STORYTELLER’S CONFERENCE DAY 1

Join us for the 2023 Storyteller’s Conference! An opportunity to fill your toolbox, grow as an artist, and train with several experts of their craft – local and international.  Storytellers of all experience levels welcome.  Participate in one or both days of the conference, each morning starting off with some coffee and snacks and many opportunities for networking – all conveniently located in the accessible CSI Spadina, just minutes from our main festival venues!

$130 per day / $220 for both
Members get 10% off!

Conference Day 1 Schedule:

Welcome & Coffee – 9:30am-10:00am

Improv for Storytellers with Christel Bartelse
10:00am-12:00pm
Start Day 1 of the conference with these 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!

LUNCH – 12:00pm-1:00pm

The Emotional Arc of Stories with Loren Niemi
1:00pm-3:00pm
Beyond the plot of the story there are powerful emotional arcs within a story – the journey of the characters within the story, the experience of the story’s narrator as they tell, and the audience’s response in hearing the tale. Each can be an opportunity for deep listening. Each can influence the way the story is presented and received. This is a hands-on exploration of the how and why of the shaping of all three before, during, and after the moment as you craft an engaging storytelling experience.

BREAK – 15 minutes

The Red Thread of the Story with Dan Yashinsky
3:15pm-5:15pm
“Never play an ace when a two will do.” Poker proverb
“This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.” Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
When a storyteller begins to speak, what makes us want to know what happens next?  What is the “red thread” of the story connecting the first word to the last? Using a mix of stories, reflection, participants’ examples, playful exercises, the workshop explores this mysterious quality of suspense.  

Curated by Paul Aflalo