From a lineage of storytellers, Kamini Ramachandran is committed to education and outreach to sustain the traditional practice of oral narrative. Kamini is an experienced storyteller behind MoonShadow Stories, providing professional storytelling consultancy services. In more recent years, she also founded The Storytelling Centre Limited – to produce StoryFest Singapore and to manage the Young Storytellers Mentorship Programme.

Q: Hi Kamini, lots of people know you as a great storyteller but here we want to find out more about you as a producer.

Most people tend to place the producer as second, and the storytelling artist as first! When MoonShadow Stories was formed almost 20 years ago, I became a self-producing artist. When you produce yourself, people tend to label you as the artist and they don't think about the work that went on behind the scenes to get to where you are. So that has always been tagged onto my identity. 

Q: Do you think people have a misconception that a producer cannot be an artist, and vice versa?

This might be related to how we typically list down all the people involved in a project without acknowledging the multiple roles that we helm. I rarely list myself as the storyteller, the producer, the director, the researcher, and the story creator! It’s just “Storyteller - Kamini”. People will refer to these indicators of how you define your role and your responsibility, and they remember these definitions of yourself. I am trying to address this and find ways to make my various roles more obvious.

Q: How do you manage producing MoonShadow Stories and The Storytelling Centre Limited seeing they have very different focuses and programmes?

MoonShadow Stories is predominantly myself as the main artist, talent or service provider. Commissions, research-based projects, residencies, and international collaborations that involve myself are produced under this company. The clients or partners typically want to work directly with me.

The Storytelling Centre Limited (TSCL) was set up six years ago as a non-profit organisation to produce StoryFest Singapore, and to manage the Young Storytellers Mentorship Programme. At TSCL, my role is as the director behind the scenes, and the creative producer of StoryFest, instead of me being the featured artist. 

The producing is very different between the two companies. StoryFest Singapore is an international festival that has an in-person and a digital platform. My mindset is focused on how best to present multiple other artists, over a specific period. I'm always considering how to bring out the best in them; and how to create more awareness about their art forms and practices, and their different niches. I'm also considering our audiences and how to grow and reach wider. You have to think about how to reach out to the community, and how to balance between ticketed and non-ticketed events.

Oral tradition and storytelling is unscripted and a lot of it is about feeding off the energy of the place, time and group of audience. I wanted to have that flexibility for all our storytellers to choose stories to tell. Hence, our themes at StoryFest are very broad and they allow all artists to easily participate and find a story from their own canon of tales.

I also need to bear in mind the local context of producing a festival - mainly our stakeholders, our venues, and our audiences.  Not all storytelling styles will translate well in a back box environment. It’s also important to know your audience and what they will pay for. In a festival, I definitely want to take risks with stories and themes, and formats. In the last three years, we have presented digital storytelling programmes as part of StoryFest. Over time, we have developed an audience that understands and appreciates stories told through multiple formats.

Different artists have different strengths, and producing is not necessarily limited to producing shows and performative events. I believe that you need to be a very good producer to produce masterclasses, workshops and training programmes. A lot of thought goes behind creative education and professional development programming - from selecting the right person for our target audience, guiding them in our processes, and structuring the workshop so that it showcases the best of our facilitators and also supports our participants.

Q: As a practising storyteller yourself, in what other ways has your experience as an artist carried over to your role as a producer?

My personal experiences guide my producing philosophy - for I know what it feels like to be on the other side! 

As a producer, it's important that I take care of my artists and crew, and plan for them to showcase the best of themselves. The physiology of an artist, their mental state of mind, rest, sleep and food needs to be thought through. Even considerations such as Asian food can be an adjustment for some artists, affecting their voices or digestive systems. I have been in situations where I had to fly for half a day, and be expected to perform and conduct workshops the next day. I know StoryFest is on the right track because we have received positive comments about our hospitality, contracts, communication and professionalism year after year.

Empathy is what I bring as a producer - I want artists and crew to have fair contracts and punctual payments, to be provided with a good support system, and be very transparent in communications. 

