Through coaching, storytelling, theatre, and classes, I help individuals and communities name the stories that were never truly theirs, interrupt them, and step into their next chapter with restored hope, agency, self-authorship, and magic.
rooted stories. restored hope. reclaimed power.
The ancient Greeks called theatre the seeing place: the space where humans play at being human, make meaning, share their stories, and see themselves reflected in each other’s.
That seeing is also how we discover we’ve been living in the wrong story. Most of us are walking around inside narratives we didn’t write handed to us by families, faiths, relationships, and systems that cast us as supporting characters in someone else’s plot. Theatre and the narrative arts are how we finally see them, sometimes with tears and sometimes with a laugh that surprises you.
This is a space for restorying: narrative arts as the path in, narrative awareness as the moment of seeing, narrative agency as the power to take your story back. All of it is held in Slow Theatre, storytelling, coaching, and more than a little play. Whether you’re an artist, a healer, or someone seeking a different way to move through your life, you’re in the right place.
Work With Me
Your story, multiple ways in.
Reclaim your story, hope, and power through one-on-one and group coaching through the narrative arts.
Storytimes. Story circles. Storytelling shows. For kids and adults, with more than a little theatre.
Participatory, trauma-informed performance as a path to collective healing. Theatre for Hope and Healing, live and online.
Structured spaces for storytellers, actors, and anyone ready to play: Safe Place to Play methodology, Restorying Hope workshops, Shakespeare technique, and more.
For actors and storytellers who want their body to feel like a safe place to embody stories again, using nervous‑system aware practice and open‑minded table work to support your self‑trust as you rediscover the pleasure of play in your creative work.
The Narrative Triad
Narrative arts. Narrative awareness. Narrative agency. This is the framework Janine developed to describe the journey from the story you were handed to the one you actually want to live.
It’s not a therapy model or a self-help program. Rather, it’s a map, drawn from theatre, folklore, and the oldest human practices of making meaning together. Each concept builds on the last, and together they form the path that runs through everything on this site.
years of
experience
About
Janine Ashley
Janine Ashley is a storyteller, theatre artist, narrative coach, and trained folklorist based in Chicago. Her work sits at the intersection of narrative arts, narrative awareness, and narrative agency — the practice of seeing the stories running your life and taking authorship back. She has spent twelve years in theatre and the healing arts, and she brings genuine warmth, deep craft, and more than a little play to all of her work.
The Work, Live
Slow Theatre
A glimpse of theatre as a healing art — performance, presence, and the conversation after. These clips are from Ibsen’s Ghosts: A Slow Theatre Ritual for Mental Health & Collective Healing, Chicago, March 20, 2025.
Coming Up: August 9
Eat the Red Flower: A Storyteller’s Workshop on Pleasure, Presence & Power — a live online storytelling workshop led by Janine Ashley, using folktale, embodied presence, and improvised story exchange to explore how pleasure and power move through our stories. All levels of experience welcome.
Patty
Memphis, TN
Alex
Toronto
Wendy
Memphis, TN