Storytelling Toronto

In-Person and Online Courses in Storytelling

Storytelling Toronto’s teaching program helps all our students, regardless of experience, to achieve a deeper connection with the stories they tell and better communicate those stories to to everyone who listens.

Our First Steps (Storytelling I) is typically the course most begin with. Next Steps (Storytelling II) is open to those who wish to take their telling further, whether they have taken First Steps in the past, or have equivalent experience. We offer the Master Class for advanced and professional-level storytellers.

We also offer a variety of themed courses, whether it is taking your story from a narrative to a script for a puppet show, shaping your family stories, to bilingual storytelling. Our non-foundational courses vary from year to year.

Financial aid is available for those students for whom cost is a barrier. Please email us at hello@storytellingtoronto.org. Be sure to let us know which course you are interested in taking; how the course can benefit you; and, how much you can afford to pay. Assistance will be awarded on a case by case basis.

In addition to our core and special courses, Storytelling Toronto also facilitates private courses and workshops tailored to client needs. If you are looking for a professional development workshop for teachers or librarians, or leadership development for corporate employees or interns, you have come to the right place. Reach out to us and we’ll help you create the right program to suit your needs

Telling Family Stories

with Celia Lottridge

Dates: October 23 - november 27, 2025

Time: 7:00 - 9:30 PM

Price: $160.00 + tax ($140.00 + TAX FOR MEMBERS)

To Register

About The Course

This course is taking place entirely online! Families are rich with material for storytelling, and telling family stories can bring you closer to your history, your heritage and give you a new understanding and appreciation for your family. For this online course, you will choose a story that can be based on people from your family, from your own personal experience in your family, on important places in your family’s history or on particular events that happened in your family.

In this online course, you will learn how to: choose a focus for your story, decide what details to include, and develop a narrative that will make the story a good and important one to tell.

Celia Lottridge has been a part of Storytelling Toronto since the organization began and has taken and taught many of the courses offered. She is particularly interested in helping tellers develop their understanding of a story and perfect skills that will make their telling effective for an audience.

First Steps to Storytelling

with Ruth Danziger

Dates: NOVEMBER 4 - DECEMBER 9, 2025

Time: 7:00 - 9:00 PM

Price: $160.00 + tax ($140.00 + TAX FOR MEMBERS)

To Register

About The Course

Are you curious about storytelling? This beginners’ course will help you to discover the basics of what makes an engaging tale and how to tell one, without notes! We’ll use folktales as a starting point, to learn principles which you can apply to any other story. You will discover your strengths as you work in partners and small groups. Every class, you will tell a story and in every class, you will get supportive feedback. Each week, you will learn about a new aspect of storytelling through lecture, discussion and hands-on experience

Ruth Danziger is a storyteller and multi-disciplinary artist. In addition to her varied work as a storyteller, she has edited two collections of stories and is a founding member of the improvisational voice collective, Hathorah. Ruth brings the breadth of her skills and background to her teaching approach. She enjoys working with others and is committed to the art and practice of storytelling and to the ways we can support each other to grow as storytellers.

Improv For Storytellers

with Christel Bartelse

Dates: NOVEMBER 26 & DECEMBER 3, 2025

Time: 6:30 - 9:00 PM

Price: $115.00 + tax ($95.00 + TAX FOR MEMBERS)

To Register

About The Course

This course is taking place entirely online!

This two-session workshop will focus on guided improv exercises to help you build confidence in your storytelling ability and loosen your inhibitions. Through a variety of interactive games and exercises, you'll gain inspiration to be more spontaneous, find your authentic voice, and as a result, develop a deeper connection with any story, personal or traditional, that you choose to work on in future. You’ll learn how to take risks and fail — but gracefully, and with wild abandon. And you'll have fun!

This course is open to anyone who has taken an introductory storytelling course, from Storytelling Toronto or elsewhere.

Actor, storyteller, writer, creator and teacher, Christel Bartelse got her start in comedy and improv with the physical comedy duo, The Burnt Marshmallows (Canadian Comedy Award Nominees). She has also created and written six award winning solo shows and has toured them all across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Christel is Co-Producer and Co-Host of the Toronto storytelling show "But That's Another Story" and has told her stories on several personal story stages across the Toronto area. She teaches numerous workshops in improv, physical comedy, and solo creation around the city and is a faculty member of Humber College, The Toronto Film School and George BrownCollege.