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2025 Workshops

Two-day workshops are all taught by Santa True of CPW.

Core Training

Standard Course Offerings

(1) CPW Performing Fundamentals

This is our number one course. If you’ve never had any focused training on performance skills, this is THE course to enroll in or host for your group. All our additional training builds on the skills in this course. Here’s our key topics at a glance.

  • Performing Philosophy
  • Tools of the Performer: Vocals, Physicality, and Improv (plus more)
  • Telling a Story Without Saying a Word
  • Learning Character Work
  • All the World’s a Stage: Understanding Space (as a Performer)
  • Rock Solid Santa: The Keys to Marathon Performing
  • The Art of Expressiveness
  • Developing your Photo Mojo
  • Santa Jedi Techniques (understanding your audience)
  • Time to Shine: Focus on Mrs. Claus, Elves, Managers, and Handlers
  • The History of Christmas and the Claus Time Line
  • Building Your Back-Story/North Pole
  • Story Reading and Story Telling, and the Difference between them
  • Story Time with Santa True (Teaching stories, and performing them)
  • Re-Thinking the Santa Community: Santa-Storming and more
  • Q&A and the Future of Christmas Performing

(2) CPW Advanced Performance (Storytelling)

Once you’ve fully jumped into the Performing Fundamentals, the Advanced Performing workshop builds further on those skills and gives you a deeper chance to grow as a performer and storyteller. (Pre-Requisite: Performing Fundamentals Strongly Recommended.) In this in-depth second course, here are the featured topics in class.

  • A quick review of the Fundamentals Performing Techniques (Improv, Mime, Character Work, Vocals)
  • All about Storytelling and Coaching, Types of Storytelling, Understanding Story
  • Storytelling Exercises / Using our Performing Skills
  • Creating our own Christmas Stories
  • Homework (really!)
  • Sharing our Created Stories
  • Building Back Stories and Creating Content/Using our Back stories
  • Working in Tandem and Teams
  • Storytelling and Improv
  • Developing Character Patter
  • Public Speaking Exercises
  • Scattered Throughout: Fun Schtick (Call and Response and Character Exercises)

(3) CPW Turbo-Charged (Coaching and Content Building)

Going beyond our Fundamentals and our Advanced skills, our third course approaches our community needs from two specific directions. First, we need that deep-dive for personal skill tune-up and regular maintenance. It is critical that our community learns how to coach one another. Second, building a repertoire of content that you can use for your programs and performances can be a life-long pursuit. But start here to gain skills in creating your own personalized material that fits our communal brand, our audience’s dreams, and your personal strengths and joys. (Pre-Requisite: Performing Fundamentals Strongly Recommended.) Check out these key topics in this workshop.

  • Quick review of Fundamentals: How to do a Tune Up with each other (Improv, Mime, Character Work, Vocals)
  • How to do a Performers Inventory / The Needs-based Performer
  • Matching and Mapping: How to tune your goals to your skill set
  • Coaching 101
  • Santa Jedi Techniques (The Art of Subliminal Engagement)
  • Microphones and Sound Systems
  • Syncing with Partners/Duo Exercises
  • Networking and Resourcing
  • The Mentor / Mentee Relationship

    • and so much more!

    Performing for the Small Screen: Virtual Visits

    This training includes both some of the existing training taught in our three workshops (expressiveness, vocals, storytelling) AND material specifically designed for helping you develop content for the small screen.

    • Creating Engagement
    • Using Vectors and Space on the Small Screen
    • Eye-Tracking
    • Building a Cohesive Pre-Recorded Script
    • Energy Management and Client Questionnaire
    • Creating Play
    • Online Storytelling
    • Using Props and SFX Effectively for the Camera
    • Creating Content for Live Visits (Families and Corporate)

    Online Training

    Online Workshops

    As a Performance based school, we realize that some training is meant to be in real life. That’s why we send our instructors to you. But when that is not an option, we have online virtual training sessions (via Zoom) that you can book for yourself or your organization.

    Hosting a Workshop

    Contact santa@santatrue.com for how you can bring CPW out to your group!

    Let’s Build a Custom Workshop

    No two groups are exactly the same. One of the unique things about CPW is that we work to tailor our programs for your group.

    Your group can work with CPW to assess where are your members’ current skill sets and their interests. Then we tailor the material for your CPW workshop event and the time available.

    Each of the topics below could include instruction that overlaps with other topics, such as Vocal work and Singing. And some topics for class material are broad categories with several elements for study, such as Vocals, Movement and Physicality, or Developing Back Stories. Any topic could be studied in great depth with specific exercises or addressed through overviews and highlights.

    As we collaborate to design the right workshop outline for your event, we can specify how much time and detail is part of any particular topic.

    Do you have a performing-related class in mind? Let us know how we can help!

    Key Topics for Workshop Events

    • Performing as Christmas Folks – Where we learn about the tools of performance voice projection, physicality, singing, and working a room
    • Storytelling for Christmas Folks – What is a story, why is storytelling important, how to tell stories, types of stories, and more. This topic specifically sets down “the book as a prop” and goes to direct narration and oral-story skills.
    • Story Reading for Christmas Folks – The art of using storytelling tools to do better Story-Reading, with books as props. There are some important differences between story reading and storytelling!
    • The Santa Cheat-Sheet / Creating the Rock Solid Santa – Building your repartee, and reflexes for problem situations
    • Creativity and Coaching for Christmas Folks – Getting and Giving the Feedback you Need, plus Networking to raise our collective skills
    • Time to Shine: Performing for Mrs. Claus and Female Performers – A workshop designed for female Christmas Performers, Managers, and Handlers and their unique skills and needs
    • Building Your North Pole: Creating your Unique Santa Character Back Story – This course material is very helpful for couples and for performers working in teams.
    • Creating Tell-able Tales for your Christmas Character – Finding Traditional Tales and Creating Stories that are fun and unique to your Santa!
    • Marketing Magic for your Clients – Helping our Clients make the very best use of their Santas, in addition to helping you have better gigs!
    • The Long Strange Journey: A Secular Look at the History of Christmas and Santa Claus – Our history is stranger than you think. Knowing more about the full history of Santa Claus over the centuries is rewarding and entertaining.
    • Tools of the Performer – Advanced work on key moments in a performance such as Exits, Entrances, and Tree Lightings, with specific information on coaching, voice, photo opportunities, and more.
    • Fun with Props and Technology – Working with Props, Using Sound Systems, and Other Devices to excel as performers
    • Re-Thinking the Santa Community – A roundtable discussion and workshop, where we look at issues in our community and come up with ideas and plans.
    • Movement and Physicality – Creating Believable Characters without Saying a word
    • Power Vocals! – Building your Vocal strength and Repetoire. Learn the exercises that will help you build the voice that will carry you through your season.
    • Christmas Improv – How to make the best of any situation and build character play with your audience and staff. Learn how to “go for the agreement!”
    • One-on-One Coaching – For those performers who need help on their creative projects and performance journeys
    • Operation Christmas Character – Send your Elves and other Christmas Characters to this workshop to help them get ready to be an amazing part of the Claus Team.
    • Photo Mojo – Learn how to Model for the camera, take charge of random photo scenes, and how to take photos, do photo bombs, and do amazing video greetings and “Elfies”
    • Auditioning for Commercials – Commercial work is its own weird world: Going out to auditions, understanding the who-what-where-when-why of commercial work and agents, and more. This is an important class if you want to get that callback!