Workshops - Northeast Storytelling

“Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, power to retell it, to rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless.” …Salmon Rushdie

This introductory workshop will guide you in preparing to release your story, Authentically, with Clarity and emotional Engagement. Often our essential story is stifled by fear of hurting others, or of not being heard. Gently revisit the story begging to be heard for healing, inspiring, building a bridge of understanding.

Location: Saratoga (Second Floor)

ALL LEVELS

Denise Keyes Page is the founder of Ubuntu Storytellers I.D.E.A.L., Artists of Black & Brown ancestry. They tell stories of being and of “being in the skin we’re in. Denise has performed with Better Said Than Done, Story Space, The National Storytelling Network Conference, International Festival of Arts and Ideas, The Women’s Storytelling Festival, Women Tell, Rose Valley Storytelling Concerts, Woodstock Story Festival, and The Moth Main Stage. Her workshops are interactive, practical and fun. Denise brings her passion and expertise as a lifelong facilitator.

Including puppetry in your programing can be simple but have a big impact; you do not need a puppet stage or heavy equipment. Come learn about using puppetry to accent your performances. It is a great technique to use to tell in tandem, pull in audience members, or to simply capture attention.

Puppetry also has endless possibilities for classroom management, teaching concepts, telling a story, and including those who would otherwise not participate. You will walk away with manipulation techniques, proper care of your puppets, puppetry vocabulary, and ideas for using puppets in your performances, classroom, or library.

Location: Warren Room

ALL LEVELS

Lona Bartlett is a professional storyteller, puppeteer, and educator with over 40 years of experience delighting audiences internationally. She is an expert workshop facilitator, offering specialized training in storytelling and puppetry. Her workshops cover a broad range of topics designed to equip participants with practical and creative skills. Lona's reach extends across the globe, as she has created puppets and scripts that are in use on five continents. She brings this world of experience and a wealth of knowledge to every presentation and workshop, making her an invaluable resource for teachers, directors, and performers looking to enhance their creative arts programming.

Have you considered teaching a Storytelling course or workshop, but need an outline, ideas, or support to get started? Sharing the Magic will provide experienced Storytellers with the means, structure, and materials to expand their skills into the teaching arena. Beginning Storytellers will be introduced to "the basics" of Storytelling, and all will engage in activities to enhance their Storytelling skills. Instructors will outline the building blocks of Storytelling as an art, discuss genre, explore ethical considerations, model questioning techniques and activities to use in a course or classroom context, and provide materials for use in teaching adults or children.

Location: Adirondack East

Mary Shea Rys has performed as a Professional Storyteller since 1997. During her 41 year teaching career, she taught Storytelling to students and adults alike. Currently, Mary travels to schools, libraries, churches and communities to perform poems, songs and stories with children and adults. Mary teaches Storytelling Camps and courses at libraries in Central New York, and has lectured yearly at the Chautauqua Institute since 2023. Honors include: Liverpool Central Schools Teacher of the Year 2011; CNY Educator of the Year 2023; 2024 Liverpool Fine Arts Hall of Fame Inductee; selected performer at The Everson Museum, Syracuse, spring & winter 2025.

Dan Rys has been a teacher and Instructional Specialist during a 41 year career in education. He has taught story and presentation skills to students, and provided workshops in story development and writing skills to teachers and students. Dan has worked with his wife, Mary, assisting with Storytelling presentations and Storytelling Camps. Dan has incorporated his art skills with the teaching of Storytelling by adding storyboarding techniques to courses and workshops. For the past two years, Dan has co-taught (with Mary) week-long Storytelling classes to adults at the Chautauqua Institute. He has also begun writing original tales and retold classics.

House concerts build community, open access to new audiences, and multiply venues for storytellers, musicians, and other performers. In this interactive workshop, you will learn all you need to know to create successful house concerts, either as the visiting artist or the host: how to make initial contact, set the date, promote the event, and make it a memorable occasion and a success that leaves all involved looking forward to doing it again in the near future. In a contracting arts economy, the knowledge of how to put together these grassroots events is an essential addition to your promotional toolbox.

Location: Washington Room (Second Floor)

ALL LEVELS

We are word people, but sometimes we get lost in our words. Drawing unlocks a different part of the brain. A story has a path, perhaps a river of thought running through it. Rather than individual panels, this process shows the flow of your story. On one page, you will draw your story using color to add depth to the landscape and to recognize your characters as they move through the story. This workshop is a hands-on, no judgment experience. I will supply drawing materials. Bring a story you are working with and let’s play.

Location: Saratoga (Second Floor)

All Levels

Folktales & Personal Stories

Heather Forest, PhD, is an award-winning storyteller, author and musician. A pioneer in the American storytelling renaissance, she has appeared in theatres, schools, literature conferences, and major storytelling festivals throughout the United States and abroad since 1975. A modern-day bard, her dynamic fusion of original music, poetry, and the sung and spoken word brings multicultural folktales and poignant personal tales to life in the imagination of her listeners. She is a recipient of the Circle of Excellence Award presented by the National Storytelling Network for her performance skill and the 2021 Talking Leaves Award for her contributions to storytelling literature.

