Ancient trees? Colourful birds? Singing cucumbers? Flying tigers? Hungry bears? Rolling pumpkins? Dancing frogs?
100 stories in a hat - the lot decides which ones will be told.
Two years ago, Alden Biesen (Belgium), Antje Horn (Germany) and Tom Van Mieghem (Belgium/Sinaai) met for the first time at the International Storytelling Festival. They discovered many similarities in their professional past and their thinking about the art of storytelling and life. That same year, they appeared on stage as a bilingual tandem at the NARRARE Festival in Jena. Since then, they have continued to develop their collaboration and have toured together in Belgium and Germany.
The narrator Antje Horn grew up in the GDR. She worked for many years in child and adolescent psychiatry until she discovered storytelling as an art form for herself. Since completing the ‘Artistic Storytelling’ certificate course at the UdK Berlin in 2018, she has performed throughout Europe as a solo artist or in tandem with storytelling programmes for people of all ages. She has also been curating and directing the NARRARE International Storytelling Festival in Jena since 2018.
Tom Van Mieghem is a Belgian puppeteer and storyteller. He has a special artistic interest in working with people with intellectual disabilities, elderly people with dementia, prison inmates, hospitalised children and young people with limited educational opportunities. He also teaches and narrates at the ‘Nederlandse Vertelacademie’ in Utrecht and at various other municipal academies. He is a regular participant at the annual storytelling festival in Alden Biesen. For Tom Van Mieghem, every story is an adventure. He immerses himself completely in it, looking at it inside and out, until it fits the audience and him perfectly. Since 2023, he has been on stage together with Antje Horn as a bilingual German-Belgian storytelling tandem. They are currently performing their very own version of the story of ‘Krabat’ in Germany and the Netherlands.
Performers: Antje Horn (D) & Tom van Mieghem (BE)
