I invented the word ‘interpretelling’ to stress how important great storytelling is in engaging people with heritage sites. People love stories (you ask the advertisers or indeed anyone in creative communication) and heritage unzipped is story (… after story, after story)
Interpretelling is about really understanding what makes a good story.
Interpretelling values and works with the time-honoured ingredients of story: character, mystery, drama, pace, tone, intrigue, conflicts and dilemmas, and the spaces between the facts (as well as the facts themselves).
Interpretelling is democratic. It acknowledges that there are many ways of telling and hearing a story and that there can many voices invoved in the telling. What is required is interest, passion and an engaged commitment to the subject matter.
Interpretelling recognises that there is much much more to heritage than history or ecology.
Interpretelling draws on specific skills that are as old as storytelling itself and applies them to contemporary audiences. Chief among these is a strong connection with the audience.
Interpretelling is open-ended. At its best, it aims to create at least as many questions as answers. Most importantly it leaves people talking and thinking.