Gateway Theatre’s community engagement producer, Yanting Qiu, is a fervent believer in the power of storytelling.
“Anyone can be a storyteller,” Qiu tells Pancouver over Zoom. “And anyone can tell a story at any occasion, with or without a mic. The only thing you need is your story and an audience member. How to find an important story and a good way to tell so it is embraced and loved can be a process that is unique to everyone.”
Qiu maintains that storytelling enables audience members to learn new perspectives. In her view, storytelling engenders trust with those from different backgrounds, which benefits society.
“It helps people understand each other because we, as human beings, are shaped and limited by our own experience,” Qiu says. “We can only experience so much as ourselves from the original family, the original neighbourhood community, the people around us, and the cultural practices around us…but there is so much we can learn from each other when we share good stories. Storytelling connects us.”
As part of Richmond Pride Week, Qiu will bring five queer storytellers from diverse backgrounds to the second-floor lobby of Gateway Theatre to share experiences. True Voices: Pride Storytelling & Tea is a free event beginning at 7 p.m. on Thursday (July 31). Registration is required.
“This is the second time Gateway is doing this,” Qiu says. “We had lots of wonderful stories last year.”
Qiu invites diverse group of storytellers
As curator, Qiu has ensured that the True Voices event reflects a broad range of experiences and backgrounds. The Gateway Theatre website describes one of the speakers, Prairie Wolfe, as “a Cantonese and Hui ethnic minority settler from British Hong Kong”, as well as a fiddle player and trained clinical social worker. According to Qiu, Wolfe will tie her story to her instrument and musical practice.
A trans storyteller, Noelle, is a recent high school graduate and an aspiring artist and writer. Yet another storyteller, Effie Pow, is a writer, editor, and cultural collector who will discuss what the Asian queer community was like in Vancouver in the 1990s. Pow has co-created events herself, including Perilous Words at the 2025 LiterAsian Festival and Hakka Bridges at the Historic Joy Kogawa House in 2023.
The other storytellers at True Voices are three-time Vancouver Story Slam year-end finalist Zed Payne and Mandarin-speaking multidisciplinary artist and immigrant Jaylon Han. Deb Williams, co-creator and one of the stars of Mom’s the Word, is the storytelling consultant for True Voices.
Qiu has a longstanding personal and academic interest in theatre, including Kunqu, one of the oldest forms of Chinese opera. She graduated from UBC with a master of arts degree and was later accepted into the PhD program in theatre and film studies. In 2009, Qiu met Williams, who became her storytelling mentor.
“She asked me if I had a story,” Qiu recalls. “I said, ‘No, I don’t have a story.’ ”
Williams told Qiu that as a theatre artist and storyteller herself, she found meaning in encouraging others to share a story about themselves. Moreover, Williams had established a storytelling practice called The Flame. It became a monthly event at Cottage Bistro on Main Street (before the pandemic).
On many occasions, Qiu sat in the audience, transfixed by storytellers’ authentic tales. There were lots of non-professional speakers and, according to Qiu, many were just as scared as anyone else at the thought of going on-stage.
“So many of the stories cracked open my heart,” Qiu reveals.
Storytellers receive tips before speaking
Yet she repeatedly said “no” when Williams asked if she would like to share a story. In those days, Qiu didn’t feel that she had any interesting stories to tell about herself. Yet Williams persisted.
“She did it very strategically,” Qiu says with a smile.
One day, Williams asked Qiu if she would attend a workshop on Granville Island to discuss an aspect of her PhD thesis. Qiu had developed a theory about the power of audiences, and Williams wanted her to share this with the students.
Qiu did this. Then Williams asked if she would join one of the storytelling groups, which only had two people instead of three. Qiu felt that she couldn’t say “no”.
“I followed the practice, and after the first day, I was, like, ‘This is crazy. I can’t believe what I’ve experienced—I love so much what other people shared in their stories.’ ”
By the end of the second day, Qiu realized that she had many stories that she could share.
“Eventually, I started to teach workshops because I can’t stop talking about how amazing storytelling is and I am eager to hear other people’s stories.”
She has done this coaching with Williams, employing The Flame’s methodology. Two such events were the 2023 Queer Asian Stories Collection (as co-curator) and 2024 Rainbow Youth Project (as producer) for Zee Zee Theatre.
In Flame storytelling, the storytellers are advised to speak in the first person in the present tense and limit the length of a story to eight to 12 minutes.
“In the process of preparing a story in the workshop, participants receive a lot of feedback—a lot of notes—from other storytellers and the facilitator,” Qiu says. “That is actually often a very eye-opening moment that reminds us that ‘my normal’ is only my normal.”
She also emphasizes the importance of catching the audience’s attention from the very beginning.
“Start with the high-stakes moment,” Qiu declares. “Then, once you’ve made sure you have their attention, you go back to set the background and unfold the story.”
Gateway Theatre will present True Voices: Pride Storytelling & Tea at 7 p.m. on July 31. The event is free but registration is required through the Gateway Theatre website. Follow Pancouver on X @PancouverMedia and Bluesky @pancouver.bsky.social. Pancouver is also on Instagram @PancouverMedia. Follow Charlie Smith on Bluesky @charliesmithvcr.bsky.social.
