Workshops and Residencies

Susan can tailor or create any program to fit your needs.  She is also available for private coaching.  Please call for details.

Communicating with Compassion:  Docents  Telling Stories

Presented at the  Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center

How can we reach our listeners to engage them fully?  How can the stories we tell on our tours be embodied to communicate with presence and compassion? What tools can we utilize to tell our stories for deeper impact?  These are just some of the questions we will explore through an experiential workshop (fun!) using voice, movement and group activities.  Docents will come away with a renewed understanding of communication and storytelling skills, and have  a chance to practice.  (This workshop can be altered for any museum docents).

Jumping, Jiving,  Singing, Storytelling, and Drama in  School Libraries

First presented at the ALA (American Library Association) Convention, this workshop will enlighten librarians (and teachers) to nurture reading through kinesthetic and right brained FUN!Let’s Play: Creative Dramatics as a Tool to Enhance Reading and Writing (grades K-5)

Children at play are fully engaged, present, and use multiple intelligences. This creative drama lesson, in conjunction with your curriculum, offers a child the chance to explore literature in a unique way. Children’s reading/writing skills are enhanced by experiencing the orality of language through their bodies, emotions, as well as intellect.

Story Theatre (grades 6-12)

Through theatre games and improvisation students will learn the value of group collaboration problem solving, negotiating, spontaneity, as well as the use of voice and body to communicate. This residency can culminate in a story theatre performance. Literary structure, character, plot, theme, vocabulary are explored.

Everyone a Storyteller! (grades 6-12)

Storytelling, drama and group exercises help students learn to tell tales. Stories can be related to curriculum. A storytelling festival will be the culmination of this residency which can last from a few weeks to a semester.

Teachers as Tellers

In-service training for teachers, librarians (or even parents): finding tales, technique (voice, movement, eye contact, etc.), finding one’s own style, and overcoming nervousness. Also, learn to incorporate storytelling across the curriculum and for different grade levels. Can last several hours or be offered over several weeks

Storyweaving the Generations

Adult participants learn to tell tales from their own lives. Part of your legacy is your stories. This workshop will be transformative.  This workshop also could include an in-service workshop for the staff who work with the elderly. Core stories form the essence of what it means to be human.