About the story – The Raja and the Birds

Anees says "I read this folktale from Pakistan in one of FEAST’s anthologies and immediately knew I wanted to tell it. Birds in cages have always crushed my spirit, for many a time in my life I have been bound in chains and helpless, even though I was born to be free. Whenever I see birds trapped behind bars, I feel an irresistible urge to open the cage and watch them soar into the limitless sky.

The Raja and the birds speaks to this very feeling I have long carried in my heart. It is about two such songbirds whose magical music draws the attention of a proud and mighty Raja. He wants to add them to his priceless collection, believing that their beauty will increase his own glory and joy. But soon he learns a powerful truth: trust, love, beauty and joy cannot be owned or controlled. They can only flourish in freedom. This tale gently reminds us that happiness grows when we allow living beings to be free. Live and let live…"

About Anees

Anees is originally from Chennai, India, and has been living in Germany for over ten years. She is a mother of two, an edutainer, and a theatre practitioner.

After working as a teacher for almost a decade, she moved into the corporate world, hoping to explore something new. But she soon realized that, for her, the work lacked meaning. It was only after becoming a mother that she reconnected with the world of play. Through her children, she rediscovered the joy, wonder, and creativity she had been longing for, and found herself drawn back to play, puppets, storytelling, and the magic of children’s books (which she loves almost as much as her own kids!).

This journey led her to her ikigai: a play club in the charming city of Heidelberg, where she creates screen-free, meaningful experiences for children and parents alike. She spends her days with her favorite kind of people - little humans, who teach her more than they will ever know. Through singing, dancing, storytelling, puppetry, and theatre, she nurtures spaces filled with imagination, connection, and joy.

Alongside her classes, she also brings these playful experiences to libraries, schools, kindergartens, and birthday parties. She is also a member of a local puppet theatre in the city.

Anees was introduced to FEAST through a storyteller and puppeteer friend, and completed the FEAST’s Fundamentals of Storytelling course in 2025. With a heart full of stories, a bag full of puppets, and a spirit rooted in play, she looks forward to crafting a life that continues to celebrate creativity, community, and joy.

About the story – The Last Laddoo

The last laddoo is a story from India which I found in one of FEAST’s anthologies. It is based on tale as told by Srividhya Venkat. I was drawn to silliness of the bickering between the elderly couple and the extremes to which they went in order to be the person that could claim the last laddoo. While the ending isn’t happy for most of the characters, my twist on the story has allowed one player to end up extremely satisfied. I researched the story by heading out to the shops, buying and tasting several different laddoos and my favourite did end up being besan laddoos, the ones that cause all the trouble in this story.

About Claire

Claire lives in Canberra, Australia but often leaves her city to attend festivals in nearby states. She loves stories and has a lifetime lived, and yet to be lived, of them to tell. One of her favourite things to do is to share stories late at night around campfires with her friends.

In 2025 she completed FEAST’s Fundamentals of Storytelling course and attended The Australian Storytellers’ International Storytelling conference in Sydney.

In 2024 she was a performer in the Mills Theatre’s Sunday Story show where she presented one of her original short stories. 

Claire is currently close to finishing the first draft of her novel, an extract of which was featured in a Faber Writing Academy anthology launched in Sydney in October.

She also composes folk dances, is a dance caller/teacher and dabbles happily with other artist pursuits such as watercolour painting.

Rachel Smith is a storyteller who focuses on true, first person storytelling. She has been part of Hong Kong Stories, a community based storytelling society dedicated to the art of true, first person storytelling since 2012 and producer of the group since 2016. She is the director of Hong Kong Spoken Word Festival and has performed  at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival for 7 consecutive years. 

Rachel teaches how to tell true, first person stories better, taking her workshops to such diverse places as South Korea, India, Australia, Morocco and Canada. She has been the storytelling consultant for Creative Mornings Hong Kong since 2023. She regularly runs private, corporate and school based workshops in Hong Kong. 

With Hong Kong Stories, Rachel Smith has overseen the production of monthly storytelling shows in Hong Kong for over 10 years. Rachel is always keen to develop opportunities to hear and share stories and share her love of storytelling with the community. When not involved in Storytelling Rachel is a multi-disciplinary artist. 

You can contact Rachel through her website www.senselessart.net

You can find more about Hong Kong Stories at www.hongkongstories.com

About the story - "The Feather Cloak of One Hundred Birds"

This story from China was collected by Juwen Zhang from Northern China near the Korean border. Bowen loved the characters in "The Feather Cloak of One Hundred Birds", their forthright personalities and their strong, compassionate values. Whenever she hears disturbing and disheartening news, she remembers this story and feels uplifted.

About Bowen Lee

Bowen Lyam Lee lives in Washington state in the United States. She has been on the stage of regional and national storytelling events, conducts workshops for educators, and performs virtually with national, international, and regional programs. Bowen Lyam Lee is a fifth generation Chinese American with a great deal of family history in California. She descended from pioneer Chinese from the Gold Rush, the railroads, and the Chinese fishing villages of Monterey. Bowen specializes in traditional tales, personal narrative, historical stories, and stories for the environment.

About the story: The King & the Mask provided by Roger

This telling of the story was originally recorded for STORIES FOR HEALING, curated by Jim Brule, in 2021. It is long, but I am proud of it and I think it captures a lot of who I am as a teller

Before I became a storyteller, I was a drama teacher and theatre practitioner and I have long been fascinated by, and performed with, Masks, both in the Italian commedia dell’arte and here in S.E. Asia where masks are part of the performance tradition. 

So I love this story because it is about the transformative power of a mask – in the story a real one, but as in so many folktales, what we see is but a metaphor for a hidden psychology. I use three masks in the story, which were carved by the wonderful Pak Ledjar from Yogyakarta. I had the good fortune to discover his tiny shop/home on my first visit there in 1979 and I returned many times acquiring his wonderfully expressive, unpainted masks, which I have used in workshops and performances ever since.

I have two versions of this story: THE KING AND THE MASK is the one for adults. For the tens to teens, I tell it with a Master Thief as the protagonist. He goes to the Palace Ball intending to steal the crown jewels, wearing a honest-faced mask to avoid detection - only to be seen by the Princess who falls for his kind, honest (and admittedly handsome) face – unaware it is a mask. She says she wants to marry him. The thief asks for a year before giving her his answer. Fearing that her father will send guards to check on him, the thief is forced to wear the mask, and just like the King in this story, in the process his character is transformed. He confesses to the Princess he cannot marry her because he is nothing but a thief, but when he removes the mask to prove it, there is a happy surprise for them both!



You can view the full Stories for Healing recording here with my introduction as well as our post-telling chat about the merits of the story (and why Jim likes my version - the fact that the King sees the masks and knows it is smiling) - over other versions.