Listen Up!

There is nothing more valuable than nurturing a love of stories in children to encourage reading, writing and self expression. Nothing does this better than a good storyteller.

Storytelling develops speaking and listening skills and engages children through experience, language and imagination. The thrill of a live storytelling performance is to be transported to other worlds. It is to laugh, feel exhilarated or moved to tears. Our stories are never read from books or scripts, and each performance is unique.

Our focus is on primary school children, which allows us to really respond to the needs of children aged between 3 and 11 years. Our range of stories is expansive and as culturally diverse as the schools we visit. We provide one off storytelling performances, all day visits or residencies. We support projects with a focus on literacy, religion, history, myth and culture.

Meet the Team

Gemma Hannah: Company Director and Storyteller

Gemma Hannah established Once Upon a Story in 2004. After gaining a first class honours degree at Central School of Speech and Drama, Gemma began storytelling as pat of her work as a drama teacher and performer. She found that once she started telling tales, she couldn’t stop. Over the years her repertoire has grown to encompass the whole world. Passionate about storytelling and its educational value, Gemma has combined her skills as a performer with training and development, enabling her to nurture talented new storytellers. She also keeps herself busy with her three children and lives between London and Provence.

Niki Brown: Storyteller

Niki also trained at Central and has been working with Once Upon a Story for six years, offering her unique style of energetic, physical and fun storytelling to schools around the UK. Drawing on her own cultural heritage, Niki specialises in stories from the Caribbean and across Africa. Her favourite stories are about the mischievous trickster Anansi the spiderman, and if you meet her you will see there is more than a little bit of Anansi in her!

Tanya Bobela: Storyteller

Tanya draws on material from all over the world, in particular the traditional English and Ukrainian folktales that reflect her own heritage. Drawing on her history degree, she also specialises in stories from different historical periods from the Ancient Greeks to the Victorians. Her style is energetic and engaging with regular doses of magic and humour. Tanya is mother to three boys who all love to hear a good story.

Conrad Burdekin: Storyteller and Poet

Father to three girls, husband to one wife, and storyteller to thousands of children across Yorkshire and beyond, Conrad loves nothing more than spinning a good yarn. He has been telling stories in schools for the past five years and his repertoire includes stories from the world over. His only rule when choosing a story is that it has to be fun to tell. Conrad’s inspiration comes from the joy that he sees on children’s faces when he tells them a story.