Meet our Speakers

Jayme McGhan

Jayme McGhan is the Executive Artistic Director of A.D. Players at the George Theatre. He is the author of 23 full-length plays that have been produced and developed across the country at The Kennedy Center, Irish Repertory Theatre, Washington Shakespeare Company, Cleveland Public Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, New Light Theatre Project, Yellow Tree Theatre, Stage Left Theatre, Cockroach Theatre, Hot City Theatre, and many more. Jayme is a Resident Playwright Emeritus at Chicago Dramatists, a former company member of Cockroach Theatre (Las Vegas), a former Artistic Associate at Stage Left Theatre, and a former board member of Yellow Tree Theatre and Theatre Y. He also served as the Regional Representative of the Dramatists Guild to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul). Jayme is an accomplished director, designer, technician, occasional actor, and educator. Jayme has served as a Professor of Theatre, Artistic Director, Department Chair, School Director, and Dean at five different universities across the country. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a BA in Theatre Arts from Southwest Minnesota State University. His favorite role is that of husband to Julie and daddy to Levi and Lydia.

Jesse GrothOlson

With more than two decades of professional work as a professor and an actor and producer for the stage and screen, Jesse brings extensive real-world experience to his workshops. His career has taken him from long-form improv and Kabuki in Chicago to feature-length musical comedies and short format stories, including “Best Laid Plans” — an improvised sit-com produced and co-created by Mr. GrothOlson for Hulu. Jesse has produced web series, written original children’s Christmas musicals, and worked on television shows for Discovery Science and TLC.

Jesse has an MFA in Performance from Roosevelt University in Chicago and has taught acting and directing at multiple universities, as well as private coaching for actors in Hollywood. He is also well-versed in technical production for film and theater, serving as a director, production designer, stage manager, sound designer, construction coordinator, or lighting designer for more than 100 plays, musicals, films, television shows, commercials, and music videos. He currently serves as the Marketing Director for A.D. Players at the George Theater, where he’s propelling the world’s leading Christian theater into the forefront of the industry.

With this breadth of experience, Mr. GrothOlson provides workshop participants with rich training in collaborative and creative skills applicable across many fields, with a particular emphasis on real-world challenges and opportunities. As an award-winning professor for the last nine years he has worked hand’s-on with students from all career paths to teach them the kind of analytical and problem-solving skills employers are so hungry for today.

Workshops Available

Creativity

It’s not just for marketing departments. Everyone can grow and thrive when they are able to think outside the box, marry disparate ideas together, and develop practices to free your mind.

1/2 DAY WORKSHOP

Employing strategies to increase personal curiosity as related to organizational goals.

1-DAY WORKSHOP

Everything covered in the 1/2-Day Workhshop plus:
Remembering how to play.

2-DAY WORKSHOP

Everything covered in the 1-Day Workshop plus:
Harnessing the potential of both convergent and divergent creative thinking.
Exploration and expansion of personal creative boundaries.
Implementing strategies for creative workarounds to complex organizational problems.

3-DAY WORKSHOP

Everything covered in the 2-Day Workshop plus:
Utilizing improvisational techniques to break out of recursive thinking.
Critically analyze creative workarounds and knowing how to cut in a way that builds.
Creativity as paradigm crossing - interpreting and breaking through the walls of silo-speak.
Creative interpretation of data and patterns by finding the story in the numbers.

Storytelling for leads

Why can’t you break through the noise? Because you’re not aligning all your assets along a single narrative arc. Connect with your prospective clients by making sure you’re telling the right story with your business.

1/2 DAY WORKSHOP

Understanding narrative theory (Storytelling) as related to your organization's past, present, and future.

1-DAY WORKSHOP

Everything covered in the 1/2-Day Workshop plus:
Applying storytelling strategies as the basic building block for human interaction to improve organizational effectiveness.

2-DAY WORKSHOP

Identifying your company's corollaries to narrative theory in order to use story elements to improve comprehensive organizational health.
Identifying and harnessing the reoccuring intersections in your collective stories.
Highlighting the foundational role of storytelling in the creation of positive corporate culture.

3-DAY WORKSHOP

Everything covered in the 2-Day Workshop plus:
Recognizing and understanding your personal story in relation to advancing the organizations's mission and goals.
Creating awareness in your daily internal interactions that all (personal and organizational) communication is storytelling.
Increasing the effectiveness of your orgs interactions with your customers/clients utilizing the tools of comprehensive storytelling

Breaking silos: Collaboration

Is your company crippled by departments not working well together? Does strife cripple your ability to stay agile? Learn how to foster an environment of collaboration as well as techniques and best practices to help it grow.

1/2 DAY WORKSHOP

Understanding your personality and adjusting to the needs of the situation/problem.

1-DAY WORKSHOP

Everything covered in the 1/2-Day Workshop plus:
Finding the third way - Compromise vs collaboration.

2-DAY WORKSHOP

Everything covered in the 1-Day Workshop plus:
A foundation of humility as the primary starting point for the collaborative process.
Effectively navigating and harnessing conflict
Understanding the benefits of structural hierarchy in organizations.

3-DAY WORKSHOP

Everything covered in the 2-Day Workshop plus:
Effectively interpreting communication patterns based on culture, identity, and worldview
Learning effective tools to create healthy transparency in a collaborative process.
Tools to decipher, communicate, and agree upon collective goals.
Effective modes of operation to establish a healthy environment for collaboration.