Greetings Folks! If you are going to Branson, here is the list of workshops I submitted will be teaching.
(1) The Performing Santa: Being a great Christmas Performer takes commitment and hard work. It’s the performer who makes the suit, not the other way around. In this workshop we are going to talk about finding resources, and share some tips and tricks for helping you with things like Voice, Physicality, Presence, Improv, Acting, Singing, and more. The average Santa, or Christmas Performer, will have only 700 days performing over a 20-year period. How are YOU improving your Performance skills between each precious season? The Christmas Performer field is growing more competitive. If you want to be a performer who performs at Community, Commercial, and High-End Home-Visit gigs, or you just want to bring the AWESOME, then come join us. Let’s talk about the fun and the brass tacks of investing in ourselves and in the art of Performance as Christmas Characters.
This FUN workshop is brought to you by Santa True, and Christmas Performer Workshops: “Putting the Heart in our Christmas Art!”
(2) Rock Solid Santa: Did you know what the two biggest complaints of photo companies and other employers have about Santas? Not smiling and breaking character. Seriously. But as we all know, being a Santa or Christmas performer is HARD Work! Get twenty Days into our season, ten thousand photos, and a lot miles and a bit of the crud, and it can be hard to keep that Jolly going! This class is here to help. For anyone who needs to Bring the Jolly, or works with folks that do, come join us. We will talk about how we do photo-modeling, the importance of building your Santa Personae, tricks to deal with folks who will trip you up, and situations you need to see coming. Let Santa True help you design some memory-banks, sensory triggers, and learn some verbal techniques for dealing with problem people.
Santa may be a “Jolly Old Elf” but you are only human. Join us and share your tips and tricks as well. This FUN workshop is brought to you by Santa True and Christmas Performer Workshops: “Putting the Heart in our Christmas Art!”
(3) Getting the Feedback YOU Need: Remember the movie Highlander? The whole, “There Can Be Only One!” tag? Being a Santa is kind of like that. As real-bearded Santas, it can be considered bad manners to show up at someone else’s gig. And chances are, we are booked elsewhere, anyway. Ever notice that a lot of our best Santas and Christmas Performers were/are also Clowns, Magicians, Storytellers and so on? What do they have that you don’t? Feedback. Yessir, that magic substance, that indispensable elixir, that helps us improve as Performers! If we want to improve as an art-form, we need peer review and input. Because chances are that your audience may not know or may be too polite to tell you, “hey, that bit, needed some work.” So how do we do this? Santa True has some ideas that we can start using today. The key to good feedback is relevance. It needs to be what you need, when you need it. In this workshop, you will learn how to ask for coaching, give good coaching, and teach you how to network and share the resources you need to be that unique one of a kind, awesome Christmas Performer. This FUN workshop is brought to you by Santa True and Christmas Performer Workshops: “Putting the Heart in our Christmas Art!”
(4) Storytelling for Christmas Folks: Christmas is about stories. It is in fact one giant story snowball that has been rolling through human history. Christmas Performers need to be Storytelling. And by Storytelling, I mean, put your copy of the Night before Christmas/Polar Express away and tell a spoken word story! The best part of storytelling is that it can be so versatile and rewarding. Need to fill a long gig? Mrs. Claus knows a LOT of stories. Your personae can be a great stepping off point for stories. What, Santa never told you about the time…? But wait, there’s more! You can use storytelling all year round, for other events and personae. And there is no topic under the sun that there are not stories about. Ever had people ask you what it is like to be a 24/7 Santa and how that has changed your life? I bet you have a story! Come Join Santa True who, as True Thomas the Storyteller, has been a traditional spoken word storyteller for over thirty years and is a self-described “Story-Vangelist.” You will believe in the power of stories! This FUN workshop is brought to you by Santa True and Christmas Performer Workshops: “Putting the Heart in our Christmas Art!”
(5) Time to Shine Mrs. Claus, A Workshop for Female Christmas Performers and Supporters: This workshop is about helping the ladies in our community find the resources they need and provide some useful ideas to help them SHINE! Topics include: * Assessing our current skills and understanding our motivations * The History of Mrs. Claus and looking at Feminine Roles and Archetypes in Christmas tradition * Roles: Performing vs Managing/Handling a Performing Partner * How to build personae and backstories * Performing in Solo and Duo Roles. * How to develop skills like storytelling, singing, and improvisation * Practical exercises as time allows. Do you know what performing and business skills you need to succeed? Are you aware of some of the interesting and unique gig options available to our talented ladies? Do you have some ideas to share? We will talk about networking, coaching, and the role of women in the Christmas community going forward. If you manage a Santa or you perform as Mrs. Claus or an Elf, please come join us! This fun workshop is presented by Santa True and Christmas Performer Workshops: “Putting the Heart in our Christmas Art!”