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PUBLIC SPEAKING

Making Literature travel... 

Above: Val and Professor Antonio Lamas greeting the British Ambassador, Alex Ellis, and the audience, at Monserrate Palace, Sintra. 

 

Val is often invited to speak about her work at a range of different events and venues. She has previously taught Public Speaking at Birkbeck University of London and continues to coach individual students.

 

If you would like to engage Val to give a talk or for coaching on public speaking, please contact her directly

 

TRIBUTE TO TAGORE: DELHI 2019

Val was delighted to present her talk Tribute to Tagore at the India International Centre in Delhi, November 2019.  

 

THE NEHRU CENTRE: LONDON 2018

On March 22nd 2018, Val interviewed Sujit Bhattacharjee for the launch of his book My Journey from an Asian British to British Asian at The Nehru Centre in London. Sujit's book is a fascinating read, which Val found to be a profound account of his life's journey. The Nehru Centre is the cultural outreach of the High Commission of India in the UK.  

 

THE NEHRU CENTRE: LONDON 2016

On March 31st 2016, Val was invited by the Tagoreans to speak at a symposium on the relevance of Rabindranath Tagore in modern times, held at The Nehru Centre. Val chose to speak about Tagore's visionary ideas concerning human impact on the environment, which Tagore first communicated over a century ago. Claire Short chaired the following discussion with the audience.

 

STAGING WILLIAM BLAKE: VENICE 2016

In 2016, Val was invited to Venice to present a talk about her stagings of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience to Circolo Italo-Britannico Venezia. The presentation included live readings by Anna Del Prete of Giuseppe Ungaretti's Italian translations of Blake's work. John Tavener's music, which was inspired by Blake, was played on recorder. The presentation was followed by a dinner.

 

This was the first event we staged in Italy since our tour of Byron in Love to Verona, it was delightful to be invited to return!

 

Above: William Blake's illustration of Beatrice and Dante for The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. 

  

 

L'AMBASSADE DE L'INDE (THE INDIAN EMBASSY IN PARIS): PARIS 2014

On November 13th 2014, Val presented an evening with Bee Formentelli about Tagore's work on childhood. Bee Formentelli, a translator of Tagore's short stories from Bengali to French, presented her thesis Tagore and Childhood. This was followed by a screening of Wadja's film adaptation of Tagore's The Post Office. 

 

In their presentations, Bee and Val both highlighted Janusz Korczak's staging of The Post Office during World War Two. Korczak staged this production with children in the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw. He specifically chose this play so that the children may experience joy (which is at the heart of Tagore's play) before being sent to the gas chambers. Korczak chose to remain with these children and die with them. 

 

Val spoke on her concept for her own staging of The Post Office, which included detailed research into Korczak's work. She presented a short filmed extract from her production, which featured nine-year-old Jyoti Goel playing Amal (below picture). The presentation was followed by a discussion and questions with the audience and a concluding reception.

 

 Above: Jyoti Goel and Noah Brooks after a performance of The Post Office.

 

TAGORE - THE GLOBAL IMPACT OF THE WRITER IN THE COMMUNITY: EDINBURGH 2012

Val was invited to the International Tagore Conference by The Scottish Centre of Tagore Studies at Edinburgh Napier University to give a talk about her staging of The Post Office at the British Library in May 2011.

  

 

THE MARTINEAU SOCIETY CONFERENCE: BRISTOL 2012

Val was invited to speak at The Martineau Society Conference in Bristol. Her talk, Deafness: Disability or Empowerment?, focused on Harriet Martineau and whether she regarded being deaf as a disability or an empowerment. Val also presented The Live Literature Company film Shakespeare and Sign Language

 

Left: a cartoon of Harriet Martineau listening to William Wordsworth with her ear trumpet.

 

ROYAL DOULTON - A FAMILY HISTORY: LONDON 2011

On November 10th 2011, Val gave the first presentation of her talk Royal Doulton - A Family History at the V&A Museum. Founded in Lambeth by John Doulton, the Royal Doulton company was driven to success by John's son Sir Henry Doulton. Since its inception in 1815, Royal Doulton has become synonymous with beautiful fine porcelain and richly decorative pottery design. As John Doulton's great great granddaughter, Val offered a personal insight from her own archive.

 

MAINSTREAMING BENGALI DRAMA AND PLAYWRIGHTS - CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES EXPLORED: LONDON 2011

A Brick Lane Circle Seminar as part of a season of Bangla Drama

The Live Literature Company has a strong relationship with the Brick Lane Circle community since Val's staging of The Post Office at The British Library. Val was invited to the Brick Lane Circle for the above evening. She presented the evening with Mukul Ahmed. Both spoke about their work staging Bengali drama.

 

THE SEXY BLAKE CONFERENCE: BLAKE - GENDER & SEXUALITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY: OXFORD 2010

In July 2010, Val was a speaker at The Sexy Blake Conference in Oxford. Her talk was entitled Blake's Visions of Freedom and Repression: as staged by The Live Literature Company.

Left: Peter Barnes in the title role of Elliott Hayes play Blake

 

AN EVENING DEDICATED TO E.M. FORSTER - A PASSAGE TO INDIA: LONDON 2009 

In October 2009, Val was invited to inaugurate a new literary tribute evening to be held annually at the Nehru Centre. Each tribute evening would celebrate a writer connected to India. This particular evening was dedicated to E.M Forster. Val chose to speak about his novel A Passage to India. The talk was followed by a discussion with the audience chaired by Venu Dhupa

 

The talk was followed in the consecutive week by a screening of David Lean's 1984 film of A Passage to India. William Radice, the distinguished translator of Tagore into English, chaired following discussion with the audience. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE MARTINEAU SOCIETY CONFERENCE: UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA 2007

Val was invited to speak at the Martineau Society Conference about her grandmother Vera Wheatley's biography The Life and work of Harriet Martineau. Her talk was entitled Vera Wheatley and Harriet Martineau. Val was subsequently invited to repeat this talk at Clare College, Cambridge University.  

 

THE 32ND INTERNATIONAL BYRON CONFERENCE: PARIS 2006

Val presented her talk Staging Byron at the Sorbonne for the 32nd International Byron Conference. The talk focused on Val's staging of Anne Flemming's plays Byron the Poet and Byron in Love.

 

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CHILD SOLDIERS CAMPAIGN: LONDON 1998

Val was one of the founding members of the Children's Human Rights Group at Amnesty International when it was relaunched. Other founding members included David Maidment, Fred Shortland, and Catherine Suggitt. In 1998, this group ran a successful UK-wide campaign for Amnesty that focussed on child soldiers. Sadly, Catherine Suggitt later passed away and the tribute Val wrote for her can be found on the Amnesty website. 

 

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