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Contact Sophie:

Tel: 01332 840007 email:robandsophie@hotmail.com

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Apr 10

Jan 10

Aug 09

Midnight live link to Alabama, USA
for the Holmesville Storytelling and Bluegrass Festival, May 2010

Review of Seven Deadly Sins,
July 2010:

"It is always a good sign when an hour speeds by, and storyteller Sophie Snell had the audience gripped from the outset... Snell has a way with words and is a very expressive performer who really knows how to tell a story and paint pictures in your head. Without spoiling the plot, I can tell you that certain images are indelibly printed on my consciousness...

"Viscerally thrilling as the show is... it is also intellectually satisfying with a near perfect overall structure and a neat twist at the end. Recommended."

Stephanie Billen, Chair, Buxton Festival Fringe

"Entertaining, intriguing ... with chilling and moving tales of the confessional, ending with an original and unexpected twist. Riveting stuff!"

Audience member, Buxton Fringe

Burghley House, "Festival of Surprises"
August 2010




It's the Hairy Toe!
Scary creations made by Emma Parkins from the Crafty Tales workshop,
Whitworth Centre,June 2010




...and here is the monster himself - spot the missing toe?

This is my page of news and titbits to keep you in touch with what I am up to. It is really helpful to have any comments and suggestions on the work that I do and of course I welcome any enquiries or commissions. So please email me at: robandsophie@hotmail.com or Tel 01332 840007.

Sept 2010

I can't believe how fast the last few months have flown by! And already it is almost the end of the school holidays... So what have been the highlights?

In May, I made a return visit to Heanor Festival. There was a morning with the kids at Heanor Library and then a new event for the festival - an evening of adult storytelling with myself and Sheffield storyteller Tim Ralphs. I always love it when you tell to an audience new to storytelling and can see the change in their faces. From not quite sure what to expect... to absorbed listening!

Another return visit took me to Ashby Arts Festival for an event organised by the Folk on the Farm Team - "Sleet, Shoots & Leaves" - a mult-art form evening of music, drama, photography, poetry and storytelling. The first half saw the presentation of a project dramatising a deliciously gothic Ashby folk tale, "Johanne of the Long Hair", written by local writers, Sue Kendrick and Lois Crofton. The second half followed with music from Calling Time interwoven with storytelling from myself. It was fun to tell some stories with music as part of them for the first time and it went down very well.

After the show, we all gathered at one of the band's house for pizza and after sharing some spooky stories, I left in the early hours emerging to a misty country lane to find my car and suddenly this huge head loomed out of the hedge at me groaning... I must have jumped a full foot till I realised it was a horse poking its head out of the field at me!

An even stranger experience came when I was invited to take part in an Alabama storytelling festival via a live Skype audio / visual link - the Holme Street Storytelling & Bluegrass Festival, Huntsville Alabama, USA.

There I was at midnight sat in front of my pc telling a story to camera, watched by an audience of several hundred sat in a hall Stateside. I could just about make them out on a tiny pop up screen on my pc. Telling without a live audience in front of me was bad enough, but there was a 6 second delay on sound and double delay on visuals... I would say something I hoped was funny and carry on with the story, hoping that 12 seconds later I would see them laugh (or not!). Quite disconcerting! But I have a few new friends in Alabama now, so that was nice!

There was a back to back link with local websites enabling the whole thing to be broadcast live across the US - with apparently thousands watching. Is this the future of international storytelling?

Other jobs included:

- Crafty Tales, a joint workshop with community artist Emma Parkins, at the Whitworth Centre, Darley Dale in June. Emma created a most gruesomely life-like model to go with my Hairy Toe story;

- Stamford festival, storytelling sandwiched between drumming workshops, fairground attractions and heavy metal... we coped thanks to a very friendly technical chap with speakers and a nifty microphone head set;

- Burghley House, "Festival of Surprises". A beautiful and very grand setting. I loved the dizzying painted ceilings of Heaven and Hell;

- more work at the Nottingham Libraries as they launched their summer reading challenge;

- and a charming family storywalk in the woods at Bestwood Country Park, sharing forest set stories of mythical happenings.

I had loads of schools work this term - Derby, Nottingham, in and around the East Midlands and further afield down to Birmingham and Oxford and North to Manchester, even down to London. I'll travel most places! During the summer term I was retained by one of the Derby schools for a Creative Partnerships project courtesy of The Mighty Creatives. This scheme marries up artists with schools for longer term projects to develop creativity in the classroom.

I was working with the Year 1's - a lovely, eager bunch of kids with whom we developed a writing and storytelling project based on a Quest through Wales. As the weeks progressed, we had some amazing storylines - mischievous squirrels throwing magical nuts down at the hero, gigantic spiderwebs strung between mountains and a taxi that turned into a robot lumbering towards the castle... But the best one for me was the rolling pin that trundled through a forest crushing trees and conveniently chasing away a grumpy bear. It was so lovely to get to know the children and watch their confidence in writing grow over the weeks, along with the complexity and imagination of their storybuilding.

