Meet The Create Team

Storytelling - Debbie Guneratne

Debbie is an International Storyteller and the Artistic Director of Create!  She founded Small Tales Storytelling Clubs which train the storytellers of the future and leads educational workshops for The Royal National Theatre.

Debbie has broadcasted for the BBC World Service and Radio 1 Ireland and one of her stories has been made into a film.

Workshop Details:

The storytelling workshop will start with name games, vocabulary and memory games.  Then the children will listen to traditional stories and discuss the issues raised by the themes within.  From there they will be introduced to visualisation techniques which will inspire them to create story characters and landscapes.  By the end of the workshop the children will have created a new story, inspired by and based on traditional story structures.

Circus Skills - James Waters

James is an actor and has appeared in the West End, at the Royal Shakespeare Company and in many television and film productions. 

He trained in musical theatre in Ireland and as a trained gymnast, dancer and actor, he leads both circus skills and drama workshops.

He has now been teaching circus skills to children and adults for the past five years and knows that the benefits to all are immense.

Workshop Details:

Our circus day begins with a demonstration of the skills the children will learn. This is then followed by the workshop where each child will be taught the skills demonstrated. The activities include - balancing peacock feathers, juggling with scarves & balls, spinning plates, Chinese ribbons, Poi, fun wheels and stilts. Whilst playing they develop co-ordination skills, improve balance and concentration, as well as lengthening their attention span.

Art - Wendy Dacre

Wendy is a singer, puppeteer and craftswoman with a Dartington Diploma of Music in Education. She taught in primary schools and then set up and ran a charity.

She has undertaken commissions for new story and shadow puppet shows for adults and children, collaborating with several tellers and musicians.

She runs residencies culminating in group performance, and dances her giant puppets around the country and with our European giant friends.

Workshop Details:

The children will create felt and fibre pictures inspired by themes and images from the storytelling workshop.
They will use brightly coloured wool and other fibres like coir, ramie and silk to explore picture-making by traditional felting using soap, water and their hands. They will create more pictures with a glue-based paper-making technique which uses the same natural fibres in a very different way leading to very different results.

Dance - Maziah Omar

Maziah Omar is the Artistic Director and Choreographer of Nusantara a SE Asia performing arts company.  She trained in both traditional and contemporary dance (Malaysia) and has a MA in Choreography (UK).

As a dancer and choreographer, she has choreographed major productions, such as the 1998 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony and for the Queen’s visit to Malaysia.

Workshop Details:

The workshop will give children the opportunity to experience SE Asian classical, folk and ethnic dances particularly Malay style movement. The dances are derived from elements of nature and activities such as farming or hunting, using authentic SE Asian scarves, fans, textiles and wooden accessories to emphasize the characteristics portrayed. The process will start from experiencing the movement and then exploring the discipline and storytelling of the classical dance to develop a creative form. 

Sophie Pang

Sophie is a communication director of Create!

She trained as a CELTA teacher in London, and then worked as an ESOL teacher in Bexley Adult Education College. She has previously worked for BBC World Service and Bexley Interpreting Service.

Sophie also runs a Chinese School and provides Chinese translation service.