"ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING
RESIDENCIES WE'VE EVER HAD!"

Jon Spelman performs a wide variety of material for a wide variety of ages in both
formal theatre settings and
informal community environments.
In addition, he offers classes for kids, teachers, adults, and performing professionals in story-building and collecting,
solo performance, storytelling, and writing.
He also lectures and facilitates story swaps.

COMMUNITY AND OUTREACH PERFORMANCES
From 20 to 60 minutes in length

At Colleges: In dormitories, common spaces, meeting rooms, or ballrooms.  In classrooms, for students of literature, folklore, education, history, speech, theatre, medicine, sociology, anthropology.

At Schools: For grades K-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12. In assembly programs or during visits to individual classrooms.

At Meetings of Service and Social Clubs: At, for example, luncheons for Kiwanis, Lions, Women's Clubs.

At Prisons: In assembly rooms and class rooms.

At Senior Centers: In community rooms and for special interest groups.

At Community Centers: For children, families, or adults.

At Museums: In an auditorium or a gallery, for families, adults, children, or docents.

At Professional Meetings and Conventions: For gatherings of educators, storytellers, historians, writers, tourists, and almost any professional or special interest group.

At Veterans' Centers: In common rooms and for rap sessions.

At Theatres: Informal performances in small performance areas. rehearsal rooms, and lobbies, for actors, directors, writers, and staff.

HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS AND MASTER CLASSES,
AND INFORMANCES

HOW TO TELL A STORY: What are some straightforward steps for understanding, learning, and telling a story? how can storytelling be considered as an accessible process of thinking, feeling, and imagining, rather than as a series of technical feats?

PERSONAL STORYMAKING: What are some ways of creating impromptu stories as a basis for understanding our personal creative processes and as a way of developing story ideas for later elaboration?

FINDING STORIES THAT ARE RIGHT: How do we find our stories? how can we find the stories that are the best for each of us to tell? how can we make every story we tell a personal story?

ORAL HISTORY: What is the value of oral history? how can we learn to collect, preserve, and tell the oral histories of members of our family and community?

STORYTELLING AT HOME: How can parents and grandparents best tell stories to their children? what are the values of reading stories and telling stories? how can kids begin to tell their own stories in the home?

STORYTELLING AND WRITING: What are the differences and similarities between writing for the listener and writing for the reader? how can the oral process inform the literary?

STORYTELLING AND ACTING: How can the telling of a story, the focus on narration, description, and the evocation of emotion, be useful in helping to solve the actor's tasks?

 LECTURE DEMONSTRATION

STORYTELLING IN AMERICA: The history of the storytelling revival in America as told through a variety of stories from different American cultures; personal anecdotes; and the history of our national and regional storytelling associations.

INFORMAL STORY SHARING: Jon Spelman will host an afternoon or evening of informal swapping at which anybody can tell a story and everybody is invited to listen. Swaps can be organized around a place, an age group, an interest group, a theme, or around nothing more than the urge to create an opportunity to tell some stories.

TOURING ROSTERS
Jon Spelman is on a number of touring rosters,
offering subsidies for presenters.
Please inquire about subsidies in your area.

 (Top of Page)