Flagstaff Cultural Partners and The National Steinbeck Center will host a free Narrative Storytelling Workshop and Film Project at the Coconino Center for the Arts on October 11, 2013 at 1:30 p.m-4:30 p.m. The workshop is offered in conjunction with the 75th Anniversary Grapes of Wrath Journey, which makes a stop in Flagstaff on October 11. The workshop is free, but requires advance registration. Participants can register at http://www.twenty2films.com/PJsStories/GOW75WORKSHOP.html.
In the workshop, participants will explore the elements of narrative fictional storytelling in books, stage and film using acting exercises, breathing techniques, vocal warm ups and storytelling games used by professional film and stage actors. Workshop participants will help create and perform in an experimental, interactive video project examining American migrant journeys from three important angles: A Journey’s Beginning, Middle and End, using themes from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
The Workshop and Film Project are led by filmmaker P.J. Palmer (www.twenty2films.com) with assistance from The National Steinbeck Staff and Flagstaff Cultural Partners. Participants in the Workshop will write and perform short stories on camera about the Migrant families of the Dust Bowl era who journeyed West during the Great Depression in the hope of a better life. These video performances will be combined into an interactive exhibit that will go on display to the public in 2014 at The National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California, and/or Flagstaff Cultural Partners and/or online via both organizations. Producers and crew from (twenty)2 films will be documenting the workshop for The National Steinbeck Center’s future film, promotional and social media projects.
The National Steinbeck Center will retrace the journey that The Grapes of Wrath’s Joad family took along America’s Route 66 through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona at the height of the Dust Bowl—toward California and their hopes of a better life. The trip, from October 4- 14, 2013, will be led by artists, writers, musicians and others who will be actively engaged in exploring the human experience of struggle and resilience—each charged with creating new work inspired by the journey. They will interview people along the route, create artistic explorations on these themes and broadcast them via social media, inviting creative multi-media responses from the public.