Hello parents and caregivers!
With support from the Registry Theatre and from Ontario Presents, I am offering a series of one-time story-writing workshops for school-aged youth and children. Each workshop tailored to the individual participant's level of comfort and ability.
For the purposes of a larger project, detailed below, these workshops are free of charge and done in-person with utmost safety precautions. Parents and caregivers are welcome to participate.
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Workshop content
For children under ten(Story ends and intro begins at 5-minute mark.)
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For youth over ten |
Young people are already experts at creating new original stories!
Using a fun and breezy tone, integrating simple warm-ups, and working from your child's own original ideas, we will learn and use traditional story-structure elements: character, rising action, crisis, and denouement.
These elements help any writer, at any level, to tidy their story, pursue clarity, and reach a satisfying and artful ending.
Workshops are two hours long and conducted in-person.
Using a fun and breezy tone, integrating simple warm-ups, and working from your child's own original ideas, we will learn and use traditional story-structure elements: character, rising action, crisis, and denouement.
These elements help any writer, at any level, to tidy their story, pursue clarity, and reach a satisfying and artful ending.
Workshops are two hours long and conducted in-person.
Covid Safety
- Parents and caregivers are invited to attend, participate, or observe.
- We will work outdoors at your home, in a nearby park, or indoors at the Registry Theatre (122 Frederick St) where there is plenty of room for physical distancing.
- I will remain a minimum of six feet away.
- If indoors, I will wear a mask the entire time.
- I will clean my hands before and after each workshop.
- Families must provide their own snacks, water, and stationary
(paper, pencils, pens, a hard surface to draw on). - Families are welcome to weigh-in on what pandemic safety looks like.
I believe it is important to work together, with parents and caregivers, in person. This will help make the workshop more fun. Particularly in a time when many young people are spending countless hours attending school at a computer screen or challenged by other necessary restrictions.
About the Instructor
My name is Ciarán Myers. I have been teaching dance, drama, and creative writing to people from 4 to 64 years of age for over 15 years. I am also a doting father to a whip-smart four-year-old here in the Region of Waterloo. I am overeducated in my field and my original scripts have been produced to acclaim in four different countries.
Full BIO.
Full BIO.
End Goals
This is part of an artistic commission.
After enough workshops have occurred I will culminate the content into a single finished product. Imagine a new anthology presented in performance! The finished product will be shared with you and your community.
The exact nature of this final presentation will depend upon the quantity, quality, tone, and content of the stories that have been created, shared, and collected.
To assist with this, I will request your permission to audio-record our workshop (protecting the names of participants) and to photograph the child's original work. While doing so would help my process, it would have no impact on the workshop itself and is not mandatory.
After enough workshops have occurred I will culminate the content into a single finished product. Imagine a new anthology presented in performance! The finished product will be shared with you and your community.
The exact nature of this final presentation will depend upon the quantity, quality, tone, and content of the stories that have been created, shared, and collected.
To assist with this, I will request your permission to audio-record our workshop (protecting the names of participants) and to photograph the child's original work. While doing so would help my process, it would have no impact on the workshop itself and is not mandatory.
My daughter, telling me her original story on the side of our bike shed:
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The power of storytellingWhen asked to pitch a project to Ontario Presents I chose to start from a series of story-writing workshops because there is an idea among psychologists that creating fiction can help people deal with their internal challenges. As we approach the end of this universally difficult year, I believe everyone should have access to the support they need.
I hope that receiving our children's stories in the finished product will support us a little as well. I am not a psychologist and I will never ask anyone to divulge their trauma. I may ask "how are you doing" and then invite the participant to imagine their answer as a fictional character. Every other aspect of the workshop is derived purely from my expertise as an artist and writer, never therapy. Ultimately we are just making up stories! |
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