Workshop Series 2012
January 9: Megan Wells
Literary Muscles:
How to Tell Stories from Literary Sources
February 13: Susan O’Halloran
Teaching Without Preaching:
Creating Stories that Educate AND Entertain
March 19: Loren Niemi
Beyond Happily Ever After:
Writing Endings
April 30: Jo Radner
Listening for Stories:
The Art of Gathering and Performing Oral History
Others TBA
Buy a Northstar Workshop Punchcard!
Members get 4 workshops for $80 — savings of $40!! — and non-members pay $130. The punchcards are good for four admissions, whether it’s one person attending multiple workshops, multiple people attending the same workshop, or a combination. To reserve your spot in advance and pay with a punchcard, please email workshops@northstarstorytelling.org and let us know which workshop(s) you would like to attend.
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The Workshop Series
March 19: Loren Niemi
Beyond Happily Ever After
with Loren Niemi
Monday, March 19, 7-9:30pm
Location: 35th and Grand in Uptown
(private home; exact address will be provided upon registration)
$30 for Northstar Members, $40 for others
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A workshop on arriving at appropriate and satisfying conclusions. A story begins at the beginning (and we might argue that anyplace we want to start will do) but where it ends should not be left up to happenstance, failure of imagination or bad timing. We will examine and test story endings – from the classical formulas, to the emotional, the philosophical, punch lines and useful or patronizing morals to understand something about the where and how of ending our stories. For: beginner through advanced storyteller
Loren Niemi is a storyteller, performer, writer/poet and the Executive Director of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theatre. His storytelling and written work has been called “postmodern” with a bias toward the philosophically and emotionally nuanced story. His community building work has been divided between working usually with neighborhoods or arts organizations and often with minority and immigrant groups. He is the co-author with Elizabeth Ellis of the critically acclaimed “Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Story” and the author of the forthcoming “The New Book of Plots” on the use of narrative plot forms.
April 30: Jo Radner
Listening for Stories: The Art of Gathering and Performing Oral History
with Jo Radner
Monday, April 30, 7pm
Location: 35th and Grand in Uptown
(private home; exact address will be provided upon registration)
$30 for Northstar Members, $40 for others
Oral history interviewing is a flexible and valuable tool for storytellers. Do you want to connect more deeply with your own tale traditions by collecting family stories – not just the stock anecdotes that Uncle Harry performs every Thanksgiving, but the deeper memories, the controversial accounts, the reflective, meaningful stories? Do you want to tell the story of your group or culture through the vivid recollections of its members? Would you like to serve a community by creating performances (or helping it to create performances) of its history? or construct a compelling portrait of a remembered historical event?
In this very active workshop, Jo will show you how to use your skills as a storyteller to conduct powerful interviews that generate stories – how to listen deeply to emerging memories, how to be silent when silence is needed, and how to ask effective questions at the right moment. Through exercises and practice interviews, you will learn ways to work within the collaborative dynamics of a good interview to trigger memories, evoke stories, and maintain an ethical relationship with those you interview.
As time allows, we’ll also consider artistic ways of presenting stories gathered from interviews. What do we need to bear in mind when we are presenting other people’s stories? What are the most effective ways to shape creative performances of oral history? Jo will offer examples of presentations and performances.
If participants are planning specific projects, Jo would be glad to do individual coaching and consultation at a discounted price on the morning after the workshop.
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More info on these and other workshops in our series coming soon!