Live Online Workshops
Learn something new AND help our organization to thrive!
Proceeds from all artist workshops benefit Performances to Grow On and The Ojai Storytelling Festival.
Noa Baum
Your Facilitator
Noa Baum is an award-winning speaker, author, storyteller and coach. She presents internationally in communities and organizations, offering a unique combination of performance art, keynotes and practical workshops that focus on the power of stories to bridge differences, foster communication and promote collaboration. A master teacher, Noa is committed to safe and supportive learning experiences that are interactive, encourage creativity and develop the skills you need to tell a compelling story.
Storytelling Yes You Can!
Crafting Personal Narratives
With Noa Baum
Mondays in April
from 4-6pm PST
(7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, 2025)
Class Description
Unlock your potential as a storyteller and build the confidence to share your truth! This interactive online workshop guides you through the step-by-step process of crafting and delivering compelling narratives from your life experiences, equipping you with the skills to confidently share your story with a live audience.
Open to all experience levels, and everyone from the beginner to the seasoned storyteller will benefit from the hands-on approach to discovering and developing your own unique voice.
Testimonials
“Noa Baum is a world class educator. The transformation I’ve gone through as a storyteller has been life changing. Any leader requiring a deeper understanding of connecting with others will be richly rewarded by working with Noa.”
-Chris Costa, Executive Director, the International Spy Museum, DC
"It was a most challenging evolution but I have managed, with Noa's teachings, to start telling my own life tales…Creating a functioning, interactive, respectful, supportive group dynamic is the exciting aspect of teaching.
Noa is a master at creating the atmosphere where tellers thrive!"
-Jay Miller, Budapest, Hungary
From Memory to Memoir
With Regi Carpenter
Tuesdays in May
at 4-6pm PST
(6, 13, 20, 27, 2025)
Class Description
Turn a cherished memory into a memoir in this four-week workshop. This workshop is designed to help you breathe life into your memories, develop vivid characters, authentic dialogue, and a robust story structure. Explore techniques to unlock your creative voice, discover the emotional core of your experiences, and shape them into a narrative that resonates with readers. Whether you're a seasoned writer or just beginning your memoir journey, this workshop provides a safe and inspiring space to develop your skills, share your stories, and connect with fellow memoirists.
Regi Carpenter
Your Facilitator
Regi is the recipient of Storytelling World, Parent’s Choice, and Parents’ Guide to Children’s Media Awards. Her stories have been featured on Sirius Radio, Apple Seed Radio, The Moth, and NPR. Her story Snap! is a winner of the Boston StorySlam. Snap! is the true tale of her severe mental illness during her teenage years and her journey back to reality.
Her memoir, Where There’s Smoke, There’s Dinner: Stories of a Seared Childhood is “an unexpected gift that leaves us longing for more.” -Booklist Review
Regi is also the founder of Stories with Spirit, a creative initiative dedicated to bringing songs of joy and stories of hope to grieving children and the people who love and care for them in homes, hospices, and hospitals.
Sue O'Halloran
How to Tell Stories for Social Change
Thursdays in May
from 6-8pm PST
(1, 8, 15, 22, 2025)
Class Description
Together, we will practice stories that illustrate pivotal moments of change related to societal issues through history and our personal experiences. Our facilitator, veteran storyteller Sue O’Halloran, will demonstrate how she approaches her stories that revolve around themes of race equity and women’s issues. These principles will apply to any cause that calls to you, whether you are an active advocate or just beginning to take on stories with deeper, more challenging themes. From Sue’s examples, you will be able to distinguish between stories that preach in a negative and patronizing way compared to “preaching” as an artistic form that combines education and entertainment into stories that respect, enlighten, and emotionally move your audience.
Testimonials
The Chicago Reader says O’Halloran “has mastered the Irish art of telling stories that are funny and heart-wrenching at the same time.” Sue’s best endorsements come from her audiences: “Sue opened our minds to a much broader view of why society excludes different groups and energized us to deepen our commitment to transforming our world!” Sue has been a featured teller at the National Storytelling Festivals and Residencies, as well as a National Storytelling Network keynote speaker and community-building facilitator. She lives in Lady Lake, Florida, and can be found at: www.susanohalloran.com
Your Facilitator
Sue O’Halloran is a writer, story artist, television personality, and keynote speaker whose stories explore the complex issues of social justice. Sue is the author of several books and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion curriculums, plus a producer of multi-cultural shows, videos, and films, including Tribes & Bridges at the Steppenwolf Theatre and More Alike Than Not: Stories of Three Americans – Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim. Sue was the producer/director of the first online story festival in 2012 that reached fifty-two countries. Her past Racebridges website showcased 260 video stories by professional story artists telling America’s untold stories and received over half a million visitors each year.
