Student & Teacher Workshops
We’d like to suggest one more way to go deeper
Down into a story and make sure it’s a keeper.
When we get up and act out a tale what we do
Is we bring it to life and we make it brand new.
We get inside the people the story’s about
And we learn all about them from their insides out.
The
WE TELL STORIES PROCESS
Of Turning Stories Into Plays…
is a melding of the arts of storytelling and theatre.
Simply put, it uses improvisational exercises to turn stories into plays.
It is the process the We Tell Stories company has employed for over four decades to create our own shows, and we believe it is so accessible that it will work in any classroom willing to give it some energy.
With slight adjustments for very young or more sophisticated classes, the same series of exercises work for every age from Kindergarten to Adult
Student Workshops/Residencies
Yes, these workshops illuminate the California Standards for Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA). Yes, they teach children how to turn stories into plays. But more importantly, they foster the tenets of improvisational theatre:
- Trust and Support
- Make Everybody’s Work Your Own
- Pay Attention
- Be Adaptable
- Admit That Anything is Possible
- Plant Your Feet, Face Front, and Stay on Your Toes
- Say What You Do, Do What You Say
- Instead of saying, “No,” say, “Yes, and…”
These are tenets to live your life by.
They create an ideal atmosphere in which to learn. And it’s all accomplished through playing games.
Ideal is one workshop a week for at least 5 weeks. However, we can provide single, stand alone, workshops that focus either on improvisation or on turning a story into a play.
Teacher Workshops
/Professional Development
Yes, we can come and do workshops and residencies with your children, and we’re really good at it. But ideally, they should learn these lessons from you.
You get a handbook that delineates all the exercises, their variations and extensions, and the expected outcomes. A 90 minute session will give you the basics, 3 hours gets you deeper, a 5 day intensive will make you an expert.
The We Tell Stories Process is designed as much for the teacher as it is for the student. So much of what you have to do, every day, is correct children when they’re wrong. In this work, the children are never wrong. And they never fail. Because it becomes your job to MAKE THE CHILDREN RIGHT. It’s a teaching muscle you don’t get to use enough. Exercise that muscle as you take the children through this Process, and it may find its way into other areas of your teaching.
And remember, it’s never about performance. It’s always about Process.
The Process is the Product.
