Clown by Design

Study and practice the essence of the Red Nose
with a focus on the roots of physical comedy.
With final performance

Available to selected students

with previous clown training with Paola

Deeply rooted in physical theatre-based training, this course proposes an intensive training in the Clown State, as a specific theatre style.


Poetic, comical and very personal, the clown is not a character but a state-of-being, in which the performers consciously explores their personal weaknesses, contradictions and naivety, transforming them into the ‘poetry of the ridiculous’.


The Red Nose is a journey in search of the clown where the performer experiences a state of openness and vulnerability that inspires an inquiry into the joy of play with the creativity of a child and the rigor of an adult.


The clown at this profoundly fundamental level is a state-of-being ‘without doing’, whereby letting go of all intentions, touches the richness of ‘emptiness’ (le bide), as a shared experience of individuality and unique folly.


Work begins with the red nose as mask, exploring ‘neutrality’ to the comic state that leads to a shared experience of state-of-being with the self and the audience; within this journey is an examination of clown relations: hierarchy, families, levels of intelligence, the research on the clown body, voice, costume, as well as exploration of unique specialty skills with objects, music and singing, literature, dance, juggling and acrobatics; all with the aim to devise clown numbers that will be presented to an invited public audience.


Fundamental theatre skills explored: movement technique and analysis, ‘designed-improvisational’ performance, writing, directing, dynamics of the ensemble and understanding transposition for the stage, street or ring.


There will also be basic, introductory mask work for the awareness of articulation and amplification of movement for theatre play.

SCHEDULE

Sundays - 10am to 1pm

Sept.13-20-27th
Oct. 4-11-18-25th
Nov. 1-8-15-29th
Dec. 6-13th
Jan. 10-17-24th

Show
Jan.29-30-31st

TO REGISTER

BY INVITATION ONLY