Narrative Skills: A Workshop with Pedro de Alcantara
Jokes, koans, anecdotes, puns, pithy sayings; stories, novels, plays, movies; compositions, choreography; photography, painting, and all the visual arts, traditional and modern; thinking & dreaming:
Storytelling is the art of imparting information in a meaningful way.
Our lives are made of the stories we tell. For your enjoyment or for the development of your professional skills, you can improve your storytelling abilities with the tools in this workshop.
Questions, suggestions, requests? Please email me.
When? Saturday & Sunday, February 9 & 10, 2019. On Saturday, from 2 to 7 PM with a tea break. On Sunday, from 10 to 5 PM with a lunch break. You can choose to come on either day or both days. On Monday, February 11 from 10 AM to 1 PM, an optional Practice Lab at no extra cost.
Where? At the Midlife Space, 14 Rue de Thionville , 75019 Paris. Metro: Laumière or Ourcq (line 5).
For Whom: Anyone interested in skills of observation, creativity, mindfulness, and adaptability. Limited to 12 participants. Past participants have included artists, musicians, writers, health professionals, and public speakers.
How Much: Each day costs €150. Take both days and receive a discount: €250 instead of €300. Please email me for more information or to register.
Program
Saturday, February 9 from 2 PM to 7 PM: Pictorial Narrative, Oral Narrative
Pictorial Narrative. A single image is like a seed. Planted in your imagination, it becomes a story. You might believe that the image tells the story, but in fact it’s your imagination that does it. In this workshop we’ll look at several types of images; we’ll juxtapose images; and we’ll develop our narrative skills borne of responses to image.
Oral Narrative. To speak is to tell a story, regardless of what you say. In fact, you’re the embodiment of story—and everything you think, say, and do has narrative dimensions of which you might not always be aware. In this segment we’ll dip our toes in the immense narrative reservoir that comes from our expressing ourselves through speech.
Sunday, February 10 from 10 AM to 5 PM: Written Nonfiction, Written Fiction
Written Nonfiction. People pick big fights when they’re trying to determine the truth. The fights are inevitable, since we always look at the world through our filters: My truth isn’t your truth! In this segment we’ll exercise our skills in facing the facts and writing about them.
Written Fiction. The word "fiction" comes from a root meaning "to knead, to build, to form; a fashioning or feigning." In this segment we'll be cavalier about the facts and the truth, and instead we'll fashion the most beautiful lies through a series of step-by-step procedures.
