We offer eight-week storytelling programs, designed to teach each student how to tell his or her story. Workshops are conducted at the site of our partner programs or in our own workshop space and typically include six workshop sessions of 90 minutes each, meeting once per week, though other formats are possible as well. Workshops begin with a storytelling show by Moth storytellers and conclude with a performance by the graduates. The initial show serves as a starting point for discussion about the essential elements of storytelling, including structure, character, moral, humor, suspense, conflict and resolution. The focus then shifts to the stories of the students, rooted in their individual experiences and refined through a wide range of focal points, such as detail development, delivery, showing vs. telling, pacing, and landing. All workshops are conducted by our Outreach Coordinator, Frank Damico, along with teams of additional story coaches when needed.

Benefits

Evaluations have demonstrated that our graduates obtain skills, which are extremely effective in helping them take control of their lives and manage situations such as examinations and job interviews and similar situations that are crucial to their ability to succeed in society. We focus primarily on high school-age teens, who are about to enter society as adults for the first time, and adults in rehabilitation/training programs, who are working to re-enter society, often after years of marginalization, because we believe that these are the two groups that will benefit the most. However, we do work with other groups as well, and feedback has shown that all graduates see significant improvements in their confidence levels, public speaking abilities, and literacy skills.

Stories on Stage

In addition to the shows in the local communities, The Moth Outreach Program presents its best stories to the general public in four annual professional productions featuring Outreach graduates. Stories presented by the Stories on Stage series have included 16-year old Eduardo who battled cancer and lived to tell the tale, and 17 year-old Jahara who experienced saving someone else’s life as an EMS volunteer, and a Guyanese stowaway, a former pickpocket, and many, many others.

If you would like to bring The Moth Outreach Program to your school or community program, please contact us.