2007 St. Marys Storytelling Festival Workshops
Saturday morning, September 8, from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

Workshop registration fee: $35 To register, please contact Nancy Vermond,
519-284-2698, or nvermond@sympatico.ca

Workshop # 1: “Come All Ye Bold Canadians”
Presented by Lorne Brown and Jean Mills
United Church hall, 85 Church St. South, St. Marys

This workshop is an introduction to Canadian traditional songs, emphasizing their narrative aspect. Participants will learn how to incorporate Canadian folk songs into their storytelling presentations, either sung, recited, or told as stories.

Presenters:

Lorne Brown is a well-know traditional ballad singer with an emphasis on Canadian material. Founder of the Ballad Project, he taught a very successful ballad course through The Storytellers School of Toronto. He is one of Canada’s “elders” in the storytelling community and cofounder of The Storytellers School of Toronto. He has told his stories and sung his songs in every province in Canada.

Jean Mills is a master of the Appalachian dulcimer and a well-known performer of traditional music. She has presented courses on Canadian folksongs at the Celtic College in Goderich and has performed as schools, folk festivals, and concert halls around Ontario. Jean recorded two albums with the legendary late Canadian folksinger Merrick Jarrett.

Workshop # 2: Telling your Life: Personal Stories Workshop
Presented by Helen Carmichael Porter
St. James Anglican Church Parish Hall, 65 Church St. South, St. Marys
 

This workshop will help you to organize and choose your life stories from specific memories based on your family, travel, friends, and rituals, and to shape them into a story with a beginning, middle, and an end. Exercises will be used as springboards into your own memories and to help you shape the memory into a tale.
 
Presenter:

Helen Carmichael Porter is a well-known Canadian storyteller who has been telling her own stories for many years in theatres, schools, festivals. "My Father Taught Me To Swim", "My Grandmother's Mouth", "I love You So Much It Hurts" are some of the shows based on personal stories that she has toured around the country and performed at the Annex, Factory, St Lawrence and Blythe theatres, among many others. She is the author of The Bully and Me (2006), a collection of personal stories about bullying based on interviews with over five hundred children and adults.

Workshop # 3: Origami: Stories Unfolding
An Intergenerational Workshop for Adults and Children 8+
Presented by Diane Halpin
St. Marys Central School library, corner of Church and Elizabeth Sts. This is very close to the United and Anglican churches.

The Japanese believe origami creations are best viewed in a soft, gentle light they call ke, a light reserved for intimate occasions such as storytelling. Origami figures have been used as toys, gifts and geometrical challenges. Now you can learn how to use origami to help your stories bloom and unfold in exquisite and delightful ways. This workshop is great for grandparents, parents, students and teachers.

During this morning’s workshop you will:

* Learn how to fold a Magical Rainhat and a Flapping Crane and use these origami models to help inspire and illustrate your own original stories
* Discover the connection between origami, tessellations and storytelling
* Use handmade Japanese Washi paper for one of your creations
* Receive a handout with storytelling tips and an origami bibliography

Presenter:

Diane Halpin’s storytelling performances and workshops are dynamic and interactive. She has a large repertoire of folktales and specializes in original life-stories. Diane has been folding origami for over 30 years and storytelling with origami since 1992. She regularly performs in schools and universities, as well as at libraries, festivals and special events. Diane particularly loves storytelling for an inter-generational audience. She says, “Something magical happens when the same story delights three or four generations of people at the same time!”

Students, ages 8-14, with paying adult: $5;  without adult: $15; high school students:  $20.