Ashley Ramsden has been a storyteller for over 25 years. He started telling stories in Australia, where he trained as an actor in the Harkness Studio and soon founded MYTHOS, a company dedicated to the revival of the Art of Storytelling. In 1986 he then moved to the United States where he developed a range of remarkable storytelling performances and one-man-shows.
His repertoire continues to include: The Titanic; The Man Who Planted Hope; The Arabian Nights; A Christmas Carol; Celtic Tales; Tistou of the Green Thumbs; Gilgamesh; The Holy Man; The Hilarious Adventures of the Hodja Nasruddin; Dylan Thomas’ ‘A Childs Christmas in Wales’; Diary of a Farmer’s Wife; The Song of Roland; The Yorkshire Bible Stories; The Temple Legend and other stories of King Solomon; and This Being Human ~ the Poetry and Stories of Jelaluddin Rumi.
In 1988 he returned to England where at Emerson College in Sussex he soon began to host an annual International Storytelling Symposium with storyteller/author Nancy Mellon, a work that was to stretch over the next decade.
In 1994 Ashley founded the School of Storytelling at Emerson College which continues to flourish to this day. This school, which is unique to the United Kingdom, draws storytellers from all over the world and focuses on different branches pertaining to the art of the storyteller. These include Storytelling as a Performing Art, Storytelling in Education, Storytelling as a Healing Art, Storytelling in the World of Business, Storytelling and the Environment.
For further up-to-date information see: www.schoolofstorytelling.com.
In 2008 Ashley’s collaboration with Nancy Mellon resulted in Body Eloquence:The Power of Myth and Story to Awaken the Body’s Energies. See www.bodyeloquence.com.
Ashley tells stories in theatres, at storytelling festivals and clubs, in castles, private houses, pubs, Camphill Community Centres, schools, businesses, prisons, churches, spiritual centres, and at charity events.
His performances include: Sydney Opera House Mostly Mozart Festival(1985); San Francisco Storytelling Festival (1987); Co-leading workshops with author/poet Robert Bly at Asimolar, California (1991); The Odyssey of a Manchurian with author Belle Yang and the San Jose Chamber Orchestra (1997); Beyond the Border Storytelling Festival (1999); performances with the Jupiter Symphony Orchestra (1999,2001,2006); South Africa Storytelling Festival (2004); Swedish Storytelling Symposium (2004); A Christmas Carol broadcast across the United States on National Public Radio (2005/6); The London Symphony Orchestra (2006); tour with the Stichting English Theatre at Hof van Wouw in the Hague (2006), Holland; Slovenian Storytelling Festival (2007).
International storytelling performances and workshops from 1986 to date include Australia, USA, Scandinavia, South Africa, Japan, Greece, Slovenia, Germany and throughout the UK.