Abigail Clay – Miss Whale’s Tales

Location

London

Specialism

Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
Digital content production
Workshop facilitation
Programme creation
Historical and Cultural storytelling

About

Abigail is a trained actor with 9 year’s experience in working with people with learning disabilities.

More Details

My name is Abigail Clay and I am new to the Heritage Storytelling scene. I bring with me professional actor training and 9 years’ experience in facilitating workshops with and for people with learning disabilities.

My past experience includes:

● Performing arts workshops from Austen to Irish Dancing, from Disney to puppetry, for groups of children and of adults who have Down’s Syndrome
● Leading trips and running classes for a social group of young women with Down’s Syndrome. Trips have included St. Paul’s Cathedral, Bodiam Castle and Hastings, and sessions have included the Suffragette movement and documentary filmmaking
● Artistic Director of Shakespeare 21, a drama group for adults with Down’s Syndrome. We explore Shakespeare’s works through improvisation, helping to discover these old stories in a new way, and what they could mean to a SEND audience today
● Storytelling YouTube channel ‘Miss Whale’s Tales’, telling Just So Stories, nursery rhymes and original stories. I was commissioned by a local Primary school to record a reading of George’s Marvellous Medicine to aid the pupils’ study of this text
● Historical storytelling – local landmark Hadlow Tower, or ‘Pitt’s Folly’, is the tallest Folly in the UK. My video was very popular with the residents of Hadlow and I am looking to tell more local histories, in collaboration with your community
● Winner of the Perceptions Warehouse Resilient Artist International Prize 2020 in the Short Film category, for one of my YouTube videos
● Improviser and Producer of ShakeItUp Theatre; we completely make up a new ‘Shakespeare play’ on the spot every night. Tour locations include Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warsaw and Rome. We teach workshops at music festivals and in Pentonville Prison
● Digital Coordinator for three performing arts organisations, now that we are running via Zoom. Creating and facilitating workshops, and providing technical support to other tutors

Contact

Abigail Clay
Storyteller

Flat 7 Oriel House
121 – 135 London Road
Romford

07918 665775
[email protected]

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