I have had some interesting projects these last few months - the last one being helping a PR agency, working for the Cadbury Buttons brand, plan and carry out some research on the nation's storytelling habits (as in the sharing of stories between parents and children). It turned out that of the top 10 storytelling places in the UK, Wales accounted for 3 of them! (Wrexham no 1, Cardiff no 5 and Aberystwyth no 7.) This culminated in a day of radio work talking about the research. 14 radio interviews back to back, and an impromptu staff storytelling session in the agency's reception area in the afternoon - the guys in the glass conference room next door must have wondered what on earth was going on... It was such a fun day though!

But the real highlight has been my visit to Buxton Festival. I took my show "Seven Deadly Sins" to the Fringe - with 3 dates at The Pauper's Pit courtesy of Underground Venues. I really didn't know what to expect but the response was tremendous! As the audiences grew each date, I found out I had been nominated for two Fringe Awards - under "Spoken Word" and "New Writing", and the show recommended by the Fringe Chair herself:

"It is always a good sign when an hour speeds by, and storyteller Sophie Snell had the audience gripped from the outset. I was expecting some kind of plod through the seven deadly sins but instead Snell wove three disturbing British folk tales (all new to me) within a clever framing story...

"Snell has a way with words and is a very expressive performer who really knows how to tell a story and paint pictures in your head. Without spoiling the plot, I can tell you that certain images are indelibly printed on my consciousness... Viscerally thrilling as the show is... it is also intellectually satisfying with a near perfect overall structure and a neat twist at the end. Recommended."

Stephanie Billen, Chairman, Buxton Festival Fringe, July 2010

So what have I got lined up after all that?

Well "Seven Deadly Sins" has been invited to Wirksworth Festival (Sept 23rd, 8pm at the Red Lion) and to a new storytelling club being set up by the gorgeous Kevin Walker at Joule's Yard in Market Harborough (Oct 7th, 7.30pm).

I have a weekend of cave and dragon tales right at the end of the school holidays at the Heights of Abraham (4th & 5th Sept, 11am - 4pm each day) in Matlock Bath.

October is looking busy with various festivals and Halloween events - Lanterns seem to be featuring heavily in each! Chesterfield's Festival of Light, 28th - 30th Oct and back to Kedleston Hall for 30th and 31st Oct. On the evening of Oct 31st are the increasingly popular Halloween storywalks in Allestree Park. If you want to join us at Allestree, don't forget to book ahead, as it seems to get busier every year.

Then in November I have been booked for a two week tour in Ireland, visiting schools and libraries, performing and leading workshops. I am particularly looking forward to this as I have never been to Ireland before and the reputation of the storytelling "houses" there, as they call them, is quite something, so hoping to see something of the local storytelling as well as share a few of my own tales.

The lead up to Christmas is looking busy too with most of the weekends of December already booked up - back to Kedleston, Bestwood Country Park and another possible return visit yet to be confirmed... Oh and Pete Davis and I are back to our favourite "Fireside Ghost Tales" at village halls - so if you are interested in a visit to your village or pub, do give us a ring!

Our village Quarndon Live & Local events are on the go again too - this season I have been more than a little self-indulgent, choosing storytelling and music favourites. We have the wonderful Daniel Morden and the Devil's Violin Company bringing their "The Singing Bones" on Oct 23rd and on March 11th (2011) we look forward to Hugh Lupton's "Beowulf". One of my Flying Donkeys colleagues was so excited about this latter show, he announced it eagerly at one of our events back in June before we'd even had the booking confirmed!

Finally some family news. My eldest is moving on to secondary school in September - we have spent a fortune on the new uniform, but he does look very smart! And he has been treated to a new keyboard too, so the house now has 3 guitar players (bass, acoustic and electric), a keyboard player and a cajon (that's me - bit rusty!) - ooh there must be some scope there! Good luck Ben!

And finally, finally...! We have another new kitten! Sookie is a stunning little silver tabby - oh so pretty! and oh so mischievous! Those who have been following me on Facebook will know that she and Merlin, after three weeks of sparring, sorted themselves out and are now partners in crime. Merlin (about a year old now) is a monster of a cat, very muscular and a keen hunter (at least four mice or birds a day, never mind rabbits and the odd mole!) but when Sookie shoots across the extension like some kind of super-propelled cat missile, Merlin is usually the one being chased!

"Just wanted to drop you a line to say how much we appreciated your stories at the event last night.

"I thought you were good last year, but you were even better this time around!

"We had lots of lovely comments about your performance and it was great that we had a request for another tale! "

Sue Kendrik, organiser, Folk on the Farm, Leics, August 09. (www.folkonthefarm.co.uk)