Children’s storyteller flips the script during latest lockdown

A FORMER librarian and Geelong West-based storyteller took her passion online because of Victoria’s latest lockdown.

Lee Foyster, more commonly known as Grannylee, does pop-up storytelling sessions with her trusty ukelele for young children and their parents in Geelong West’s Sparrow Park and at local kindergartens.

But after receiving many requests for her next performance during the state’s latest lockdown, she moved online for one of her performances in a time where face-to-face contact with kids was no longer a possibility.

“There were people saying ‘When are you going to do popups?’, so I just decided to do one in my own garden and that is what I did,” Ms Foyster said.

“I suppose also, I really missed interacting with kids and the only way you could interact with the kids at the moment is through a screen, and so that is why I did my pop-up online.”

Ms Foyster did a Facebook Live session earlier in the year ,which made her familiar with the media process the second time around after being asked to do a similar popup by one of the community groups in the first of the two latest lockdowns. As a result, it took her a couple of hours to shoot, edit and then release her 17-minute YouTube upload as the first video on her GrannyLee page.

Ms Foyster also has vast experience as a librarian, spending the past 24 years in libraries such as the Belmont and Geelong libraries, with a large chunk of that being on the children’s floor where Ms Foyster’s love of educating children continued
to grow.

Ms Foyster’s love of working with kids prevailed, starting her own business after wanting to retire following the birth of her first grandchild last year and with the pandemic ever-looming.

“When people ask where I get my energy from, I tell them I just look at the kids and I am just inspired. The smile on their faces is all I need,” she said.

A former resident of Drysdale, Ms Foyster also dabbles in acting, having done children’s pantomimes for Theatre3triple2 at The Potato Shed in the suburb, most recently for her role as Mama Bear in the theatre’s rendition of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Grannylee Uke will return to more face-to-face pop-ups as soon as they become available depending on restrictions, but the storyteller will continue to occasionally produce more online videos should the need arise.