Phil Okwedy

Biography

Phil Okwedy is 58 and from Pembrokeshire. Born in Cardiff of a Welsh mother and Nigerian father, he is an oral performance storyteller and myth-maker who draws deeply on his dual heritage and multiple cultures in order to find the contemporary in the traditional. He regularly performs in theatres, storytelling clubs and Festivals. His first book, Wil & the Welsh Black Cattle, is a set of Welsh folktales framed around the mythology of the ancient cattle drovers. Phil is currently touring his show, The Gods Are All Here, and is writing a memoir that takes the same material as its starting point. 

Cymru Ni | Our Wales Workshop Outline 

• Key stages: 2, 3 and 4
• Workshop delivered in: English
• Regional availability: across Wales

The Mind’s Eye and Oral Rehearsal 

During this workshop, learners will explore oral stories and techniques and then apply these to their own writing. 

Outcomes 

Learners will:

• Understand that humans beings are storytelling animals
• identify storytelling skills they already possess
• Create a storyteller’s toolkit of skills
• Understand the role and importance of visualisation to storytelling
• Understand how to recall and tell oral stories
• work effectively in groups of different sizes and take on required roles
• improvise, rehearse and perform stories and discuss language use and meaning, using eye contact, gesture, facial expression, intonation, tone, volume, mood, silence, stillness and action to add impact
• Identify and discuss emotion presence in stories
• Discuss ways in which performance elements can be adapted for written stories
• Apply learnings to a short written piece