Description

INVITATION TO A  STORYTELLING WORKSHOP

You are a Woman of Substance, interesting, often wise and…over 50.    You are invited to a special storytelling workshop where you share life stories with other such women.  Sponsored by Emergent Arts, this workshop will be facilitated by Michelle Crandell, LCSW.  Ms. Crandell is a local therapist and educator who is also an actress and a mime.

The workshop is three hours in duration.  It will be presented three times:  Thursday, May 19th from 1:00pm to 4.00pm (SOLD OUT),  Saturday, May 21 from noon to 3:00pm or Friday, May 27th from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. Group size is limited to nine women.

Each group will create a unique experience, drawing from the richness each participant brings to the forum.   The fee for this workshop is $25.00.  Scholarships are available based on the economic limitation and the storyteller’s desire to participate in the workshop.

The Storytelling Workship is a separate unit that connects to a larger project.  Participants may wish to further their experience by joining the next phase of this project:  Women of a Certain Age.

WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE

Each graduate of the Storytelling Workshop is invited to be part of the second phase of a project, called  WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE.  In this phase, each woman explores ways to use her body, vocal sounds, senses, objects and surroundings to express her story.   The Women of a Certain Age project takes its participants from a verbal version of a personal tale to the creation of individual and group performance art.

In a series of twelve three hour sessions, students learn to  transform a favorite slice of life from words into actions and symbolic representations.   The project culminates in a group crafted presentation open to the public.

Paiyin Mros(Bai for short) will facilitate this phase of the project.  Bai began her theatrical career in her homeland, Taiwan in 1992.  Her early performances were influenced by Jerry Grotowski and Japanese Buhto.  She began to combine live art and performance art into her more recent thearer creations.

Since moving to Hot Springs in 2008, Mrs. Mros has performed in The Baron’s Ball for many seasons.  Meanwhile, she continued performing, directing and hosting theater projects in Taiwan part of each year.  Bai won an Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship Award in 2019.

*Please keep in mind there may be some filming of this process which would include workshop exercises as well as finished performances. However, you are not required to be filmed to take part in the workshop. Please make your preferences known when you arrive for class.