Workshops Available for Adult Writers
Improv for Writing: Investing vs Inventing
Improvisation theater is based on the premise of "yes, and" - accepting creative choices and building on them. During this interactive workshop, participants will connect the basic improv principle of "yes, and" with the story spine to break open their writing. This approach enables writers to honor their own ideas and push through the idea generation phase into drafting in real time. Yes! And... bring your writing implements and an open mind. Handouts will be provided.
Participants will be introduced to improvisational games and tools to break through writer’s block and imposter syndrome. They will recognize in real time that story ideas are not finite. They will loosen up their creativity by breaking confidence and humor barriers with simple improv warm-ups and games. These tools can be used towards a work in progress or for drafting a new work.
Theater for Writing: Crafting a Read Aloud
Actors bring a play to life. Similarly, an adult reader brings a picture book to life. The reading of a picture book is a performance. But not all caregivers are performers. The text can serve these reluctant adult readers and help foster a show stopping performance that delights littles.
This workshop will provide a theatrical perspective to text. Participants will consider ways theater artists approach a script for a performance and discover ways to embed tools into their text to help alleviate stress for a reluctant adult reader.
Eliciting Play Through Picture Books
Reading is linked to language and cognitive development, empathy and social awareness, and strengthening the so-called parent-child bond (which can be between a child and any adult caregiver). Engaging the parent-child bond early strengthens the success for the other developmental milestones connected with reading. Additionally, a child’s primary mode of learning is play.
In this workshop participants will explore various tools to create moments of play for parent and child. With the focused intention for parent-child bonding, participants will experiment with new approaches to text through the lens of play.
Reach out to me at jill.c.stuck (at) gmail (dot) com for more information about the workshop and scheduling.
Online Classes for Kids
To balance writing and teaching, I now primarily teach creative dramatics and improv youth classes online through Outschool.
I focus on improvisation because it teaches students to express themselves while being big and bold. When we fail, we fail greatly and get right back up and try again. My goal is not to train students to be actors when they grow up, but rather to make them better humans. I focus on "yes, and" and ensemble building. I believe we're better when we support each other and work as a team.
Clink on the class descriptions to link to the classes.
