting saga of comedy, romance and drama, they acquire a fire-breathing pet dragon, Dewi, fly to New York, marry and win the lottery. It also includes a villain in the shape of circus owner Dai.
Jacqui who plays French horn with Wrexham Symphony Orchestra, was accompanied by pianist Christopher Enston who provided background music to help bring the story alive.
Pendine Park residents Christine Jones, Tony Ithell and Mike Blakeley were among those who helped develop the storyline.
Tony said: “Jacqui is brilliant. We’ve got to know her as a friend and she’s so good at encouraging us to invent interesting characters and unusual journeys for them to go on. She’s the best.”
Christine added: “I’ve loved being a part of the story telling project. I had forgotten some of the ideas that we came up with but when Jacqui read it out to us they all came back to me and I remembered exactly how we all contributed to it. It will be great to see our very own stories made into a book.”
Mike said he was thrilled to hear the completed version of the Myfanwy and Bryn tale and happy that they will soon have a permanent copy of the story in book form.
Fellow residents David Thomas, Stephen Howard and Noel Hughes also praised Jacqui for her exciting narration of the story and they all enjoyed a musical singalong, led by Jacqui and Chris, at the end of the day’s event.
