From Saturday 2 April to Monday 2 May, we will be hosting a range of storytelling events to re-WILD your imagination. From song and dance, to puppetry, performances and workshops for the whole family, there will be something for everyone!
Get some behind-the-scenes info from the performers joining us and find out what they’ve got in store…
Yan Tan Tethera
“Yan Tan Tethera specialises in storytelling, environmental interpretation, and community engagement. Our guiding ethos is ‘Stories, Adventure, Nonsense‘ and we bring all three to everything we do! Our stories are told by the ‘world famous’ storyteller and magical explorer, Professor Jigget.
“We’ve worked with the zoo since 2017 providing storytelling performances, films, and training. Chester Zoo is the BEST place to perform! The staff are always welcoming and supportive, the audiences are incredibly happy to be there, and you only have to walk a couple of metres to get ice cream!
“We are bringing back the ridiculous and frenzied story telling show Stories to Save the World. A performance in which the audience controls how the story goes. It often causes mayhem! This is a show in which YOU have control! You help create villains, define the magical powers of mysterious objects, choose who the hero meets on their adventure and, most importantly, decide how the big bad boss is defeated! No performance is the same, every one is unique and that’s because you help create it!”
Nikki Pinder
“I’m an illustrator and I do all sorts of drawing projects. I’ve grown up in Chester and I’ve always loved the zoo! I find it really inspiring to visit the zoo and take in all the colours and patterns. A lot of the artwork I create comes from walking around and seeing things. There’s so much inspiration at the zoo and it always conjures up new ideas!
“For Easter I’m going to be drawing lots of artwork on the Madagascar Marketplace windows. I’ll be drawing lemurs in their environment being wild and doing lots of funny activities. I’m also going to work with families in workshops to create masks so you can become lemurs as well! I’m really looking forward to working with people, the lemurs are so exciting and I’m sure they will provide lots of fun ideas!”
Born and Bred Theatre
“Born and Bred Theatre is a dance organisation based in the North West and our mission is to bring dance to as many different people as possible. We put on performances, workshops, and also use dance to think about and explore our environment. This fits perfectly with what we’ll be doing at Chester Zoo.
“We’re really excited to work with the zoo! We’re creating a brand new show and the whole premise of it is that Mother Earth is very upset because she can’t hear the sounds of the Earth any more. However, two zoo rangers from Chester Zoo have lots of hope because they know all about Chester Zoo’s AMAZING conservation projects. You’re going to learn about the great things Chester Zoo does outside of looking after animals in the zoo. You’ll also get to contribute your own dance moves to the performance. We hope you’re as excited as we are!”
STORYTELLING POP-UP
We’ll have over 100 activities taking place this Easter! It won’t be around for long, so don’t miss out!