Advanced Workshop (2025)
This year’s advanced seminar will focus on strategies for strong story reading and telling for all types of settings. This will be a chance to share favorite stories and create new ones.
Stories are a very valuable tool for the Clauses for providing entertainment, answering questions, and presenting your character and history. Learning the legends and history of Santa, Mrs. Claus, elves, other characters and Christmas itself is an essential start. But shaping those to create your own personal narrative is what makes your character unique.
Building a strong personal backstory will be one focus of the program. Students will learn how to use that biography to enhance stories, handle questions, and strengthen your character.
Using existing books offers many ways to engage children and adults. Students will learn how to identify which books work best for different age groups, settings, and performances. An extensive resource list of Christmas or Santa/Mrs. Claus/Elf focused books with provided. A large collection of books will be available for review and reading.
Techniques for reading and presenting books will be covered along with the opportunity to practice the strategies. Expanded activities to use while story reading will also be shared.
The art of storytelling using established tales or personally prepared tales will explored. How to structure and create a story be explained with the opportunity to create and present personal tales. Performance elements of characterization, use of the voice, character development, movement, pace, humor, improvisation, working with props and more will be practiced.
Students are welcome to bring favorite books, original stories, ideas to develop, projects needing improvement to share for feedback suggestions or practice.