Storytelling shared experience, brings people close: Emily Parrish

When asked why there seems to be a revival in the story-telling scene, she says, “I think it is because we are so surrounded by a world full of technology, where we get our story fixes from the social media and the Internet. I think we are realising that in all this we are missing out on something really important; we are missing the experience of coming together, being in the same literal space as opposed to a virtual space, together with other people and sharing a live experience.”

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After her masters, Parrish worked as an apprentice with Naidu and then trained in the Pandavani tradition of story telling in Chattisgarh. The physicality of her performances she learnt from Indian myths.

From Hugh Langston, another story teller who uses little movement but more words, Parrish says she has imbibed the art of improvisation.

Parrish gives images great importance in her style of story telling. Convinced that it is the story teller’s responsibility to create a world in the mind of her audience, she works to invite listeners into the world she is talking about.

While she finds it challenging to make her UK readers relate to Indian mythology, she says it her duty as a story teller to introduce her audience to the world she is talking about, by highlighting the shared universal connections between stories.

Her content focuses mainly on traditional stories, which include fairly tales, wonder tales, world mythology, epic, legend and myth.

“I love ancient stories that may have been written down at some point, but have been told for hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of years,” she adds.