Portsmouth, July 2023 - The Festival of Storytelling at Portsmouth Cathedral, are pleased to announce the final events as part of its extraordinary programme, promising to enchant and captivate visitors of all ages. Alongside the wider programme featuring free story sessions, hands-on activities and outdoor theatre, the final events encapsulate storytelling and fashion with an after-dark experience; "The Curiosities of the Cathedral Library", and a special exhibition featuring the iconic dress worn by local MP, the Rt Honourable Penny Mordaunt, at the Coronation of King Charles III.
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00:00 I'm Jemima Craden, I am the Events Manager here at Portsmouth Cathedral.
00:05 I'm in charge of creating and running a lot of the events that we do throughout the year in this incredible space.
00:12 Today we are all set up for our festival storytelling.
00:17 The festival storytelling was designed to find all the different ways that we tell stories,
00:25 but also show the stories that we have within our building itself and how it has that story within the story of Portsmouth.
00:32 We're looking at all the different avenues there are to gaining literacy skills.
00:37 We have outdoor theatre, we have live reading sessions each day,
00:42 we have a corner that's all about story through playing,
00:45 we have a corner that is just if you want a quiet space to come and sit and read a book.
00:50 But we also have stories through fashion with the exhibition of Penny Mordant's dress at the Coronation.
00:56 And stories through art, we have an exhibition by the Hampshire Calligraphers as well
01:01 to show how all the different forms and all the different ways that we tell stories to each other.
01:08 Tell us more about Penny's dress and the story behind it.
01:12 So Penny's dress at the Coronation captured the public consciousness.
01:17 It was a rave review online, you could not see this dress which Penny herself has described as iconic and I am inclined to agree.
01:27 So what our COO Richard Abraham did was just politely ask to say what would be happening with the dress,
01:36 would there be an opportunity for it to come here to Portsmouth Cathedral for the city to see.
01:42 And about three weeks ago we got the email saying yes, they would be delighted to loan the dress to us.
01:48 And for me it was the perfect time to tie it in with this festival because there is so much of a story
01:55 in why the colour was chosen, who did the embroidery on the dress,
02:00 but also then Penny was the first person, the first woman to take on that role within a Coronation.
02:08 And yes, her and her team have been wonderful and worked with us to make it happen.
02:13 Excellent. And so tell us a little bit about some of the other exhibits that are happening today.
02:19 So we have in the Cathedral a display of butterflies hanging from our scene gallery
02:25 that were made entirely by members of our community. All have been made by recycled book pages.
02:32 We also have the Hampshire Calligraphers where they have an exhibition of calligraphy that is all about Hampshire
02:38 and the stories within Hampshire, so don't miss that one.
02:42 Today we had our 10.30am story time. Today's theme is poetry and rhyme, so we did Cat in a Hat, Harry and McClary.
02:51 And then this afternoon we have an activity at 1.30 which we are going to be planting poet trees,
02:59 which is all about encouraging everyone to write their own poems or write down their favourite poems,
03:07 share their favourite ones and we will be creating leaves to go on the poet tree.
03:13 So there is a different theme every day for the festival. Hopefully there's something that everyone will like.
03:20 A big hit, hopefully, if the weather holds off, is on Thursday we are having a mobile farm come to visit for Animal Day.
03:28 And we also then have on top of that Apple Theatre Day where we will also have outdoor theatre taking place.
03:35 So that's just a sneak peek at some of the bits coming up.
03:38 What we wanted to make was a bookcase made by the people of Portsmouth. So this is their library.
03:46 Each of these hangings have been created by a different community or school and we asked them to draw us their favourite books.
03:55 So that's the starting point, just so everyone can discuss. There's some great pics on them.
04:00 There's a lovely one by 12 Cathedral Brownies where they've drawn out the wind in the willows.
04:05 There's a beautiful one by Cobner Primary School, our choir.
04:09 And if you want to take part we do also have out during the day, if you are popping in, to add your favourite book to the library.
04:16 So we can continue helping it grow.
04:19 We also form an important part of the immersive experience that myself and our Digital Marketing Manager, Joseph Keele-Thoms, have made.
04:27 Called the Curiosities of the Cathedral Library.
04:31 Think of it as a similar escape room style event.
04:35 You will come in and the stories will be escaping the cathedral.
04:39 And it is your job to go around and collect all the clues to be able to leave.
04:43 So you will learn more about the cathedral as well through this experience.
04:49 And yeah, I think that's all that.
04:52 And then we do also have a typewriter.
04:55 Now we did a small experience back in February for National Storytelling Week.
05:00 And the biggest hit was the typewriter because it's not something you see very often these days.
05:06 So we have it out in the cathedral for anyone who has always wanted to give it a go.
05:11 And we are challenging you to how many words you can type in a minute.
05:14 A lot of our larger events take place in the last week and a half I would say.
05:19 So we have the Curiosity Evenings and the Production by Heartbreak Productions of Sense and Sensibility Taking Outside.
05:27 That is our big wow moment.
05:30 It's the first time we are doing outdoor theatre here at the cathedral so we are very excited to have them coming to us.
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