Photo : La Vagabonde
Saturday Storytelling with Stéphane FERRANDEZ
Forget elaborate sets and costumes; step into the minimalist world of Japanese rakugo where your voice and physical presence hold all the power. You will first explore these traditional storytelling techniques in an active workshop before sitting back to witness a captivating performance that bridges the gap between ancient myths and urban legends. It is a rare chance to bridge the gap between audience and performer while discovering the nuances of a unique cultural craft.
La Vagabonde (Paris 20th)
About
This formula combines:
• a short-duration storytelling workshop (3h)
• a storytelling performance by the same storyteller-trainer
It acts as a beehive (meeting and gathering place), an adventure (trying your hand at storytelling), a journey (a storyteller takes you into their specific universe), and a perspective (getting a taste of storytelling training without committing to a full course).
3:30 PM, On the Edge of Japanese Speech
How to tell a story with almost nothing?
How to embody several characters without changing costumes?
How to make a ghost appear, wield a sword, or run on a cushion... simply with the body, voice, and a few precise conventions?
The workshop offers an initial immersion into the grammar of rakugo and its performance principles. Participants experience this form of narration themselves, working specifically on body, voice, characters, and relationship with the audience.
It is not just about observing a traditional art: it is about putting it into practice.
8:30 PM, Kojiki kara kojiki made, from the age of the gods to the tales of the alleys.
A journey into the Japan of stories.
From the world of kami and founding myths to more trivial, everyday stories, Stéphane Ferrandez reveals a Japan where the sacred and the popular can coexist.
Rakugo becomes a true boat through stories, capable of moving from devotion to laughter, from the marvelous to the trivial, from gods to humans.
The proposal thus combines cultural discovery and the pleasure of storytelling: a lively way to approach Japanese culture through one of its traditional spoken arts.
Stéphane Ferrandez is a rakugo storyteller-performer. His work introduces the French public to this Japanese form of storytelling based on the presence of the storyteller, their physical and vocal performance, and great economy of means.
He also develops transmission activities around rakugo, allowing for the discovery of this art not only through performance but through experimentation.
