Indie Nile on Storytelling
Storytelling is as old as humanity itself—older even than theater. Tens of thousands of years ago, stories were one of our primary ways of passing on knowledge. And even now, in a world where information is available at lightning speed, stories remain essential. We spoke to a few of the Storytellers, who answered questions about their how's, where's and why's.
Where does the power of a story lie?
The power of a story lies in its ability to make people feel something & move them emotionally. If you like back on your favorite movie, book, song or show, it's always a story that entered your heart first. A good story can have different forms as in conceptual or very clear with a strong middle/beginning/end but it always needs to be rooted in something emotionally true to the storyteller. If it moves me emotionally as a teller then it will definitely move the audience.
Does a story always have to be urgent, or can it be found in a small, simple detail?
I don't think those two things are mutually exclusive. A simple story can also be urgent but the urgency is different. The label 'urgent' is always given to pieces that are politically urgent or stories that discuss issues with very high stakes. And those are very important stories to tell but from the maker's perspective, it always has to be urgent for you. If you don't care about it, there's no point in telling it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the motivation to tell a story is always urgent.
Where do you find the stories you tell?
My stories are always about something I'm trying to make peace with internally. Something that causes me pain that I'm trying to process. Two years ago, I made a show where I played my mother because I needed to make peace with the parts of me that are my mother. Last year, I did a show where I played a drag version of Julia Roberts from Pretty Woman because I wanted to close the sexwork chapter of my life and understand why I was doing that job. This year, I'm playing a version of Britney Spears where I try to free my inner Britney, the part of myself that I've been hiding for so long. You need to come to the show to see what my inner Britney is...and maybe discover your inner Britney that has been silenced for so long.
Indie Nile performs Mental Pillness on Friday the 24th and Saturday the 25th of April.
