About Jay Torrence

About Greg Allen

In this workshop you will learn four key ideas to storytelling:

• Synthesis: The art of taking big concepts and filing them down to small potent punches
• Personal: Taking your experience and making it art
• Environment: Responding to what is around you while creating

Whether you are a solo performer or a reluctant public speaker, learning to tell your story quickly, powerfully and convincingly is a critical skill. In this workshop you will gather with a group of like-minded practitioners to learn Neo-Futurist writing techniques. The methods you learn will help you experiment with new forms, control the tone of your pieces, edit for clarity and choose details that will make your presentations unique, effective and unforgettable.

This workshop will use the Neo-Futurists’ approach to creation, focusing on three key ideas: Synthesis, the Personal, and the Environment. Through these, you will learn theater-based methods to help you create a compelling story. So, whether you are a designer, a researcher, a manager or other creative-type who needs help delivering your story into the big, bad world, this workshop will enhance your storytelling abilities.

Things kick-off with an introduction to the Neo-Futurists’ theater, history, and aesthetic with highlights from their signature show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. The Neo-Futurists will then discuss:

• Synthesis, the art of filing down big concepts into small potent punches, focusing on how limitations can generate inspiration.
• The Personal, then help you turn your own experiences into art. They’ll perform two or three personal plays with an emphasis on how to take a life experience and create a compelling story from it.
• The Environment, which revolves around responding to what is around you. You will look at what is immediate and then draw from that.

At the end of the workshop, The Neo-Futurists will facilitate a discussion to explore applications of their method in a user experience and design context.