Have you ever been in need of more creative warm-ups or imaginative transitions into your stories? If so, this is the workshop for you! Join storyteller and early childhood arts educator Julia M. Morris as we explore active ways to journey into folk tales and other children's lore utilizing the body and voice. Come prepared to change-up and re-imagine your storytelling practice through a play-based process of traveling into and through a variety of story-landscapes. We will also reflect on how trickster tales, by their nature, change the world! (Detailed activity descriptions provided for all participants.)

Location: Adirondack East

BEGINNERS AND ALL LEVELS

The ah-ha moment is sometimes exciting and sometimes painful, but it is always a gift. Understanding our personal moments of change and then sharing them is a step on the path to collective, positive, change. Storytellers have a special role in change-making, in that we can listen, process, and share stories effectively. Those stories help everyone feel less alone in their journey and often more open to change themselves.

In this highly interactive workshop, you will identify a moment of change in your own life, share it, and craft a story from it. We will explore the meaning of that moment and what you want your listeners to get out of it. We will discuss how this story can be used and altered for the audience in front of you. Expect a safe space, clear ground rules and instructions, and a lot of storytelling fun.

Location: Adirondack North (Theatre)

ALL LEVELS

Bio: Laura Packer knows that the best way to the truth is through a good story; she has told, taught, ranted, raved, coached, consulted, and considered storytelling for over 30 years. As the daughter of a children's librarian and a writer, it seems almost inevitable that she ended working with words, and so she has. Laura passionately believes that this universally accessible artform creates empathy, builds bridges, and has the power to change the world, and has brought that truth to venues as wide ranging as festivals, theaters, government agencies, corporate stages, on the streets, in prisons, schools, assisted living facilities, faith spaces, libraries, hospices, and more. She has won many awards for her work, including the 2022 Staff Choice in the Minnesota Fringe Festival and 2020 induction into the National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence.

Laura holds a degree in Folklore and Mythology from Boston University. She can be reached at laura@laurapacker.com or through www.laurapacker.com and www.thinkstory.com. You can support her work and read her blog at patreon.com/laurapacker work.”

Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of teaching and has long transmitted history, values, and traditions across generations. In this workshop, participants will examine how storytelling promotes community, empathy, academic engagement, and critical consciousness in the classroom. Through interactive activities, participants will learn how to incorporate traditional, personal, and counter-stories that empower students to see themselves as knowledge-bearers. This session highlights storytelling as a culturally responsive and humanizing pedagogy that honors students’ lived experiences and cultural integrity.

Location: Saratoga(Second Floor)

ALL LEVELS

Dr. Linda Hazel Humes is a doctoral lecturer in the Africana Studies Department at John Jay College in New York City, specializing in African American storytelling and culturally responsive education. She served as Chair of the Education Committee for the National Association of Black Storytellers and is the founder of Yaffa Cultural Arts Inc. and StoryPower LLC. Her work spans education, performance, and film, including a co-produced documentary on the Black Family Summit. In recognition of Yaffa’s 30 years of excellence, New York City proclaimed December 15, 2022, as Yaffa Cultural Arts Day. Dr. Humes is a storyteller and folklorist who performs and conducts workshops nationally and internationally. She has performed at the Crop Over Heritage Tent in Barbados, the Santiago Arts Festival in Cuba, Little Island Park , United States Postal Office Kwanzaa stamp inaugural ceremony, Black Expats Kwanzaa Celebration in Panama, National Association of Black Storytellers Festivals, Connecticut Storytelling Festival and Clearwater Festival to name a few.

A skillful narrator is one who can bring us to the heart of a story in an instant. But what are the skills needed to achieve this mastery? In this workshop we’ll explore a variety of techniques that will allow us to communicate not only the images in the story but the emotions, tempo, and authentic tone. This novel approach does justice to both the depths of myth and the intimacy of personal story. We’ll take a dive as well into the Word-Wizardry that was at the heart of the old Bardic tradition and the mysterious craft of the Seanchaí.

Location: Warren Room

ALL LEVELS WELCOME

A transformational teller with a rich background in the theatre arts, Diane’s dynamic storytelling embraces elements of theatre, movement and song bringing each piece vividly to life. A featured teller on NPR and winner of a Year’s Best Performance award for her theater work in Boston, Diane’s storytelling has toured throughout the US and internationally for over thirty years including the Edinburgh Fringe where her performances received five-star reviews. Keynotes and workshops on the power of story often accompany Diane’s performances inspiring a renewed vision for our world as well as encouraging each person’s expressive and narrative abilities.

Theatre! Movement! Story! These will all be interwoven in this fun, interactive “playshop” that will pull from the worlds of improv theatre, improv movement and cooperative games. Activities will strengthen skills in: communicating verbally and non-verbally, story arc, focusing, physicalizing characters and being true to their personalities, spontaneous thinking, expansive thinking, and more! And it’s FUN! No experience necessary, just a willingness to "go for it!". Come on..Jump in for 90 minutes of play and learning!

