Master Classes
Thursday, August 7, 1-6 pm
These classes will be limited to 25 participants each. Be sure to sign up early once registration opens!
Eth-Noh-Tec
Moving the Story: Enhancing Your Performance Skills
Eth-Noh-Tec will share their expertise in
1) movement and gesture,
2) focus and commanding an audience,
3) face and character voice expression,
4) staging,
5) story dynamics, and
6) coaching with
7) a whole lot of fun!
Whew!
If you’ve ever wondered how they do it – it’s actually very simple. So learning their secrets to apply to your own storytelling style will be easy! Come with a story you’re dying to work on!
Diane Ferlatte
The Future Springs From the Past
History & Storytelling
History and story have a lot in common but they're not the same. In this workshop we will discuss and look at the differences between history & storytelling. This workshop will look at a wide range of historical events, & we will practice raising the narration of those events to the storytelling arts. We will also make use of a variety of resources from the past (including songs, music, poems, sermons, speeches) to bring life to history through storytelling. We will practice illuminating the events of history through the development of characters, plot, conflict, emotion, etc. As a storyteller Diane will share what she has experienced in researching and collecting oral narrations from a time past which she turned into a one woman storytelling show. Come ready to hear, meet, and experience people from a time gone by as we learn to re-humanize history through storytelling.
Mary Hamilton
Storying Your Classroom
Quick, practical, learn-today do-tomorrow, strategies and activities for including storytelling in your classroom. Whatever the grade, whatever the subject, storytelling belongs!
Jim May
Personal Narrative, Culture, and Myth
“…a myth is a living entity that exists within every person. You will get the true, living form of the myth if you can see it as it spins away inside yourself.”
-- Robert Johnson
This master class will examine the confluence of personal and family experience, cultural influences, and mythology in each of our lives. The perspectives gained can help us craft stories/make art, inform our life plans, debunk illusions, and develop the art of living with the decisions we have made.
Loren Niemi
Mapping the Territory: Exploring Narrative Paths
How do you move beyond the standard narrative habit? This participatory workshop can change how you shape stories. No kidding, Storytellers who have taken this workshop have said that it "unlocked how they think about stories." It examines ten useful elegant plot forms, both the familiar and the exotic that can be used in the creation of lively narratives.
This workshop condensation of Loren Niemi's "Book of Plots" is a hands-on immersion that explores plot forms suitable for creating exciting narrative performance, providing examples of their use, formulas for structuring and considerations of how they function and are shaped. The plot map follows this progression:
• Traditional Narratives ("the journey of the hero")
• Digressive Narratives
• Revelation (detective stories and jokes)
• Mirrored Narratives
• Two styles of Flashback Narrative
• Regression Narratives
• Parallel Plotting
• Meta-Narration
• List Stories
This process is supplemented with both small group and individual exercises for participants in shaping narrative material of their choice and a 12-page handout.
Connie Regan-Blake
Stage Presence and Deep Listening
This master class focuses on taking the stage with confidence and style. Whether the venue is a front porch, the boardroom, school assembly or main stage, this workshop will help prepare you for being at ease in front of people and staying present in your storytelling.
Connie creates a community of appreciation that welcomes deep listening and telling in an encouraging, compassionate and playful atmosphere. Using the five senses and drawing on your own strengths, you will learn tools for finding your center and letting go of fear and performance anxiety.
It is an opportunity to learn ways through deep listening to create an immediate, powerful and genuine connection with the audience; nurturing your spontaneity from the first approach to the stage through final bows. By being prepared and relaxed, you create a fertile ground for your stories to take root and come to life.
All are welcome: STORYTELLERS, ARTISTS, EMCEES, POETS and SPEAKERS, everyone who wants to develop and enhance their stage comfort and public speaking and performance skills.
“When I left Connie’s workshop, I was feeling refreshed and inspired. I still am!” Workshop participant
