Tell us your stories – theatre’s call to five to 12-year-olds

An award-winning children’s author, an acclaimed actor and poet, and a leading illustrator are on the team for a new project for young writers from the National Literacy Trust and Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre.

The two organisations are collaborating on Your Stories, an online story creation adventure for five to-12year-olds.

For six weeks from Monday June 1, daily content will be released via the National Literacy Trust’s local Facebook page to encourage creativity through story creation and reading for young people along the North Yorkshire coast.

This will include exercises on how to create characters and settings, such as storytelling bingo, role-playing, drawing comic strips and sound recording, and using all kinds of everyday things to create the adventure.

There will be short vlogs from author Saviour Pirotta, writer of best-selling children’s novels including The

Orchard Book of First Greek Myths, and actor and poet Nadia Emam, who has worked at both the Stephen Joseph Theatre and with Slung Low Theatre Company.

The pair will also give readings of some of the submitted stories, and recommend books in the form of accessible e-books and audiobooks.

At the end of each week, illustrator Simon Whittaker from House of Deadleg will create drawings based on some of the stories submitted. He will also give video tutorials on creating illustrations.

The theatre’s associate director Chelsey Gillard said: “Participants can choose to engage every day, or just dip in and out as they like.

“By the end of the six weeks they will have all they need to create an exciting adventure set in their hometown.

To take part in Your Stories, visit the Our Stories website.