A Few Words about Workshops for Performers.

The world of clown and humor can be approached from many directions, from the storyline, the structure and gags and/or from the performer(s) sharing of his/her/their world (s). Ideally it comes from some combination of these.

There is no Stanlislavsky, or Meyerhold, or Grotowski in clown. There are teachers, there are styles. My primary teacher was Richard Pochinko. His work demanded one to develop humor, and performance, from personal impulses, from the archetypal energies within. What emerges is sometimes referred to as Personal Clown, Contemporary Clown or European clown. This performer, drawing on internal energies to create and share laughter, may look in certain moments to evoke an emotional response, to 'touch' the audience. Mature, and young audiences as well, are far more interested in a performer 'being' in their clown world, than playing at clown.

What is most alive in us are our feelings. To play them with humor, to fill an imaginary world with absurdity, levity, actions gestures and logic based on those feelings is indeed the challenge of clown. Clown is generally not a world of verbal wit, it is one of the intuitive mind.

My clown pedagogy continues to evolve. Workshop participants can expect a good amount of physical exploration and activity. There is a focus on one's connection within, and connection with the world beyond self. There is a focus on going beyond playfulness, on engaging one's sense of humor in the play. A strong focus on listening, on complicity, on fun, funny and delight.

-The physical theater components of movement come from Taoist Health Exercises ( Qi Gong), Monica Pagneux's take of Feldenkreis, Mime and Butoh Dance.
-Verbal Expression is explored (Roy Hart style voice work), vocal punctuation encouraged, verbosity not much...
-the clown/humor development is evolved from Richard Pochinko's methods (working with expressions but not masks)
-There is a strong emphasis on active improvisational explorations, in solos, duos and trios. There are performance improvisations, and walkthroughs in solo, duos and trios.
-The focus is on experiential learning, more through the activity than through observation.
- From the butoh world, work with connection with space, allowing for exploration of humor at a slower velocity without losing any of the intensity or spontaneity. This largely enriches the tableau of expressive opportunities.

a few more details about certain aspects of the pedagogy for professional workshops.

Clown World
1. Creating/Developing Personal Clown Character based on personal energies & humoristic impulses
-Performers use walks, body shapes, and impulses to music to shape emotional expressions that compose the vocabulary of the Performers Clown world.
-Developing the Dynamic Range of these expressions from most subtle to most dynamic.
-Developing physical and vocal gesture and movement vocabulary stemming from expressions.
2. Develop Listening Skills in Audience and Performance Partner Relationships. Working within the framework of the clown’s relationship to audience, performers use improvisation to develop ability to build humorous expression in relation to audience response.
-There is focus is on developing rigor: responding to the impulse yet limiting one’s generosity.
-Developing Performance Partner Distempering . Working in duos and trios to find unity in movement/walks/actions
3. Developing performance material & clown turns for solo, duo/trio and groups through improvisation, workshop performance, developing elements of story, work with objects.