Comedic Techniques in Storytelling
Sindays in June
from 3-5pm PST
(6, 13, 20, 27, 2025)
Class Description
Everyone loves a good story—but a funny story? That’s the one people remember, retell, and beg to hear again. Humor is a storyteller’s secret weapon, but great comedic moments don’t just happen—they’re crafted.
In this high-energy, laugh-filled workshop, former full-time Nationally touring stand-up comic turned award-winning storyteller Paul Strickland breaks down the mechanics of humor in storytelling—why it works, how to build it, and how to make it hit every time. You’ll explore joke construction, comedic timing, and the subtle art of performance indicators—those small but powerful vocal shifts, gestures, and beats that signal an audience when to laugh. Through live examples, interactive exercises, and an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how professionals structure humor into their stories, you'll learn how to make funny moments replicable—not just lucky accidents.
But this isn't just about making your story more funny. It’s about sharpening your storytelling with humor that enhances your narratives, keeps your audience engaged, and makes the serious moments land even harder. Whether you’re a seasoned performer or just someone who wants to tell better stories at dinner parties, you’ll leave with practical, tested techniques to make your storytelling funnier, sharper, and more impactful.
Testimonials
“What I valued most about Paul Strickland's storytelling workshop was the emphasis on craft. Paul has a unique perspective, gads of experience and many applicable ideas regarding structure, pace, performance and more that took this workshop past simply "what story should I tell" to a richer place of how we tell our stories effectively.”
-Erica Reid, Former Director of Marketing, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
"An hour spent with master storyteller Paul Strickland is an hour well spent, and one you should not miss.”
– Cincinnati Enquirer
Paul Strickland
Your Facilitator
Paul Strickland is a professional storyteller and theatre artist who lives in Kentucky. His repertoire includes family friendly stories such as, Reupholstered Folk Tales, Fairytales for Adults and Future Adults, tall-tales and even historical stories that just happened to have never happened.
Paul was a Teller-in-Residence at the International Storytelling Center in 2024. He was a Featured Teller: New Voice at the National Storytelling Festival and Featured Teller at the Timpanagos Storytelling Festival in 2023. and the Cave Run Storytelling Festival among others, in 2022.
In November of 2018 he made his NYC stage debut Off-Broadway at the SoHo Playhouse with his shadow and flashlight ghost story play 13 Dead Dreams of “Eugene".
Always adapting to whatever audience is in front of him, Paul LOVES telling stories in every imaginable environment, from comedy clubs to elementary and middle schools, corporate events and even two prisons - where he was NOT an inmate at the time.
Collections of his stories have won "Best of Fest" honors more than 18 times at Fringe Theatre Festivals in the US and Canada. Selections from his comedy performance Levels of Difficulty are still played nearly every day on SiriusXM radio.
The Kinetic Connection
Tuesday-Saturday
June 3-7
from 5-7pm PST
Class Description
Designed as a foundational approach for understanding and applying movement theater, advanced performance methods, and applied story structure. Get a solid grasp on theory and practice to make your presence, your authenticity, and your talent shine on stage. This is devising and development for performers of all stripes, and levels of experience, participants are expected to share the process of applying kinetic techniques to their work. We will cover mime, the science of gesture, applied improvisation, character, Kinetic Carding, and structural concepts. There will be time allotted each session for performance and analysis.
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Participants should dress prepared to move. Have enough space where they can move.
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Participants should bring a notebook and pencil, 5x8 index cards and a sharpie.
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The meeting will be recorded for participants to privately review afterwards.
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Downloadable notes will be provided.
Leland Faulkner
Your Facilitator
Leland Faulkner’s theatre career was developed under the mentorship of legendary mime Tony Montanaro. His unique imagination has created a program that is both sophisticated and accessible. Classical conjuring, light hearted humor, physical theatre, and amazing shadows create a unique and original performance.
Growing up with an international background inspired Leland to create a program that has been hailed by presenters around the country as one of the best family programs available. His performances have taken him all over the U.S. and to Russia, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Spain, and Turkey.
Prepare to be astounded by the variety, entertainment, humor and magic Leland brings to the stage. Hold on to your hats in preparation for a parade of amazing characters as an old hat brim is transformed into an amazing number of humorous characters from around the world. See shadows come to life using only a pair of hands, and journey to Old Japan with magical storytelling. Get ready to witness near miracles of prestidigitation, acting, storytelling, and that will make you wonder.
Leland presently tours, teaches, devises and directs for a living, creating original productions like Shadowplay at Virginia Commonwealth University, teaching working professionals at The Very Physical Comedy Institute, inspiring other teachers at the Tennessee Arts Academy, and teaching movement for opera singers at The Castleton Artists Training Seminar. He was recently the physical comedy director for The St. Louis Repertory Theatre’s hit production of One Man Two Guvnors.
Leland lives in Maine with the two lights of his life, his wife and daughter.
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