presents

Parsifal Reimagined 

A series of 5 creative writing workshops
reimagining the Parsifal legend for today’s world

Workshop facilitator: Fiona Campbell

 

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“A journey of life and transformation

The light and darkness in our souls

The careless hero, the broken sword

The suffering king, the wasteland, the rite of life

The many maidens on the hero’s path

From dullness through doubt to glory”

 

How can we portray these many forms of ‘Grail’ experiences for our time? What is the story we are telling ourselves? And where will our narrative take us? Through creative writing, we seek to answer these questions for ourselves while also contributing together to the development of a new and original performance artwork.

Participate in this creation of performance art!

Come join our online fortnightly writing workshops to be part of this process as we work towards developing a script for our stage production in 2023. You don’t have to be a writer to enjoy these workshops, just a love of literature and bringing it to life. 

Find out what it is like to be part of interactive community building working towards a multicultural, multimedia stage performance, as we explore the themes and our own meanings of the Parzival and Grail legends through the creative word.

A Poetry and Prose Reading

We anticipate the workshops will culminate in a Poetry and Prose Reading event on 26 November for participants to share their works with family and friends. This will be a hybrid event, online and on-the-ground in Mt Barker, SA, hosted by Ink Pots Arts. 

Tell me more …

This series of fortnightly workshops builds on the material introduced in Stage 1: Parsifal Unpacked. Having deconstructed the interwoven storylines of the Parsifal, Grail and Arthurian legends, we now use this material as inspiration for reimagining this medieval epic using our own words and cultural contexts.

Each workshop uses one key theme elicited from Stage 1 as a prompt to explore its mood and meaning, using different techniques to evoke poems, short stories and imaginative word pictures. 

These workshops will also provide the foundation for the Stage 3 script development.

Who are they for?

For anyone who wants to explore the Parzival legend through the creative word; who would like to deepen their own relationship to this story; or who enjoys being creative through crafting imaginative word pictures in community with others.

You do not have to be a practised writer to enjoy these workshops. The workshops provides both structured and unstructured exercises to help you learn how to craft with words.  

Budding writers and poets of all levels of experience welcome!

Participation in Parsifal Unpacked is not prerequisite, but you do need a working knowledge of the story to get the most out of these workshops. Here are some helpful resources. 

Readings and resources

Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach
Perceval le Gallois by Chrétien de Troyes
Parzival: An Introduction by Eileen Hutchins
The Camelot Project, a digital library guide to people, places and images
Parsifal the opera, an online resources with background notes
Christ and the spiritual world – the search for the Holy Grail, GA 149, a lecture by Rudolf Steiner

When are they on?

Saturday afternoon 3.30-5.30 pm ACST
Webinar workshops: 17 September | 1 October | 15 October | 29 October | 12 November
Poetry and Prose Reading: 26 November, time to yet decided

How much does it cost? 

$200 full workshop series or $160 for students (proof/documentation required)

Where do I register?

 You can register here

Find out more …

Download the flyer and share!
Find out more about The Parsifal Project here
Contact Artistic Director Jo-anne Sarre 

 

This course is Stage 2 of The Parsifal Project, a year-long multimedia community project.

 

“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others.
Unfold your own myth.”  Rumi

 

 

About the facilitator

Fiona Campbell, workshop facilitator and project creative consultant

_{Fiona Campbell is a visual artist, researcher, lecturer and arts educator. She has an interdisciplinary PhD on creativity and cognition and has been a professional artist, writer and arts educator for 30 years.}

_{Fiona trained in visual arts at Tobias School of Art, England and is a member of the Stream of Life Research Studio which explores the phenomenological nature and spirituality in human life; she also teaches research training, cultural and consciousness studies in higher education.}  

^{Fiona has taught writing for audiences and worked on a number of creative writing research projects at the University of Technology, Sydney as well as writing blogs, articles and a descriptive form of characterisation used in phenomenological studies.} 

_{As well as her doctorate (UTS), she holds a BA Honours in English & Linguistics (Macquarie University), a MA in Information Science (UTS) and a diploma in Waldorf Education (Emerson College), a diverse range of studies and trainings that inform her teaching, creative work and research work. She also has specialist knowledge in Communications, Anthroposophic studies, sacred art and cultural studies, notably the Arthurian and Grail legends.}

_{You can find out more about Fiona at Painted Space, read about her teaching work at Sydney Rudolf Steiner College or listen to an ABC Soul Search interview about her anthroposophic-inspired approach to painting.}

 

^{Featured image: In the fog, courtesy Creative Commons (CC)
Inserted mage: Parsifal, Odilon Redon, c. 1891, courtesy of Getty Images
Photos: courtesy of Fiona Campbell}