When I decided to produce StoryFest, it was important that everybody would be paid - the team crew and artists. Formalising tasks and roles by offering payment for services helps to advance professional careers in the creative sector. Since we are actually asking people to come and do something, we should be able to remunerate them in fees. 

My producing ethos is shaped by being a mother of young adults, and my work as a teaching artist working with youth. Many things have changed since my generation. Nowadays, a strong resume and a clear portfolio are very important in a highly competitive working environment. As producers, it is our obligation to find ways to support and sustain the future generation of artmakers. The least we can do is plan for commensurate remuneration.

That's the beauty about being in a position where you have this vast experience as a self-producing artist, and now producing for others. I still go back to using the word empathy, because empathy comes from having been in everybody's shoes for decades, before you can make a difference and create better practices. 

Q: What are some unique aspects of storytelling and challenges encountered in producing such programmes today?

Storytelling has always been a community practice - with its history in early societies and tribes. It is one of the oldest traditional art forms found in almost all cultures. It is difficult to define (or constrain) with many variations in form and practice.

As a contemporary practitioner of oral tradition, I feel that if we want this art form to survive for the next many years, we have to find methods to support its continued practice. I am interested in developing a scaffolding so that festivals, programmes, collaborations, exchanges and the way we deal and negotiate with other storytellers can be professionalised and be improved upon.

Most storytellers have learnt how to integrate digital platforms into their practice, especially in the last two pandemic years. The scene has grown in terms of our global audience reach, thanks to virtual modes of sharing.

As storytellers, we internalise our repertoire over a long period of time, and we don’t necessarily memorise from a script. Hence, there is no definitive or one version … and each storyteller will make adjustments each time they tell the same tale.

For the longest time, I have struggled with submitting a ‘script’ for licensing purposes, ratings and advisory, for clients to ‘see’ etc etc. Patiently educating stakeholders about the nuances and variations contained within versions of myths and folklore is part and parcel of my role as a producer.

I have to say that partners, venues and stakeholders have come a long way in understanding how oral tradition is practised. Over time, a level of trust is built because of the track record and past work examples. I’m happy that now I can submit a ‘synopsis’ and provide references! I love negotiating and helping others better understand aspects of my art form or genre.

Q: What are some projects that you are working on that we can look forward to?

I will be participating in the 136 Goethe Lab Residency in January where I will explore community storytelling and the impact of not telling stories.

For ArtWalk Little India I’m conducting a story walk around selected wall murals and the history of the precinct, culminating in a meal about the significance of the Pongal festival.

One of my signature stories, ‘The Indigo Jackal’, is being brought to life as a stage performance for Kalaa Utsavam at the end of this month.

I will be wrapping up my two-year-long engagement as Storyteller for Gallery Children’s Biennale with my Nov and Dec activation of artworks through stories.

As part of NLB’s Story Beings, I will be sharing about my longtime collaboration on the topic of storytelling and art therapy in ‘Reimagining Narratives through Storytelling’.

In April 2023, I will be in Thailand as part of the Asian Producers Platform Camp.

Shoutout

Nur Khairiyah Ramli, also known as Khai, is currently based in London where she graduated three years ago in MA Creative Producing. She is doing a lot of amazing work through RUMAH and other arts organisations. A little story about Khai is that she was my festival manager for StoryFest 2018. She was also my Production Coordinator for my 2018 SIFA commission. She is a woman from a minority group and someone who is self-made, ground-up, incredibly brave, and has done everything from stage management and budgeting to getting her postgraduate degree and finding work in the UK. Her producing work champions stories from under-represented voices. Khai is currently the Assistant Producer for Complicite.

Varied experience is what sets you apart as an artist and a producer. It is also what will make Singapore a better artistic environment. Look for creative work and opportunities to learn; be resilient and adaptive; the school of hard knocks will affect everyone at some stage or other; learn from the best practices of others; consider how you can make changes for the betterment of the sector. Our artistic journeys will eventually place us in a position to be able to advise others; this can only come with the ups and downs of lived experience.

Follow Kamini (@kaministoryteller) on Facebook and Instagram for more details, and watch some of her storytelling videos here.

Interview by: Jasmine See and Pearlyn Tay