Include:
- Staff
training inset day - introduction to Lis'n Tell, Turney School for
Severe and Moderate Learning Difficulties, West Dulwich, London
- Creative Speech and Storytelling workshops for the Biographical Counseling Training
- Lis'n Tell weekend intensive training (Part 1)
- Training of staff at The Sheiling Camphill School, Ringwood, Hampshire - please see testimonials page
September 09
- Training SaLTs for the Continuing Education Committee of the Panhellenic Association of Logopedists in Athens, Greece.
- Storytelling for Demelza Childrens' Hospice, Kent.
- Lis'n Tell workshops for Yr 7 students at St Philip's School, Chessington.
- Lis'n Tell half day Introduction for Paediatric SLTs in Brighton
- On the interview panel for the selection of students for the postgraduate training in Speech and Language Therapy at Greenwich Medway University
- August 2009
Two Woman show at The Edinburgh Fringe with co-storyteller Danya Miller
It was a Dark and Stormy Night
2009 Storytelling Midlands Tour supported by The Arts Council and
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it reached the top 5 Hitlist in the Fringe Magazine 'The List'
out of nearly 100 children's shows.
In July 2008 at the International Lifeways Family Festival at Emerson College, I ran a workshop about the Wonder Tale, Rapunzel, for grown-ups...This was went into many aspects of storytelling and botany! It is amazing how the plant, Rampion, upon which the story is based, actually grows, in relation to the unfolding of the tale...*Anyway, one of the vibrant and vivacious participants was Danya Miller! She had been to my one-woman show, 'The Foibles and Fables of Miss Coigley', the previous year. By the end of the Rapunzel workshop week, Danya suggested that we work together. I jumped at the chance. What should we tell tho'? My thoughts immediately fell to a book that my partner, Peter, had given me: 'It was a Dark and Stormy Night', by Janet and Alan Ahlberg. I wanted to do something with lots of 'boy' energy, not least because, being a Speech and language Therapist and Storyteller, I am keenly aware of the prevalence amongst boys of speech and language problems. Danya agreed and we set to work...Danya was the first female producer on the West End and her verve, experience and commitment helped get us to the Edinburgh Fringe, and she won us an Arts Council Lottery grant to tour the Midlands beforehand. Many thanks also to Danya's husband Jon Miller,of Wizard Presents who gave us inspired direction and support. Many thanks also to David Campbell of Storyteller Scotland, for his support, feedback and hospitality. Lastly, thanks again to Peter for his continued advice, insights and megaphone production!
* More can be read about this in ''Imaginary Landscape: Making Worlds of Myth and Science'' by William Irwin Thompson
Reviews of the performances at The Scottish Centre for Storytelling:
Louise Coigley and Danya Miller
‘Engaging and captivating.....great for firing up little imaginations.’ THE LIST
‘Very gifted and delightful storytellers…. They breathe magic and humour into the simple tale.
Their voices are like melted chocolate’ PRIMARY TIMES
‘Danya and Louise wrapped the auditorium in a blanket of soothing tones’ THREE WEEKS
http://edinburghfestival.list.
and click here for early review before audiences grew!
Mrs Ahmed, Kings Langley
''My son and I were enchanted...'' Melanie Deakin, Watford Observer
''Louise has a way of engaging an audience which is downright compelling, humorous and inspires courage." Ashley Ramsden, Founding Director, The School of Storytelling, Emerson College
''Gone are the days when I would pluck a book from my shelf, toddle over to my bottom bunk and delight in my parents' two hundred and thirty third rendition of an Ahlberg classic. Danya Miller and Louise Coigley allowed me to regress - but this time without the need for a plastic sheet - as they wrapped the auditorium in a blanket of soothing tones and enacted the tale of Antonio, an Italian boy kidnapped to tell stories, with a warm friendliness...The days of bedtime stories may be in my distant past but I have a new found yearning for that bottom bunk ritual''. Olivia Ivens:Three Weeks Online Review
July 09
''Thank
you for a fabulous training, what a wonderful morning we all had! The
response was so positive and several of my team have already rushed
into schools with new ideas and inspiration!''
Language, Communication and Interaction Team
Learning Support Service
Learning and Schools, C&YPS, Newham
7th 09 Half day introduction to Lis'n Tell for the Language, Communication and Interaction Team Learning Support Service, Newham, London.
- Lis'n Tell training for staff and residency: working with the students, Valence School for Children with Physical Disabilities, Westerham, Kent.
- 1st Dark and Stormy performance at Forest Row Storytelling Club
- June 25th-26th 09 Lis'n Tell Training for Teachers and SLTs, The Highland Council, Scotland
- June 09 Introduction to Lis'n Tell at Early Years SIG, Scottish region, Stirling.
- 14th May 2009 One day introduction to Lis'n Tell for teachers, assistants and therapists for Rainbow Court Outreach Centre Danecourt School Kent.
- Publication of research in The Bulletin by Lis'n Tell trained Speech and Language Therapist, Rebekah Dwyer, about her work integrating children with communication problems in a mainstream primary school in Kent.
- Somerset: a one day introduction to Lis'n Tell for 30 teachers and assistants from special and mainstream primary and secondary schools.
