Storytelling 101: Learn how to tell great stories from your own life experience – FULL

Please invite friends and family to save the date to see your perform and show support. Location TBD. Students are expected to arrive at 7 and stay till 10pm. Performances will begin at 7:30pm but guests are encouraged to arrive early for food and drink.  Performances will be followed by a wrap-up after guests depart.

SpeakeasyDC does not give refunds (full or partial) for voluntary withdrawal from the class. There are limited slots in the class so that we may give sufficient attention to each student. Because of this, we typically have to turn people away. Should you choose to withdraw, we will have a vacancy that we can no longer fill.

This class is designed to teach the art of developing and performing an original, personal narrative drawn from real-life experience. We facilitate the storytelling process from beginning to end with each session centering on a step in the process. Students who join the class come from varied backgrounds and have different goals and applications. Some hope to perform on a SpeakeasyDC stage, others have found storytelling useful in the work they do, and others just enjoy the creative process and the community.  There are 2 instructors and we cap this class at 12 to maintain a 6:1 ratio of student to teacher.

In this class, you will:

• learn how to find raw story material from your own memories and experiences
• discuss the fundamentals of story structure
• discover effective storytelling techniques
• apply story techniques and structure to your own story
• receive honest and thorough feedback from instructors and students
• have the opportunity to practice your storyelling and perform in front of an audience
• learn how to coach and support your peers in the story-creation process
• hear a lot of great stories and watch yours and your classmates’ stories take shape over the four weeks
• become part of a wonderful network of people with shared interests and knowledge

Taking the Storytelling 101 class was one of the best things I’ve ever done. Very talented and encouraging instructors helped us construct meaningful presentations of our true stories. I was taken by surprise by the feelings of connectedness that true storytelling brings about, and what a growing experience it was. I keep telling everyone I know to do this! –posted by kk3

I’ve had the great opportunity to participate in a class, an open mic, and a performance workshop with Speak Easy DC and in each event I took away a whole difference set of skills and “tricks of the trade”. I would highly recommend the experience to anyone wanting to learn how to craft an engaging story and/or learn to perform your work on stage. Not only is the crafting processes enjoyable, but you will never find a more embracing and accepting audience to present your work than those that attend the Speak Easy shows. I truly believe that Speak Easy DC is an exceptional NGO that affords novices and practiced storytellers alike with the opportunity to share their stories and grow as artists. — posted by jarkarta1

I’m about to take my second class with Speakeasy and I’m very excited. I learned so much on the first go around and many of my fellow classmates ended up telling their fantastic stories at open mic. What an entertaining evening…I laughed, I cheered, I cried and I can’t wait to go back again! — posted by ter

Street parking is available, but we are not permitted to park in the lot. You can also take any S bus up or down 16th Street or walk about 6 blocks/10 min from Columbia Hts. Metro (Green/Yellow). Walk north on 14th St 3 blocks, turn left on Newton and walk one long block. Just before you get to 16th St, turn right into the parking lot. Enter through the red doors that opens onto the parking lot and faces 16th St. This facility is wheelchair accessible. Please let us know in advance if that is something you need so we can make proper arrangements.