Haunted Texts
with playwright & screenwriter
Amital Stern
June 14-15, 2020
7-9PM Israel time / 12-2PM Eastern Standard Time
© Francesca Woodman: House #3, Providence, Rhode Island, 1976
Sometimes you find your entire body possessed by a story that must be told…but it feels like familiar languages and forms have suddenly evaporated. Variations of fantasy, horror and science fiction might emerge to fill that gap, opening narrative, poetic and structural possibilities.
In this experimental workshop, we will read texts, watch scenes, look at images, discuss and write, in order to unearth haunted elements in our writing. Drawing from various art forms, we will explore memory, dislocation, and alienation. Focusing on the body, and ways it manifests existential monstrosity, we will experiment together, in radical and transformative ways. Even if your current project or writing tendencies lean towards non-fiction or straight-up realism, this workshop will push you to dig deeper in your quest for original, poetic language and imagery, daring innovations in form, and exploration of materials that feel stuck. We will dig up the obsessions, ghosts, aliens, and demons that inhabit our stories and let them take over. We will blur lines between fantasy and reality. Lean into the gothic, the uncanny, horror, glitch aesthetic. Interchange dream and reality. Allegorize. Science-fictionalize. We will play with conventions, break them open, allowing supernatural material to roam free. |
Raised in small cities across North America, Amital Stern writes for theater, film and more. She earned an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Hebrew University, and studied screenwriting at the Sam Spiegel School of Film and Television. Her works for theater include: In Waiting, winner of the Fred Simmons Arts Prize; Hunger Artist, performed at the Theatronetto Festival, Jerusalem Fringe Festival, Arab-Israeli Theater in Jaffa and other venues; Aliza, a site-specific theater production now haunting abandoned buildings in Jerusalem.
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Details:
Minimum/Maximum No. Participants: 6/14
Cost: 400 NIS /115 USD
Times: 7-9PM IDT (12-2PM EST)
Location: Online via Zoom
How does it work? At the end of the first session, you will receive prompts to work on before the next session to keep your imagination fired up!
Registration: Sign up below and we will be in touch. Payment can be made via bank transfer, payment app, cheque/check or cash (by special arrangement)..
Cancellation policy: If you cancel within one week of the class and your place cannot be filled, you will be asked to cover the total cost of the seminar.
Cost: 400 NIS /115 USD
Times: 7-9PM IDT (12-2PM EST)
Location: Online via Zoom
How does it work? At the end of the first session, you will receive prompts to work on before the next session to keep your imagination fired up!
Registration: Sign up below and we will be in touch. Payment can be made via bank transfer, payment app, cheque/check or cash (by special arrangement)..
Cancellation policy: If you cancel within one week of the class and your place cannot be filled, you will be asked to cover the total cost of the seminar.
“[s]uch an abyssal vanishing compels narrativization: it demands stories to be told”
The Science-Fictionalization of Trauma:
Remarks on Narratives of Alien Abduction”
- Roger Luckhurst
Remarks on Narratives of Alien Abduction”
- Roger Luckhurst
Testimonials from June 14, 2018:
Amital began each session with a range of texts and images, drawn from many genres and worlds, for us to engage with and to prompt us into our own writing. Along with making for rich reading and conversation, this did the work of creating a writing space which was expansive and free of judgment,
where I felt safe to experiment with my own writing style and to explore my thoughts, wherever they may go. Amital's experience and her entirely accepting presence created a tone where it became easy for all of us to jump in, cover a lot of ground and go deep in a relatively short amount of time. It
was one of the most original and enriching writing workshops I've ever taken part in, and would welcome the opportunity to do another one with her.' - (initials withheld)
'Amital’s conception of what we were doing together, and how to write about sex, was transformational … Amital’s sequence of writing exercises made me realize that writing about sex was writing about our life and death force, and breaking taboos about what you could write about transformed every part of my writing that day, and I have continued to mull over these insights over the past month. I’m inspired by Amital’s sense of urgency about reading and writing, and their transformational effect.' - (name withheld)
Amital began each session with a range of texts and images, drawn from many genres and worlds, for us to engage with and to prompt us into our own writing. Along with making for rich reading and conversation, this did the work of creating a writing space which was expansive and free of judgment,
where I felt safe to experiment with my own writing style and to explore my thoughts, wherever they may go. Amital's experience and her entirely accepting presence created a tone where it became easy for all of us to jump in, cover a lot of ground and go deep in a relatively short amount of time. It
was one of the most original and enriching writing workshops I've ever taken part in, and would welcome the opportunity to do another one with her.' - (initials withheld)
'Amital’s conception of what we were doing together, and how to write about sex, was transformational … Amital’s sequence of writing exercises made me realize that writing about sex was writing about our life and death force, and breaking taboos about what you could write about transformed every part of my writing that day, and I have continued to mull over these insights over the past month. I’m inspired by Amital’s sense of urgency about reading and writing, and their transformational effect.' - (name withheld)
Testimonials from February 15, 2018:
'Amital Stern's workshop at WriteSpace Jerusalem was everything I'd want a writing workshop to be: stimulating, invigorating, thoughtful, constructive. The connection I developed almost immediately with my fellow writers and with Amital created a space in which I could use my writing to therapeutically heal. Yes, heal! I encourage you to take advantage of what WriteSpace Jerusalem has to offer. You'll be giving yourself a gift you richly deserve. Thank you, Nadia and Amital! That day will stay with me always.' - R.E.
'I have been to two WriteSpace workshops - Story Foundations taught by Nadia Jacobson and Batnadiv Weinberg, and a day-long seminar taught by Amital Stern. The workshops are focused and enriching, with creative prompts and a good balance between group sharing, writing, and learning elements of the craft. I have thoroughly enjoyed each one, gaining valuable new perspectives from the instructors and participants alike. Since participating in the workshops I have been introduced to a flourishing community of creative English writers in Israel, in which WriteSpace Jerusalem plays a central role.' - A.A.
'Amital Stern's workshop at WriteSpace Jerusalem was everything I'd want a writing workshop to be: stimulating, invigorating, thoughtful, constructive. The connection I developed almost immediately with my fellow writers and with Amital created a space in which I could use my writing to therapeutically heal. Yes, heal! I encourage you to take advantage of what WriteSpace Jerusalem has to offer. You'll be giving yourself a gift you richly deserve. Thank you, Nadia and Amital! That day will stay with me always.' - R.E.
'I have been to two WriteSpace workshops - Story Foundations taught by Nadia Jacobson and Batnadiv Weinberg, and a day-long seminar taught by Amital Stern. The workshops are focused and enriching, with creative prompts and a good balance between group sharing, writing, and learning elements of the craft. I have thoroughly enjoyed each one, gaining valuable new perspectives from the instructors and participants alike. Since participating in the workshops I have been introduced to a flourishing community of creative English writers in Israel, in which WriteSpace Jerusalem plays a central role.' - A.A.