- SaLT and Drama at St. Joseph's Special School, Surrey
- Keynote closing speech on Lis'n Tell at the Royal Borough of Kingston Annual SEN Conference, Kingston, London, opening keynote speech by John Bercow MP.
for adults of all abilities and children of all ages
with
Reem Kelani
image courtesy of Mohammed Omer, winner of
Reporters without Borders freedom prize 2008 www.rafahtoday.org
to support storytelling and drawing projects for children in kindergarten in Gaza.
Now this charity is also providing shelter, medicines, milk, food and blankets to Gazan families .
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany
- Feb 09 Lis'n Tell taster workshop Glebe School for Complex Communication Difficulties: 'Brilliant workshop!Can see myself using theses techniques with Y7 Literacy Group.Also useful for the 'creative schools agenda'. M. Hawkins
- Feb 09 One day intensive workshop: 'what a very positive, enjoyable day it's been. It has strengthened my belief in the way I approach the children I work with, and has given me some really concrete, exciting ways to take that forward. I am really heartened by the way that you celebrate the strengths of this group of children with whom we work'. Speech and Language Therapist currently working clinically and researching, while doing an M Sc
- November 08 Lis'n Tell workshops at the Buxton childrens' Festival, Derbyshire - " The best differentiated workshop I have ever taken my child to!" - Mother of a boy with severe Down's Syndrome.
- November 08 Lis'n Tell Staff training at St. Christopher's Special School, Bristol - "Fantastic!" staff member, training to be a play therapist
- November 08 Lis'n Tell intensive weekend training for Paediatric Speech and Language Therapists - see testimonial page
- November 08 Lis'n Tell, Wargrave House School for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Merseyside - "Wonderful! - given us lots of ideas..." - Head Speech and Language Therapist.
- Nov 08 Lis'n Tell residential weekend training for Speech and Language Therapists
- Oct 08 workshops for the Team Leaders of the Diocese of Canterbury, exploring how storytelling enhances communication and team work.
- October 08 Founded and launched LIP! Live Inclusive Poetry – a community festival at Artemis School of Speech and Drama, East Grinstead.
- Sept 2008 Guest Lecturer at the Dpt Human Communication Sciences University of Greenwich Medway, Kent.
- July 08 Storytelling workshops on the Lifeways Conference, Emerson College - ''Rapunzel - Let your Hair Down!''
- June 08 Lis'n Tell residential weekend trainings for Speech and Language Therapists
- June 08 Two day training of the Dpt of Paediatric SaLT, Lambeth PCT.
- June 08 Staff training, Dpt of Paediatric Speech and Language Therapists, Lambeth NHS PCT.
- May 2008 Nita Madhani, Head SaLT invited Louise to do two days of Training with the Paediatric Dpt at Redbridge PCT.This was an incredible success...
- April 08 Storytelling workshops for Early Years Teachers for The Bigfoot Theatre Company, London.
- March 08 Presentation of Lis'n Tell at London SaLT ASD SIG research day, City University, London, (with gratitude to Dr Francis Meynell, who built and co-designed the PPP, and Penny Williams SaLT, and the SIG Committee who invited her). This was delivered to the London SIG on ASD at City University. Louise had feedback from SaLTs there, who felt 'massively enthused', and 'inspired'....
- January 08 4th - 6th April 2008 Lis'n Tell workshop at the Society for Storytelling Annual Gathering at Exeter University:Wisdom in the Words - storytelling and learning.
- January 08 Lis'n Tell Storytelling work with Sure Start (Early Childhood Centre), Mothers in Margate was featured on BBC Radio Kent.
- December 07 Residency (third year running) at The Pedagogical Institute of Education, Witten Annen, Germany, teaching Lis’n Tell and Drama to Trainee Teachers of English.
- November 07The second Lis'n Tell w/e for Paediatric SaLTs successfully took place with eight participants,from Ireland and England, most of whom will be taking up follow up work with Louise, evaluating storytelling in their ongoin
- 05 - 07 Independent Supervisor of The Unlimited Company Project, the first Storytelling training for adults with Learning Difficulties, run by Dr Nicola Grove.
- Nov 07- residency in Eagle House School for students with ASD in early observing developing Lis´n Tell at work with trained SaLTs there, and giving supervision and demonstrations with children,therapists and teaching staff.
- Oct 07 - a second residency at Kent University, training MA Drama students in Lis'n Tell, and supervised them running a storytelling project with young adults with learning disabilities.
- 2007 Training day for Waldorf Kindergarten Teachers from the South of England on speech and language development and storytelling.
- 2007 To celebrate the Chinese New Year, she completed a project in a school for children with physical disabilities, working with them and training their teachers, based on the theme of an ancient Chinese Tale: ''The Eyes of the Dragon''
- September 07 Inset Training Day for the teaching staff of Hereford Waldorf School.
- June 07 Sydney, workshops and presentation at the Australian
National Conference of Speech Pathology 2007
- June 07 workshop at The Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW. Please see testimonials...
