Sara Benincasa: Storytelling Workshop For Women
Sunday May 27th
4pm to 7pm
Live at Comedy Bar – 945 Bloor St W (at Ossington Station)
Have a story you’ve been dying to tell onstage? Here’s your chance to figure it out it in a warm, inclusive group. Author and comedian Sara Benincasa (Real Artists Have Day Jobs; Great; DC Trip; Agorafabulous!) leads this three-hour storytelling workshop for women (queer/trans/questioning gals welcome!)
Your story can be funny, serious, strange, sad, joyful or some combination of all those things and more. You’ll leave with a basic outline for your story, encouragement, positive feedback, and suggestions for expansion. In addition, you’ll get a list of helpful resources and a 15-minute follow-up session via Skype with Sara to be scheduled within two months after the initial workshop.
$225 plus HST
Limited to 8 students
Click here to purchase
This workshop is designed for students with some performance experience in stand-up, sketch, acting or storytelling or corporate speaking. Students will be pre-screened via a very simple application process.
Application
Please submit an email [email protected] including your name as well as writing/storytelling/public speaking experience. Feel free to send blog posts, articles, your website, etc. This isn’t an audition or a job application, so don’t stress! The class works best when everyone has some familiarity with public speaking. (You are still allowed to be terrified of public speaking.)
What to Expect
Bring in one or two sentences to explain your story. You needn’t have it fleshed out or even be sure how to begin or end the thing – that’s why you’re here. We’ll do some prewriting in a notebook or on a laptop (bring the writing tools of your choice) following by writing and storytelling exercises to help them you construct a skeleton for the living creature that will be your story (or, to be less dramatic about it: we’re going to design a rough outline). We’ll also address issues of privacy, consent, and healthy choices with regard to storytelling. At the end of class, Sara will provide a list of storytelling resources and links to help you in future.
Bio
Sara Benincasa is a screenwriter, recovering stand-up comedian and the author of “Real Artists Have Day Jobs” (William Morrow 2016); “DC Trip” (Adaptive 2015); “Great” (HarperTeen 2014); and “Agorafabulous!: Dispatches From My Bedroom” (William Morrow 2012). She also wrote a very silly joke book called “Tim Kaine Is Your Nice Dad.” In 2017, she adapted “DC Trip” as a screenplay with Bona Fide, Gunpowder & Sky, and Adaptive Studios. She also adapted “Agorafabulous” as a pilot for TV with Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody. Born and raised in New Jersey, she attended Emerson College, graduated from Warren Wilson College, and got a masters degree in teaching from Teachers College at Columbia University. She lives in Los Angeles and she’s working on an untitled novel for Adaptive Books.
She has been a talk radio host and producer, a staff writer covering the pharmaceutical industry, a freelance writer covering whatever anyone would pay her to do, a schoolteacher, a writing tutor, a janitor, a party store employee, a legal assistant, an editor, a bathtub talk show host, a sports blogger, and a ton of other stuff. In 2008, she was a citizen journalist for MTV News. She got to be on TRL.
Recent roles include “Corporate” on Comedy Central (2018), “The Jim Gaffigan Show” on TVLand (2016) and the critically acclaimed short film “The Focus Group” (2016), which she also wrote.
Sara attended Emerson College and has a degree in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C. She has an M.A. in Secondary School Education from Teachers College at Columbia University. She is a freelance writer, with four cover stories for BUST magazine under her belt. She teaches writing online and in workshops, and she travels frequently to speak to college students about mental health awareness.
