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.
05:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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