- May 2007, Louise traveled to Singapore to run Lifelong Learning workshops for the Association of Childhood Educators (ACES)
- April 07 Lis'n Tell residential weekend trainings for Speech and Language Therapists
- Story/drama project based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet with excluded teenage boys at the Blackthorn Medical Trust, Maidstone, Kent.
- For two years Louise was the Independent Supervisor of The Unlimited Company Project, the first Storytelling training for adults with Learning Difficulties, run by Dr Nicola Grove.
- 2007 Research project evaluating her method with Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
- The second Lis'n Tell w/e for Paediatric SaLTs successfully took place fron Nov 2nd - 4th 2007,with eight participants,from Ireland and England, most of whom will be taking up follow up work with Louise, evaluating storytelling in their ongoing practice.
- Louise and Lynne, (SaLT and Drama) did a two day residency at Ridgeview School in Kent, Supported by Therapeutic Speech and Movement expert, Jackie Stroka. The project according to one of the students there with severe learning disabilities, was ''Quwyt poofit...'! L, L & J had a lot of excellent and appreciative evaluations from the teaching staff
- Numerous introductory workshops for the National Health Service and County Councils. She has presented at Sure Start, the National Association of Professionals working with Language Impaired Children (NAPLIC) and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists national conferences.
- Workshops at the 2006 ''A celebration of General Practice'' : The South East and the South West Thames Faculties of the Royal College of General Practitioners one day interactive Primary Care Conference, Brighton Sussex Medical School, invited by the Postgraduate Research Department.
- In December 06 Invited to train the whole Department of Paediatric Speech and Language Therapists in East and Coastal Kent in Lis'n Tell. Following this, a Lis'n Tell trained Speech and Language Therapist began a pilot project in a primary school in Kent, including children with speech/language/communication difficulties through Lis'n Tell. It went so well, that together with the teachers, she is now hopes to introduce Lis'nTell as a pre-literacy strategy in classes throughout the school.
- In 2004 and 2005 Invited to Canada to run projects with children and teenagers with learning disabilities,Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Asperger's Syndrome, their parents, Carers, Therapists and Teachers in Nova Scotia.Workshops for GASP, a Group to Aid and Support Parents of children with complex language disorders. This was after meeting and working with Gina Davies of Attention Autism.
Other Storytelling and Poetry Performances:
During the last 5 years Louise has written and performed two one woman shows:
Back to Back with Frida Kahlo
'Tree of Hope Keep Firm' by Frida Kahlo courtesy of Daniel Filipacchi, who now owns this picture
A semi autobiographical piece about the life of the artist and Louise's life. Louise's mother was a Ballet dancer and teacher, who became a nurse when WW2 struck. Back to Back with Frida Kahlo depicted the horrors and humour of Louise's adolescence, three years of which were spent wearing a brace very similar to Frida's depicted above in her painting 'Tree of Hope Keep Firm'. After major spinal surgery at fourteen, Louise lay flat for seven months, nursed by her mother, then learnt to walk again. B to B with FK showed her gratitude to her parents and the Vicar's son for pulling her through. It depicted how later, the life and work of Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo who suffered far worse traumatic spinal and pelvic injuries in a bus crash, inspired and encouraged her. The show sold out at the Brighton Fringe and at The School of Storytelling, Ruskin Theatre at Emerson College in Sussex. It also played at Canterbury Arts Festival and in Community Theatre in Nova Scotia. The British performances included live Mariachi music and singing, and incorporated eurythmy from the inspiring and international performer and teacher, Glenys Waters, from Peredur School of Eurythmy, who moved to a poem by Pauline Stainer which Louise spoke:
The Ballerina
(after Frida Kahlo)
The surgeon runs a hand
down her bone-grafts.
She will paint the spine
cracked into oracle,
each rivet its own shadow.
In Mexico City
the bus-crash threw gold-dust
over her body.
Seeing the spangle in her blood
the passengers cried
'la bailerina, la bailerina'.
Her breasts blossom
through the surgical corset
flores, flores para los muertos!
Pauline Stainer, Poet
poem printed by kind permission of Pauline Stainer
and Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Louise felt it was important to include eurythmy.
Eurythmy is a gentle yet intensely disciplined form of movement, which is done to music or speech. It was immensely healing when she practiced it for some years, following the painful complications from the spinal surgery. Louise experienced that with the help of eurythmy therapy, her spine, a third of which had been fused together and fixed to a steel rod, could breathe again.
Louise has an originality and range of expression that is totally unique, downright compelling and funny, a presence which gives courage, and inspires creativity. Ashley Ramsden, Founding Director, The School of Storytelling, Emerson College.
Louise's most recent one woman show is:
"The Foibles and Fables of Miss Coigley: Adventures of a Speech and Language Therapist!" developed from her previous storytelling show: The Spinster's Yarn
A storytelling piece performed during the National Storytelling Week in 2008
'Very thought provoking and funny ....it gave me hope!' audience member
1996 at The Nehru Centre, The Indian High Commission, London
at the invitation of William Radice, Poet and Head of Bengali at The School of Oriental and African Studies(SOAS)
With Christopher Garvey and members of Artemis School of Speech and Drama -
performance of extracts of
The Bhagavad Gita,
translated by Juan Mascaro
