SPRING WORKSHOPS
Each spring, Ancram Center offers workshops in storytelling and other creative practices that encourage self-expression. No prior experience is needed in order to participate!
STORYTELLING: EXPLORING THE MOTHER
with Sarah Katan
Saturday May 10th, 11 am - 1 pm
presented as part of The Workshop Experience
at Ancram Center for the Arts
$45 registration fee
Stories are woven from the threads of our lived experience. When the word “Mother” is said, what type of stories pop into your head? The word Mother is used to express a myriad of subjects: Family relations, mentors, the earth we find ourselves living on, a community found or desired, the start of a curse word. In this engaging workshop, participants will learn about Ancram Center’s unique approach to storytelling using the word “Mother” as the starting point.
Workshop participants will identify their own personal, compelling, true-to-life story. The process utilizes fun, creative, brainstorming exercises that will result in a story that is ready to be brought to life in a variety of ways.
Sarah Katan is a seasoned teaching artist from Ancram Center who earned her Ed.M. in Learning & Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and has over a decade of experience teaching in formal and informal settings.
CREATIVE WRITING
with Ashley Mayne
Saturday May 10th, 2 - 4 pm
presented as part of The Workshop Experience
at Ancram Center for the Arts
$45 registration fee
Creativity runs deeper than the known. The most electrifying images swim up from the dark unconscious. They obey no logic, they keep their own light. When we let the unknown into our writing, we let the unconscious speak through us. We give it light. This session of readings, sharing and generative writing exercises is intended to invite the unconscious into our work.
Ashley Mayne's work has appeared in Fence, Post Road, Juked, Northwest Review, Peripheries, Blight Podcast, Metambesen, and elsewhere. She is the author of novels Mankiller (2014 Dr. Cicero Books), and Tiger (2015) edits fiction for Fence, curates two reading series in the Hudson Valley, and works on an organic farm.
ADVANCED STORYTELLING
with Paul Ricciardi & Sarah Katan
Saturday May 17th, 1 - 3 p
at Ancram Center for the Arts
Free
Take your storytelling practice to the next level at a second workshop designed for anyone who has already participated in our introductory session. Led by Ancram Center director Paul Ricciardi and Teaching Artist Sarah Katan.
In this engaging workshop, participants will deepen their understanding of Ancram Center’s unique approach to storytelling. This process, developed through our celebrated Real People Real Stories program, utilizes fun, creative problem-solving exercises, along with the fundamental principles that guide the development of a new play. By the workshop’s end, participants will identify a personal, compelling, true to life story, along with a plan to bring that story to life!
Ancram Center teaching artists work with storytellers to help them prepare their stories for the stage. According to RPRS creator, Paul Ricciardi, “The goal is not to create a polished monologue, but to allow the spontaneity of a real-life story to shine through.”
Ancram Center is a member of TheWorkshopExperience.org, a group of friends and neighbors who produce exceptional experiential learning through open gardens and workshops on a wide variety of topics in the Roeliff Jansen region, where the Hudson Valley and Berkshires meet.