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.
Storytelling for Wellness
With Regi Carpenter
Saturday, May 17, June 21, July 19, August 16
from 1-4pm PDT
Class Description
May 17- Diving and Emerging
This class dives deep into our rich pool of experiences to gather the stories of our past in order to emerge, shining and bright with stories that are sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking, and always memorable.
June 21-Mental Wellness: Healing the Healer
This workshop focuses on nurturing the healer through writing, listening, storytelling and silence. Healers of all kind, professional and personal, need the nourishment provided in this time together. We will explore the myriad of feelings and experiences healers have. You'll learn skills to practice with others and yourself that bring peace and understanding.
July 19-Bereavement Workshop: A New Mourning
This workshop combines storytelling, deep listening, reflection and writing to guide us through the myriad of feelings we have when someone we care about dies.
August 16-Using Traditional Tales to Elicit Personal Stories & Coping Strategies
Stories from the world’s folk and fairy tale tradition often mirror the issues of people who seek professional care: confusion, depression, addiction, grief, and a loss of identity. This workshop demonstrates how these tales also contain coping skills, resourcefulness and resilience.
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.
Please note: All sessions are stand alone topics. Sign up for one or more.
Comedic Techniques in Storytelling
Sundays in June
from 3-5pm PDT
(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 PDT
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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