Weekend Storytelling Workshop
with Matthew Dicks
July 15, 2022
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Learn the art of personal storytelling in a low-stakes, information-packed, highly entertaining workshop designed for people with little or no previous storytelling experience. Explore storytelling for personal and professional development, to improve your communication and writing skills, to challenge yourself, or to get the attention of colleagues, family, and friends. Maybe even take a stage someday and perform!
Explore in this three-day workshop:
- Methods for generating story ideas from life experiences
- Simple, highly effective strategies for crafting an entertaining, engaging story
- The development of humor, suspense, and stakes in storytelling
- Games designed to help you speak on the spur of the moment, and how to apply the skills taught in class to everyday storytelling
You will be invited (but not required) to develop your own story to present to the class for critique and an evening performance in front of a live audience.
The Mount's general COVID-19 Health and Safety Guidelines may be found here.
The Mount is a Massachusetts Cultural Council UP designated organization welcoming participants of all disabilities. Please contact The Mount at 413-551-5100 or by email, info@edithwharton.org, to discuss accommodations needed to participate fully in this event.
- $600 tuition
- The workshop is limited to 12 participants.
- Participants must be 18 years of age or older to enroll.
- Sample schedule: 10 am - 12:00 pm, morning session; 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm, bring lunch or visit The Mount's Terrace Café; 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm, afternoon session.
- Beverages and snacks are provided and included with the workshop.
Biography
Matthew Dicks is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Something Missing, Unexpectedly, Milo, The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs, Twenty-one Truths About Love, and The Other Mother. He is also the author of Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling. His novels have been translated into more than 25 languages worldwide. Matthew is a record 53-time Moth StorySLAM and 7-time GrandSLAM champion and founder and artistic director of Speak Up, a Hartford-based storytelling organization that produces shows throughout New England. Matthew has been an elementary school teacher for 24 years, is a former West Hartford Teacher of the Year, and a finalist for Connecticut Teacher of the Year.