The Art of the Storyteller: Classes & Mentoring
“Laura is the most important contemporary thinker about the power of storytelling in the entire country.” Milbre Burch
“Laura’s classes and coaching is a sacred space binding image, archetype, and the exploration of a personal story.” Carol Jernigan
Classes
THE GREAT STORY IMMERSION
Eight sessions. Small Group. Online. NEW DATES
NEW STORY STARTING ~ Sundays, January 18 to March 1
sliding scale $300 - $600
11 am - 1 pm EST
New Story: The Flowering Tree
The Great Story Immersion is a collaborative exploration of a single fairytale. We work on many dimensions at once, uncovering, savoring, discovering, and researching how a story has meaning in the special reciprocity of a telling in the present. Together, we will enter the Indian tale of THE FLOWERING TREE collected for over twenty years. We will meet on Sundays from January 18 to March 1 (the start of Women's History Month). 11 am - 1pm EST. There is a sliding scale fee for the Immersion.
A woman turns into a tree. The Natural world is honored and alive. A demanding and intriguing tale. We will pry open images and events with love, and commitment,. to bringing up underlying levels of meaning and why it is a worthy story for today. Why should we, and how do we tell this story now? And what personal narratives will we interweave to illumine the significance of this tale? The Great Immersion is a diamond cutters dream. It is supportive for new tellers, professionals, those involved in myth and symbolism, awakened action into the world, healing, education and ecology. As we infuse our telling with insight and compassion, we learn about the unique aspects of an engaged storytelling path.
Send this registration form(TBA) to storymentor2010@gmail.com and sign up at the link below:
Residencies & Coaching
Contact Laura for mini-residencies, week long residencies and individual coaching. please write to me with your need or vision: storymentor2010@gmail.com
Mentoring - Coaching
The LAURA SIMMS MENTOR PROGRAM is an individualized series of coaching and creative sessions on a single project, performance, story in process. Laura serves as dramaturg, inspiratrice, story listener, and spy helping to bring out the story you want to tell and nurture the invisible architecture of presentation that combines your voice with the deepest intention and unexpected connections.
Laura works with up to ten mentees per year - meeting live or online. Each mentorship is tailor made for your project. There are ten-hour private sessions, editing and correspondence are included. All mentee participants meet together every three months for inspiration and sharing.
$1600, paid in advance. Can be used for one year.
THE LAURA SIMMS STORY WRITING COACH is for writers’ seeking the underlying story that renders a memoir or novel cohesive. This is an hourly coaching process that includes reading, comments, and conversations that reveal the inner structure and arc of your writing or presentation.
To Book Time on Individual or group Coaching contact Laura directly. Each session is
tailor made. Please contact Laura to set up an intial (free) consultation half hour.
SAPPHO’S FOUND STORY SALON
*NEW ~ SAPPHO’S FOUND STORY is a monthly storytelling performance laboratory. Each month we focus on one unique aspect of engaged storytelling. These are invaluable investigations and instructions for bringing a story to life.
A new session
Oct. 17, Thursday, 7pm EDT
THE HOLY GRAIL OF BRAIDING STORIES
In these times of extreme dissociation from the natural world and heart-mind communication, engaged storytelling as ritual event is a necessary restoration for our lives and the planet.
Laura will provide a folk tale so we can work together. We will explore:
how engagement provides the sacred function of reciprocity and direct perception in an interdependent world;
as we learn the profound relationship between personal narrative and traditional stories.
Thursdays. 7 - 9 pm EST
zoom platform. (Sent out weekly)
Single session. $40. (pay per session)
FINDING GOLD IN YOUR STORY
a practical HOW TO TELL A STORY course
10 sessions. Small group. Online (or in person)
This foundational step-by-step process of preparing and telling a traditional story, with personal reflections, is perfect for performance, presentation or writing. This course is scheduled two times a year. Groups, Organizations and Schools can
request a course between 4 and 10 sessions tailor made for your participants.
STORY ALONE TOGETHER
is a dedicated time to work on a story or project of your choice
ongoing every Tuesday 5 - 7 pm EST
A weekly dedicated two and a half hour period of time to work on a story in the supportive presence of others. It features group support, breakout rooms, and readings with feedback and companionship on the path of story. Every week Laura sends out a contemplation that stirs the pot of insight. This is a near miraculous program that gives each person a boost and time to work on something you have wanted to work on, have put off, or would like to develop. It is also a time for research, journaling, or whatever you need to keep your creative heart beating. Sign up for ten sessions or sign up for a year. The tech assist to Laura and our muse is Angela Lloyd.
FINDING GOLD IN YOUR STORY
a practical HOW TO TELL A STORY course
Finding Gold is Storytelling 101 Plus
December - February
IF YOU HAVE BEEN WANTING TO ENTER THE STORYTELLING FIELD AS A BEGINNER, OR TO REFRESH YOUR STORYTELLING this is an excellent process. Each participant works on their own story. Assignments, readings, research, and performance practice individually and in small groups makes palpable the unique aspects of engaged reciprocal storytelling.
10 sessions. Small group. Online (or in person)
This foundational step-by-step process of preparing and telling a traditional story, with personal reflections, is perfect for performance, presentation or writing. This course is scheduled two times a year. Groups, Organizations and Schools can
request a course between 4 and 10 sessions tailor made for your participants.
Sliding Scale : $400 - $700. (bonus individual practice session, and a feast of story festival)