Bernard Anson
Co-founder of Stories in Place. Storyteller, “story gardener”, author, artist.
His formative years between Britain and Italy and subsequent India, fueled his tension between the orders and expressions of the north-west and the south-east of the world. Has worked in disparate fields – aviation, agriculture, marketing consultancy and cultural tourism – but his love of stories and travel led him to found Storygardenz Ltd. in 2007, to bring together travel and storytelling and to create a network of special “story” places, centered around his own estate Villa Silj in Rome. Simultaneously began developing a map of geo-located stories in the garden of Villa Silj , dedicated to ethnobotany and the nature-culture dichotomy. The resulting book, “The Garden of Lemniscati” is a work to be read as a book and “in the land” and its twelve stories are connected to all the other stories of the world. This book and garden is also intended as a manifesto for story gardening and for this stories in place project.
Anson is the author of several books including “Carmen Via, A journey in the songlines of Italy” (Semar Press, the Hague), while he is now in the process of publishing “Orlando” tracing the life of the great medieval hero (Chanson de Roland & Orlando Furioso) led by the vestiges and signs left by Orlando in the landscapes and towns of Europe.
Giovanna Conforto
Storyteller, Teacher and Event Producer.
Born in England of Italian parents she has always been passionate about theatre and performing arts. In 1997 she graduated from the National Academy of Dramatic Arts “Silvio D’Amico” in Rome where she later obtained an advanced degree in Teacher’s Training. Since then, her activity is divided between performing, teaching and organizing events. As storyteller she has participated in events and festivals all over Europe, North America and Asia.
Giovanna is the Creative director of the Italian Storytelling Center.
In recent years, she has co-founded The Strolling Stories, storywalks dedicated to historical and artistic sites in Rome, Latium and Tuscany and has co-created the project Habla Cadabra, an international multilingual storytelling festival touring on a bus. She is lecturer at the Master’s Degree in Arts Management at IED University in Rome, has been collaborating with various universities all over Europe and in Asia and is teacher at the School of Storytelling, Emerson College (UK).
Giovanna is co-author of the European Science Theatre guidelines for the creative teaching of science and is member of the Storytelling & Peace Council.
The Storytelling and Peace Councilis an international gathering of 25 experienced storytellers from over 16 countries dedicated to the growth and development of peace and creativity in a wide variety of life contexts, including multicultural education, social work, business, mediation and social healing
Donald Smith
Storyteller, Playwright, Novelist and Performance Poet.
Born in Glasgow of Irish parents, Donald has worked in theatre and literature in Scotland since the seventies. Director of the Netherbow Arts Centre from 1983, Donald Smith became founding Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre in 1996. He was also a founding Director of the National Theatre of Scotland and first Chair of the Literature Forum for Scotland. In addition to his creative work Donald has written and lectured widely on Scotland’s cultural and religious life, past and present.
Donald Smith has produced, adapted or directed over fifty plays and published a series of books. His second novel, ‘Between Ourselves’, came out in 2009 along with his book on Burns, ‘God, the Poet and the Devil: Robert Burns and Religion’. Donald is currently working on a novel about Mary Queen of Scots and the Scottish Reformation. His adaptation of ‘The Matchmaker’ is touring in Scotland and his essays on twentieth century Scottish playwrights are presently being published in Edinburgh University’s ‘Companions to Scottish Literature’ series.