Storytelling is an integral part of life. An age-old art that’s all-pervasive, we are all blessed with an innate gift for storytelling at some level or the other. It is perhaps as natural an urge as breathing is! From grand tales of yore to discussions on everyday issues, the vital ingredients of a good storytelling session comprises of a group of people — like you and me. Imagination, information and enthusiasm are the hallmarks of a fine storyteller. It is a well-known fact that grandmothers are natural storytellers. Culling from their vast experience and oral traditions, they are repositories of knowledge par excellence. Teachers at pre-schools the world over fall into this bracket, as do corporates which are full of their own special stories.

When people share their stories, they make sense of innumerable experiences whilst rediscovering their identities through the narratives they tell and hear. As Walter Benjamin explains lucidly: “The storyteller takes what he tells from experience — his own or that reported by others. And he in turn makes it the experience of those who are listening to his tale.” We listen to stories to experience that special ‘moment of becoming’ when we learn something about ourselves and from the happenings in the world around us.

Doris Lessing postulates in her Nobel Prize lecture: “The storyteller is deep inside every one of us. The story-maker is always with us. Let us suppose our world is ravaged by war, by the horrors that all of us easily imagine. Let us suppose floods wash through our cities, the seas rise. But the storyteller will be there, for it is our imaginations which shape us, keep us, create us — for good and for ill.

“It is our stories that will recreate us, when we are torn, hurt, even destroyed. It is the storyteller, the dream-maker, the myth-maker, that is our phoenix, which represents us at our best, and at our most creative.” Storytelling is a powerful tool, in that, it has a propensity to enrich our lives more than any other cultural act and enables the transformation and fruition of our beliefs in identity and belonging.

Kathotsava – 2011 is the Third International storytelling festival to be organized for the first time in 5 cities and over 4 states of India. While the first two festivals Kathotsava ’05 for which it entered the Limca Book of Records and Kathotsava’06 enabled us to create an awareness of storytelling in schools; this festival will authenticate our trust in showcasing storytelling as an inherent part of communication and education.

Kathothsava – 2011 is a unique opportunity for storytellers, professionals in any area, teachers, parents, children and the general public to learn and/ or contribute their mite to the universal development of this ancient art. The festival will focus on workshops by professionals and performances by experts in the field of puppetry from Europe and India.

Massive Reach

Through our performances we hope to reach out to over 15,000 children (both rural and urban) and adults in the four centres. This apart, we intend to get about 2,000 adults onboard through our workshops.

Where

The workshops will be held at Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai. i.e. four states and five cities. Workshops will be conducted at different centres of learning — schools, community centres like Rangashankara and Bal Bhavan at Bengaluru, Museum Theatre in Chennai and several other similar centres of culture and learning in Vishakhapatnam, Mumbai and Pune.

Expected outcome

Collaboration between International Storytelling Networks
Recognition of Storytelling as an important tool for learning and language development in classroom teaching
Awareness of storytelling as a foundation for oral tradition
We aim to create an exchange between partners from Europe and India

Special thanks to 

Kathamela
10 am to 5 pm – 2,000 children and 1,000 parents

Where all artists, storytellers from India and abroad will perform.
Performances on storytelling and puppetry at regular intervals.
Katha craft corner: Puppet making, masks, origami, toys and clay modelling.
Katha chat: Parents and children will share stories.
Katha shop: Story cards, kits-related to stories.

Performances
Performances for 3,000 children from 50 schools
Performances by Professional Storytellers, Puppeteers, theatre personalities - Indian and European tellers

Workshops
For teachers, parents, theatre personalities by Indian and European storytellers.

Others
Bringing together other local artists and artisans in the field of storytelling.

Program in Pune

Kathamela

10 am to 5 pm – 2,000 children and 1, 000 parents

Where all artists, storytellers from India and abroad will perform.
Performances on storytelling and puppetry at regular intervals.
Katha craft corner: Puppet making, masks, origami, toys and clay modelling.
Katha chat: Parents and children will share stories.
Katha shop: Story cards, kits-related to stories.

