Starter Kit. Idea 72 of 500. Cluster 4
Moonlit storytelling: the legends, the kings, the histories
The mechanism, from the book
An app that tells people what is happening tonight converts a day visit into a 2-night stay.
The first step
Write one 40-minute telling of the site's legends and kings, and perform it for guests in a guesthouse garden on the next full-moon night. Charge a small fee and ask each guest what they would pay next time. Then ask the owner to host a regular night. The owner's yes and a returning audience are the proof.
- Who pays first
- Guests at guesthouses near the ancient sites who want to hear the stories they could not read on the signs.
- What leaves today
- The island's histories reach visitors in brief or not at all; a storytelling night sells them at length and fills an evening.
Ask first
- Department of Cultural Affairs. Ask whether they know storytellers who tell the old legends.
- Central Cultural Fund. Ask whether storytelling evenings could be held at or near their sites.
Check before you spend
Where an evening gathering is allowed, that the stories told are faithful to the legends, and what safety lighting guests need.
Find out these three numbers
- What will visitors pay for an evening of stories?
- How many nights a month is the moon bright enough?
- Which hotels would book seats for their guests?
A comparison from the book
Sigiriya. Chapter Five
"Storytelling under the moon: the legends of the rock, the king and the fortress."
The book names storytelling under the moon as an evening worth staying for.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.