The Creativity Workshop

Using the Tools of Creative Writing, Memoir, Art, Photography, Storytelling and Mindfulness


For Performing Arts Professionals

For Performing Arts Professionals

The Creativity Workshop has helped artists in all aspects of the performing arts and film transform their imagination and utilize their gifts.

We will teach you ways to keep your work fresh and open to inspiration.

In this workshop you will generate both new work and seeds for the work you are in the midst of creating. We use many different techniques to help you find your way in your chosen performance work–in theatre, film, music, or dance and as a writer, performer, choreographer, director, or designer. In The Creativity Workshop you will be doing automatic drawing and writing,collage and photography and collaborative work, including performing, storytelling, and puppet theatre.

In The Creativity Workshop, we move back and forth between writing and visual exercises and performance exercises because they stimulate different parts of the brain and the body. It is also an effective way to out-run one’s overly rational or critical tendencies and let the imagination take center stage. We believe that getting out of your chosen art form for a few moments and into other creative mediums keeps you from getting stale. It also combats the kind of perfectionism that keeps you from using your creative gifts at all.

You will find all our tools extremely beneficial in helping you outrun the inner critic that doesn’t give your imagination a moment’s rest. When you can escape over-rational thinking in art, it allows you to discover many unexplored images and themes. You will find it easier to identify and create from your authentic vision.

A typical Creativity Workshop will have people from all over the world and from many disciplines with one thing in common–the love of the process of creative work. Class time will be a combination of teachers’ talks, individual exercises, and group work. Class atmosphere is nurturing, inspiring, and fun. Many people have found The Creativity Workshop to be a life-changing experience.

Many artists in the performing arts have credited our workshop with changing how and what they create. Shelley Berc, co-Instructor and Director of The Creativity Workshop, has worked extensively in professional theatre, dance, and music. She has a great deal of experience teaching playwrights, screenwriters, directors, designers, and actors through her fifteen years on the faculty of the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, the University of Iowa Theatre Department and the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. She holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

Michael Kelly
Michael Kelly, Artistic Director, Shakespeare in Action, Toronto, ON, Canada
“I loved the journey this workshop took me on. It reminded me of the rich value and power of story telling. Thank you for all your guidance.”
Cathy Kee
Choreographer, Singapore, Singapore
”I had a great time at the Workshop. It made me realise that I can do more for myself and possibly influence others, as well. As I did the writing d...
Patricia Lancaster
Ph.D. Dean Emerita of the Hamilton Holt School and Professor Emerita of French, Rollins College, FL
“A perfect blend of relaxation and stimulation. The assignments fostered discovery and creativity, yet left us plenty of time to enjoy the wonders o...