Theatre Makers

A Workshop in Making Stories.

We live in an ambiance of story and seem to need it in the same way as we need food.

Though of course if starved of it, its not so clear as to how we might fare.

None the less, every one “gets” a little bit of it from some source or other, everyday, in the same way as we, by necessity, have a few meals. From the child who needs a bedtime story, to the news-hungry adult, to the book worm, to the sports fanatic who keeps watching the game—because they identify—because it makes them feel, but most importantly, because they want to find out what happens in the end (if it’s not a foregone conclusion)

And that’s not to mention books, films, soap opera, plays, puppet shows, cartoons, comics, cave drawings, talk (gossip), dreams and more.

We need what we need to become what ever it is that we are becoming. We need story because it is about the very phenomenon of becoming; Cinderella becoming the princess, Pinocchio becoming a real boy, Babe becoming a champion sheep pig, Elizabeth Bennet becoming Mrs. D’Arcy, us becoming whatever it is that we truly are.

The Power of Making Stories:

If we love story, we will especially love the stories that we make ourselves. We may not think of ourselves as story makers and yet, we all make dreams. And these invariably entertain us. (Even the scary ones, in the same way that horror films do) We spontaneously make dreams when we are stuck, to help us to move on, and when we move, to celebrate and endorse our progress. We don’t even have to remember them in order for them to work for us. The stories that we make consciously can have just the same power.

The Workshop:

Jack Healy has developed this workshop out of a twenty year experience of working in both theatre and education.

Though it is suitable for any age group or context, he has conducted it most frequently in the primary school sector.

Here its success lies in Jack’s ability to deal in a culture that is familiar to the children in the context of a larger discussion about narrative- from Harry Potter, Bart Simpson and computer games to Shakespeare and the Bible….. from Roy Keane to the Iliad.

How the workshop proceeds:

The goal of the workshop is to get each pupil to come up with the beginning of a story.

Jack promotes the idea that the creativity required is not so much something which is dependent on personal talent but flows instead from the individual’s realisation of personal freedom combined with his/her innate sense of goodness.

The workshop explores this idea through a series of simple fun exercises and then moves on to look at dreams and how they work.

From there it looks at stories in general and the form that they take.

The final part of the workshop is concerned with how the writer, or story maker can create a world from which to draw when it comes to the arduous task of filling the blank page.

Details:

The workshop is designed ideally for senior classes at primary school level, but Jack has conducted it successfully with all age groups.

It is suitable for groups of up to thirty students.

The pupils do not need to leave their classroom.

Students do not need to prepare in any way and all they need is their imaginations and something to write on and with.

The cost is €80.00for a single session (seventy five minutes), €150.00 for two sessions or €220.00 for three.

For further information contact Jack at 021-4504501, 086-0662705 or e-mail jackohealy@eircom.net