Location: Adirondack East

GREAT FOR BEGINNERS, ALL LEVELS WELCOME

Rona Leventhal has been sharing her passion for the power of story for 35 years, putting laughter in the belly and smiles in the hearts of listeners. She is a Storyteller, Improv Theatre & Movement Specialist, Teaching Artist and Coach. Her work has taken her to the National Storytelling Network, festivals, schools, libraries internationally and is a frequent presenter at STF. She does performances, school residencies, keynotes, workshops and has taught graduate courses in Storytelling in Education. Co-editor of the award winning book, Spinning Tales, Weaving Hope: Stories for Peace, Justice, and the Environment and an award winning CD “Into the Dark: Stories From the Shadows”.

If learning how to use your voice in a safe and creative way is useful for your storytelling style, then this workshop is for you. Antonio Rocha will teach how to dynamically move the story forward with character voice and sound effects. These techniques are very useful when telling to kids, but also to adults. Antonio will also share voice care advice in order to keep your voice strong and alive show after show. Come on over to this safe and exploratory session and your stories will never be the same.

Location: Adirondack North (Theatre)

ALL LEVELS

Bio: Antonio Rocha (pronounced haw-sha), originally from Brazil, began his career in the performing arts in 1985. In 1988 he received a Partners of the Americas grant to come to the USA to perform and deepen his mime skills with Mime Master Tony Montanaro. Since then he has earned a Summa Cum Laude Theater BA from USM (University of Southern Maine) and studied with Master Marcel Marceau. Mr. Rocha’s unique and award winning solo fusion of mime and storytelling with mesmerizing voices and sound effects has been performed from Singapore to South Africa and many places in between, including 20 countries on 6 continents as well as in 44 US states. Some of the venues include The Singapore Festival of the Arts, Wolf Trap, The National Storytelling Festival, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institution, The National Geographic, The Tales of Graz in Austria, Dunya Festival, The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, Cave Run Storytelling Festival as well as thousands of school performances. Antonio Rocha also loves to teach his craft and often facilitates workshops, not only for performers, but for those who want to incorporate storytelling into their business presentations and classroom.

A two time TEDx speaker, Mr. Rocha is a proud recipient of the coveted Circle of Excellence Award by the National Storytelling Network, and most recently the 2024 Maine Arts Commission Fellowship for the Performing Arts.

Shape your written words before you speak them in this interactive workshop. Learn how to safely share your true experiences through guided writing exercises using prompts inspired by this year’s conference theme. Walk away having turned your inner critic into your inner guide. Understand how writing out your story first strengthens your end-game delivery. Find out how the overlap between the written word and oral telling ensures your story’s setting, stakes, dialogue, suspense, vulnerability, timing, pacing, resolution/reflection/surprise, and ending land exactly right for your audience. Participants bring their own writing materials.

Location: Saratoga (Second Floor)

ALL LEVELS

Adair Heitmann, BFA, award-winning storyteller, author, poet, educator, and artist has received a Storytelling World Honor Award, National Federation of Press Women First Place Awards, Connecticut Press Club First Place Awards, and a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Grant. She writes and performs nonfiction personal narrative stories for the stage and online with Generation Women; Northeast Storytelling; Tell Me Another; True Tales Live; Women Tell; Gather the Women Global Matrix; and PechaKucha visual storytelling. Her work has been called “bold, reflective, and deeply human." She works at the intersection of identity and transformation. She is Poet-in-Residence in under-resourced elementary schools.

During Jackson’s 47-year career, he has been coached by some of the best, and has had the privilege of coaching some of the best, including: Michael Parent, Judith Black, Bill Harley, Jo Radner and many others. He has been featured at storytelling festivals throughout the country, including four times at the national festival, and also been Teller-in-Residence at the International Storytelling Center four times. In 2020, he received NSN's Oracle award. He has been tapped as a workshop coach many times at Sharing the Fire, and subsequently been hired for private coaching with many return requests

Turn your words into magic! In this playful, hands-on storytelling workshop, you’ll learn how to transport your listeners into the world of your story - whether that's an enchanted wood, a city street, or your childhood bedroom. Through sensory language, embodied description, and enchanted apples, discover how to transform your words into experiences your listeners can taste, touch, and believe. Perfect for storytellers who want their language to live.

Location: Adirondack East

ALL LEVELS

Emily Stamets is a storyteller and teaching artist who specializes in helping others learn the art of storytelling. A former Theatre Arts teacher with over ten years in the classroom, she now leads learning for teens and adults that blend narrative craft and performance. She serves as President of California Thespians and on the board of the National Storytelling Network, and has directed devised theatre projects for La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival. With master’s degrees from Southern Oregon University (Theatre Design) and Harvard University (Education), Emily is passionate about guiding others to tell stories that connect, empower, and inspire.