Course Length: 4 Weeks, Tuesday evenings July 21-August 11, 6-8pm EDT
Course Format: Virtual instruction via Zoom, communication with classmates and instructor on Slack
Pre-requisites: None
Class Size: 8
This introductory storytelling class teaches students the foundations to the art of storytelling for live performance.
In this four week online course, students will learn oral storytelling for live performance. They will produce a written piece that could be memorized or improvised around and performed at a live storytelling event or a poetry slam. Students will discover their personal ethics and aesthetics to apply to the art of storytelling. This class will focus on first person storytelling due to time constraints, though character based storytelling (Dame Edna), spoken word (Henry Rollins) and story-based stand up comedy (Mike Birbiglia) may be touched on briefly during course lectures.
NOTE: **This course is not a comedy course**, though comedians of various disciplines are welcome to explore this craft, as well as individuals with no previous comedy or storytelling experience. Students are not required to do so, but they may choose to tell emotionally complex stories from their own lives. Therefore, it is imperative that students approach this course and their classmates' moments of personal vulnerability with respect.
Students will learn all of the steps involved in crafting a story that is ideal for performing at a storytelling event or poetry slam. Students will perform the story they have produced, either memorizing or improvising around their pieces. They will discover and develop their own storytelling styles. In addition to learning the fundamental skills necessary to successfully produce and convey a live performance, they will each learn various storytelling structures, develop their onstage personas, and cogently describe and defend their personal aesthetics and ethics as storytellers.
Class Highlights:
*Communicating as effectively as possible, both as a writer and as a performer
*Leaning how best to make the fundamentals of storytelling serve one's personal approach to the craft
* Honoring one's personal performance aesthetics and ethics in the professional world
Tentative schedule:
Week 1: What is storytelling, and which are the stories only I can tell?
Week 2: Creating material: How do I become the star of my own story?
Week 3: Performing material: How do I share my story with an audience?
Week 4: Performances (with feedback from the instructor)
Class size is limited to 8 students. All instruction will take place online; students must have reliable Internet access and the ability to use Zoom (laptop, desktop or mobile app). Assignments will be submitted through Google Docs. Class runs once weekly for 4 weeks beginning on Tuesday, July 21, 2020 from 6:00-8:00 PM EDT. Students in other time zones are welcome!
ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Performer, playwright, and instructor Dr. Jill Summerville had a chronic case of stage fright until she earned her Phd in Theatre in 2014. Previously an instructor of record at The Ohio State University, she currently works as a freelance writer. She has written and performed in several plays. She is honored to have been a recipient of a 2020 Individual Artists with Disabilities grant for her humorous play about disability-related etiquette, If You Can Order A Drink At Starbucks, We Can Be Best Friends! She is a regularly featured storyteller for Wild Goose Creative (Columbus, OH) and Grown Up Storytime (Houston, TX). However, she believes what best qualifies her to teach storytelling is that she understands that the stories we tell ourselves define us. Five different people rejected her as a date for her senior prom, despite her not even wanting to attend prom. For her part, she takes this as a sign that she should save her first dance for her celebrity crush.
Share your thoughts with her at jillellensummerville.com, because she would love to read them.This introductory storytelling class teaches students the foundations to the art of storytelling for live performance.