Performances:
Performances for 1,500 children from 30 schools at an auditorium in Pune.

Workshops
For teachers, parents, theatre personalities by Indian and European storytellers.Others
Bringing together other local artists and artisans in the field of storytelling.

Seventeen lakhs only

Festival itinery

Hall hospitality and airfare at chennai and vishakpatnam is being sponsored by nalanday way foundation, chennai and launch pad in vishakpatnam

Mirella Forsberg Ahlcrona is a versatile person. She holds a PhD. and is a lecturer in pedagogy at the Department of education, communication and learning, Sweden.
Her areas of interest as a researcher include Hand doll gear and medierande form, aesthetic processer and interests in the area of child Pedagogy ,language and mathematics in school.
As for her interests in the field of teaching, Mirella loves to delve into the world of children's learning and development, children's language development-communication, creativity and imagination, socio-cultural perspective and activity theory.

Buratino – Puppet theatre

With able assistance, encouragement and insight from my wife we launched the theatre group Buratino in Sweden 24 years ago. Born in Russia and with a never-say-die spirit she took on the mantle of theatre director (regissör) all those years ago.
Unlike the usual small-sized puppets that one sees often, our dolls are rather big, up to a meter in height.  His daughter also has been assisting him for a number of years and is well trained in manipulating the string puppets.

He also does magic and little games while he demonstrates the puppets ..

An exciting story we will be performing is titled, ‘Who says Meow It is about a dog who meets different animals in his quest to discover which of the animals makes the Meow sound. Another story we will present is called, ‘MiniCircus’. It is a fun-filled journey that incorporates magic tricks, a clown and lots of dolls!

Geeta Ramanujam is an internationally renowned story educator, storyteller, academician, administrator and Executive director of Kathalaya Trust — a non-profit organisation that aims to establish Storytelling as an effective Educational and Cultural tool in all spheres of Education.
Geeta has 25 years of vast and varied experience as a teacher and co-ordinator in schools. And it was during these fertile years in her career that she began to weave stories that enraptured children.

Thus in 1998, through her vision and wisdom Kathalaya — The House of Stories was born. From modest beginnings, this phenomenal effort has touched the lives of over a million children since its inception.

In 2006, Geeta set up an Academy for Storytelling that offered week-long certificate courses in Storytelling. A mind-boggling 50,000 people have been directly trained by Geeta through these storytelling workshops and training sessions.
Geeta has travelled widely telling her stories to children and adults alike across the world. She holds the enviable distinction of having participated and interacted with storytellers at seminars, conferences and Story festivals in Singapore, Poland, South Africa, Germany, Western Sweden, Scotland, Cambridge, Japan, USA,Switzerland and Brazil - on all aspects of Storytelling.
Geeta has been honoured with an Ashoka fellowship in USA for her extraordinary foresight in recognizing the possibilities for integrating Storytelling with school curricula. She has also been invited to the Advisory Board of many schools and is the Indian representative of the International Storytelling Network of the World.

Thus it is only befitting that Geeta has been hailed by admirers as India’s cultural ambassador.

To whomsoever it may concern and would want to associate with Kathalaya

name as mentioned below in all our publicity materials. We are also making arrangements for our programs to have large scale announcements through Media radio and publicity.

The total cost to sponsor this event will come to around INR 17,00,000 –( seventeen lakhs only)) and we would really appreciate your whole hearted  support  for this mega event. We hope you will extend your support anyways through  a contribution for this event.

Kindly  fill the sponsor sheet attached with this letter, as soon as possible to enable us to raise funds sufficiently ahead of the festival..

We really appreciate you for considering this proposal.

You could contact us  on kathalaya@gmail.com  to know more about the event or our organization.

Respectfully,
Geeta Ramanujam

Executive Director
Kathalaya Trust
98452007073