Storytelling for Performance w/ Tom Chalmers (a seven-week workshop)

Name: Storytelling for Performance w/ Tom Chalmers (a seven-week workshop)
Start: 2024-10-17T18:30:00-04:00
End: 2024-10-17T20:30:00-04:00
Location: Flatiron Writers Room

Schedule

Thu Oct 17 2024 at 06:30 pm to 08:30 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Flatiron Writers Room | Asheville, NC

Storytelling for Performance w/ Tom Chalmers
a seven-work workshop
in-person at Flatiron Writers Room
Thursdays, 6:30 - 8: 30 pm (except for Wednesday, 10/30)
5 Covington Street, Asheville, NC 28806
Tuition $305: To register, go to: https://www.flatironwritersroom.com/workshops-fall-2024/storytelling-for-performance-w/tom-chalmers
Students will attend a performance of Listen to This, stories and more on stage, on Saturday, October 26th, and will perform their best piece as part of a student-showcase version of the series on Thursday, November 21st.
"All I ever wanted was my story to be told." - M.I.A.
Learn to find expression and connection by crafting relatable and memorable personal narrative stories to be shared onstage at story-slam shows like The Moth, at curated series like Listen to This, and at other storytelling outlets. Those who do it well know that it is more than just getting up on stage and winging it. It is more than simply riffing on recollections of the past.
This seven-week in-person course (including final performance), taught by Tom Chalmers, covers the techniques for creating compelling personal-history performance pieces; stories that speak to a possible suggested theme, come in on time, and give the listeners the sense of having lived the memory themselves.
Students will learn how to best choose a story to tell, how to write a compelling first line, how to structure and deliver the story that follows, and to know when to end, resisting the temptation to tack on a lesson-learned epilogue.
Participants will be given a series of writing prompts that will pull from different pockets of their personal experiences, and then given supportive feedback to find the best final version of the story for the format.
Class meets in person at Flatiron Writers Room on Thursday evenings from 6:30-8:30 PM Eastern Time, October 10 through November 21, 2024 (with the one exception of Halloween, when class will instead meet on Wednesday, October 30th).
Students will get to attend a performance of Listen to This on Saturday, October 26th, at 35below behind Asheville Community Theatre, and later will perform their best piece as part of a student-showcase version of Listen to This, on Thursday, November 21st, at Story Parlor in West Asheville.
Instructor Tom Chalmers is the host and producer of Listen to This, stories and more on stage, a monthly Asheville series for more than ten years, and a few years in Los Angeles before that. A graduate of Columbia University, Tom came out of the NYC storytelling scene in the 90s where he performed at Collective Unconscious, Surf Reality, and the original Stories at The Moth. He has done two one-man shows of his personal stories, "Every Bone In My Body," and "Harm for the Holidays."
While in New York, Tom was a company member and artistic director of Groundlings East and a member of the original Upright Citizens Brigade house team. After New York, Tom moved to LA where he was a writer for SHOWTIME Television and literary manager of the renowned Sacred Fools Theatre Company. He has taught at NYU and Warren Wilson College. He currently teaches classes through the Flatiron Writers Room and the Asheville School of Improv. He is a member of the popular Asheville improv troupe, Reasonably Priced Babies, and is the co-host of the award-winning sports talk radio show, Run That Back, on AshevilleFM 103.3.