StoryFest 2024 - Workshops
9:30-11:00 - 90-minute intensive workshop
“From the Page to the Stage” with Jim Stowell
In Jim Stowell’s work there is “love, humor, danger and hope.” Critical praise for his storytelling often focuses on his ability to “create entire worlds on stage.” In this participatory workshop, Jim will present fundamental techniques to help your own audiences develop an emotional investment in your story and its characters. When you succeed in bringing people and places to life, listeners will carry your story with them when they leave the theater. For example, both in a story itself and in the performance of it, characters make entrances, walk, stand, sit, and speak. The workshop will include exercises in character expression through movement, breath, and voice. By applying Jim’s techniques to fully imagine the details of characters and places, your stories will have greater clarity and immersive power.
Jim Stowell is an award winning professional actor, director, playwright and storyteller. He has written and directed eleven full cast plays including, two children’s plays, three book adaptations and a Spanish language play. His play Traveling Light was published by Milkweed Editions. He has written and performed eleven one man plays. His work has also been performed on National Public Radio, seen at The Sundance Film Festival, The Toronto Film Festival, The National Storytelling Festival and 300 other venues around the USA, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and a village in the Amazon rainforest.
REGISTRATION AND PAYMENT REQUIRED FOR THIS 90-MINUTE INTENSIVE WORKSHOP.
$30 SAM member / $35 general public
11:15-12:30 - 75-minute workshop
Storytelling as a Restorative Tool to Unpack Intergenerational Trauma and Capture Wisdom and Healing, with Meghna Bhat
Writing our true personal stories and sharing them with others as well as listening to someone share their lived experiences can reduce feeling isolated, bridge intergenerational differences, and feel inspired by others’ stories. By using this creative, inclusive, accessible, and culturally relevant process of storytelling, participants will be first provided an overview of storytelling, its benefits, and its kinds. Next, they will be led through a guided story-writing activity followed by small circle sharing, thus strengthening the practice of active and compassionate listening in story circles. Grounded in trauma-informed, ethical, anti-oppressive, and compassionate approaches, participants will learn how to hold equitable spaces in story circles and facilitate safe and courageous intergenerational conversations in their communities. Storytellers will leave the session with a draft of their own stories for their healing and will additionally receive resources to use storytelling as a restorative tool for intergenerational community building.
Dr. Meghna Bhat (she/her) is a renowned national gender and social justice consultant, storyteller/ artist, multidisciplinary educator, and feminist scholar based in California. She is a proud first-generation immigrant from India who has lived in the US for the past 20 years. As a recipient of the 2022 Seeding Creativity Individual Artist Award, Dr. Bhat created Gulabi Stories: A South Asian Healing Initiative, a multidisciplinary project that uses storytelling to address healing within the South Asian diaspora community. She has found storytelling to be a creative fun way to build community and for her healing.
1:30-2:25 - 55-minute workshop
Wade in the Words, with Kathleen Johnson
Enhance senses and boost fun while adding magic to your stories!
We are multisensory with rich imaginations that enjoy exploring different spaces. Whether the story unfolds in a damp forest at midnight or a blinding desert of white bones, we, as storytellers, have fun mindfully sharing the smells and sounds of our imaginations. Come play with vivid and varied ways to invite your listeners to wade more deeply into the stories you tell. Together, let’s practice awareness of all five senses, consider many words used to express sensory experiences, explore basic body movements that highlight certain words, and then create a group story and repeat it with radically different details.
Kathleen Johnson is a musician and storyteller with a love of words, sounds and images. She explores ways to bring time-honored folktales and personal essays to modern audiences. Whether working with litigating attorneys preparing for court or fourth-grade students preparing for Spring concerts, she shares a toolbox of ideas to help illuminate and enliven the story that wants to be told. Kathleen graduated from Eastman School of Music in NY, studied acting with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC, and was Musical Act 2012 at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. She presently resides in Arlington, Texas.
2:40-3:35 - 55-minute workshops
Storytelling for Social Justice, with Thuba Thi Nguyễn
Spark change through powerful personal narratives! Explore a social issue close to your heart and draft a 2-5 minute testimony to advocate for (or against) a relevant bill. Delve into storytelling techniques, crafting impactful arguments, and confident delivery. Gain skills in overcoming bias, using your voice for justice, and engaging in civic life. Role-play hearings (optional) puts your words into action, amplifying your message for impact. Leave empowered to speak your truth and influence positive change.
Thuba Nguyễn is an Early Childhood Education Specialist and a children’s book author. As a female Vietnamese-African American author/creative, she believes it is vital to have more multiracial representation in all creative markets. She holds an Associates Applied Science in Early Childhood Education: Specialization in Special Needs and a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education Leadership. Her work centers on abolitionist teaching and anti-bias and anti-racist pedagogy. She wants to ensure our country's youngest scholars get every chance to read quality children’s books that reflect their lived experiences and the possibility of living vicariously through new characters and stories.
Interactive Storytelling for Youth and Families, with Nicholas Pawlowski
Join us 'round the Story Table for "The Fire Mountain," a story about two children who (with the help of their magic cow,) search for the golden bird and non-violently free her from a fiery dragon! Participants will interact, dance and draw what they heard in the story! (Paper & crayons provided)
Nicholas Pawlowski M. Ed. founded The Story Table Foundation to promote mental and emotional wellbeing through interactive storytelling! Nicholas believes that children learn best when we talk with rather than at them. Consequently, his use of improvisation, drawing and dancing help foster healthy childhood development, as well as teach values like empathy, thankfulness, kindness and cooperation. Over the years, Nicholas has observed that children's programs are better when they're intergenerational. Nicholas strives to present timeless tales that people of all ages can grow up with rather than out of! The contributions of our elders and extended family members are always welcome! Learn more at www.storytablefoundation.org