TRUE STORIES LIVE Celebrates Women Of The World Festival With All Female Line-up

Norwich's popular monthly storytelling event True Stories Live is taking part in the Women of the World Festival with a special all female line up on Sunday 29 April in the main hall at Norwich Arts Centre.

Special guests for the evening, also its second birthday event, are Australian born, UK based, comedian Bec Hill and American writer, artist, filmmaker and performance maker Paula Varjack. They will tell stories about one of their true-life experiences as part of a bill that will also include some past female TSL participants telling their True Life Stories that relate to what it is to be a woman in the 21st century.

The theme for the event is 'Now's the Time' which storytellers are invited to interpret as closely or loosely as they wish. As with all TSL events the night will be compéred by Norwich based scriptwriter, poet and performer Molly Naylor.

True Stories Live is the intimate monthly storytelling evening founded at Norwich Arts Centre that has grown to become a regular sell out success and has toured to great acclaim to London, around the country and to the Edinburgh Book Festival.

The premise of True Stories Live is simple - ordinary people tell their own anecdotal stories to a warm and friendly audience, relating to a different theme each time. Heartwarming, revealing, funny, shocking or sad - an evening at True Stories Live will have your emotions leaping from one extreme to another as you are drawn into each storyteller's world. For some it's their first time ever on stage; others are used to performing, but what they have in common is that they are telling their own personal stories about their own experiences.

The evening has been described as 'like eavesdropping into people's stories in the pub or on a bus - only here you're allowed to!' A first time performer said 'I was absolutely petrified before I went on but I feel amazing now, the audience was really receptive. I had so much fun... everybody should do it'.

Women of the World festival was founded in 2010 by Southbank Centre's Artistic Director, Jude Kelly CBE. It is now the largest women's movement in the world, reaching over 1.5 million people in 20 cities across five continents. In partnership with Norwich Arts Centre it comes to Norwich for the first time on 28/29 April for 2 packed days of talks, debates, music, activism, comedy, workshops, mentoring, pop ups and shows that celebrate women and girls. WoW takes a frank look at what prevents them from achieving their potential and raises awareness globally of the issues they face as well as creating possible solutions.

True Stories Live producer and founder Lucy Farrant said 'It seems a natural fit to coincide our second birthday event with Women of the World so we were so pleased that WoW programmer Rosie Arnold invited us to take part. To have inspirational women like Bec and Paula agree to be our special guests really is the icing on the cake.'

Lucy, of Norfolk cultural event producers L J Hope Productions, created TSL after hearing about American storytelling event The Moth. She invited Molly to join the team in the joint belief that the people of Norwich have just as interesting stories to tell as those over the Atlantic - and the queue of eager participants and regular sell out audiences have proved them to be absolutely correct!.

Molly Naylor is the co-writer of Sky One sitcom After Hours. Her autobiographical show Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You toured internationally and was adapted for BBC Radio 4, she recently directed her first short film, Callback and is intending to take her new show LIGHTS! PLANETS! PEOPLE! to this year's Edinburgh Festival.

Tue Stories Live is presented by L J Hope Productions, Norwich Arts Centre and Molly Naylor with support from Arts Council England, Norfolk County Council and Writer's Centre Norwich. www.truestorieslive.co.uk

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