The Registration form will open on January 2, 2024

This is a 6 day hands-on examination and exploration of an act. We will work on your act from early morning to late night and you’ll find it both challenging and rewarding.
The workshop itself is free of charge, as education is free in Sweden. But there are costs for room + meals.

Required prerequisite knowledge

This workshop is open to anyone who have a general knowledge about conjuring techniques and some performing experience.
It is not a requirement, but it is recommended that you have taken any of the Conjuring workshops, Art of Magic workshop, or the Magic 1 or 2 course at Stockholm University of Arts.

You also need to bring an act, or an idea to an act, of a length between 4 and 20 minutes.

Venue

The venue is “Sigtuna Folkhögskola” (Sigtuna folk highschool), located in the beautiful small village Sigtuna, not far from Arlanda Airport, in Stockholm, Sweden.

Facilitators

The workshop is led by Peter Gröning.

Peter Gröning has been a magician since beginning of time, and is the author of the remarkable book “Resigned to Miracles”. His main profession is to be a singer, actor and mentalist, and he have an inherent knack for directing.
…there will also be a few extra guest instructors.

Learning objective:

On completion of the workshop, the student should:

• Have a better understanding of how a magic act is constructed.
• Feel more comfortable with indepth artistic research.

Schedule

Still under development

Monday
• 8.00 Breakfast for those who arrived on Sunday.
• 9.00 Check-in.
• 9:30 Introduction of the courses.
• 10:30 Diningroom: Fika (coffee & snacks)
• 11:00 Reviewing the tools
• 12:30 Lunch
• 13:30 What is the story?
• 15:00 Fika (coffee & snacks).
• 15:30 Define the structure
• 17:00 Documentation
• 18:00 Dinner
• 19:00 Extra event: Pyrotechnics & Magic. Talk by Ottar Kraemer, licensed pyrotechnician
• …In the evening, there’s a bar. There’s also a lake nearby for those who want to swim.

Tuesday
• 8.00 Breakfast.
• 9.00 Character and emotional transitions
• 10:30 Fika.
• 11:00 Strengthening contrasts
• 12:30 Lunch
• 13:30 Weaving: Foreshadowing
• 15:00 Fika.
• 15:30 Weaving: Callbacks
• 17:00 Documentation
• 18:00 Dinner
• 19:00 Extra event with Jim Steinmeyer: The intellectual game.
• …The bar is open.

Wednesday
• 8.00 Breakfast.
• 9.00 Increasing deception A
• 10:30 Fika.
• 11:00 Increasing deception B
• 12:30 Lunch
• 13:30 Identify and raise the weakest part
• 15:00 Fika.
• 15:30 Limiting procedure and exposition
• 17:00 Documentation
• 18:00 Dinner
• 19:00 Extra event for women: “Towards a mutual body of knowledge”
• …The bar is open.

Thursday
• 8.00 Breakfast.
• 9.00 Making procedure and exposition engaging
• 10:30 Fika.
• 11:00 The first 30 seconds.
• 12:30 Lunch
• 13:30 Revisiting character and emotional transitions
• 15:00 Fika.
• 15:30 The last 30 seconds
• 17:00 Documentation
• 17:40 Dinner
• 19:15 Extra event: Open stage in the dining room. You are welcome to perform. (see note below)
• …The bar is open.

Friday
• 8.00 Breakfast.
• 9.00 Props and set design A.
• 10:30 Fika.
• 11:00 Props and set design B.
• 12:30 Lunch
• 13:30 Rehearsals A
• 15:00 Fika.
• 15:30 Rehearsals B
• 18:00 Dinner
• 19:30 Performances and presentations
• …The bar is open.

Saturday
• 8.00 Breakfast.
• 9.00 The directoral eye. Give feedback to Conjuring A, B & C’s final performances
• 12:30 Lunch
• 13:00 Discussion (All groups): Bringing it home.
• 14:00 End

Loose guidelines.

The following are just advice, not rules or demands.

In general:
Make sure you have pen and notepad. You will get hundreds of ideas, and any idea not written down will be instantly forgotten.
You will probably want to document some of the work you do, so make sure you have plenty of free memory in your devices so you can film and photograph your ideas. One hour each day is dedicated to Documentation, at 5 PM.
It might also be nice to share one’s notes with the group, via some internet solution; Google Docs, Dropbox…

For the explorations:
Bring a small kit of your favorite solutions.
If you like to use magnets and strings to solve magic problems, bring magnets and strings.
If you often solve magic problems by gluing stuff together; bring glue.
If you tend to use black art; bring black material.
…

Music:
You might want to add music, so load up your devices with a good assortment of music in various moods; upbeat, sad, happy, spooky, dramatic, soft, rhythmic…et cetera.

Open Stage
This is just for fun, but we’ll cap the total length of the show to 90 minutes, to be sure the energy is kept up. Some might want to try out something new that have emerged during exercises, others might want to show off something they enjoy performing. Still others might just want to relax and be entertained. To be in the Open Stage, you sign up on a list during Thursday dinner. First come first served.

Finally
In the evenings, a make-shift pub will be open and the participants in the Conjuring workshops can socialize with each other. Improvised magic performances and sessions are very welcome.

Registration form

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