Nola Rae
WORKSHOP
Led by top physical and visual theatre professionals, the LIMF’21 workshops catered for all levels of experience and ran throughout January. Due to the stricter lockdown, all courses had to be moved online, or, in the case of Angela De Castro, postponed. We were delighted that the teachers rose to the challenge and were joined by participants from across the world - from China to Canada, Reunion to Hungary. Everything was fully booked, with requests for repeat courses to accommodate even more of you.
The line-up included Nola Rae’s Upgrade Your Clown; Les Bubb’s Playing with the Invisible - A Crash Course in Mime; Told by an Idiot’s Building The Chaos, and three courses run in partnership with Shoreditch Town Hall; The PappyShow’s How We Play and Move, Theatre Re’s corporeal mime-based Falling Man, and David Glass Ensemble Learning’s Devised and Physical Object Theatre. American vaudeville performer, clown, mime, juggler and sleight of hand magician Avner Eisenberg (‘astonishing and funny, a clown for the thinking man" New York Magazine) presented his Introduction to Eccentric Performing, approaching performing and creating comic material from a fresh perspective.Angela de Castro’s two clowning workshops How To Be Stupid and How To Be Even More Stupid had to be postponed until summer’21.
We’ll be back with more online courses next January, alongside live ones we hope.
Main Image: The PappyShow photo © DinaT
NOLA RAE
Upgrade Your Clown
Six 2-hour Zoom sessions led by Nola Rae6 consecutive Sats: 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 Jan & 6 Feb
EVENT ENDED
If you would like to hear about future courses please send an email to workshops@mimelondon.com
more about this workshop >
In these sessions we will explore some of the golden rules of visual comedy. Silent or noisy, clowns can make their work more powerful by understanding and practising the language of gesture in its many forms.
From head to toe, the body talks through actions. Here actions will be amplified and refined so that a story can come across as concisely and as clearly as possible. We will explore how to create characters that speak physically through mime, rhythm, breath and timing. As the song goes: “It ain’t what you do. (It’s the way that you do it).”
Nola Rae, one of Europe’s most celebrated theatre clowns, came to London from Sydney in 1963. She trained at the Royal Ballet School and with Marcel Marceau, before launching her career in theatre that took her to 68 countries to date. It was at Nola’s instigation that the first mime festival took place at the Cockpit Theatre in 1977. She was awarded an MBE for her services to Drama and Mime in 2008.
Students should dress comfortably in colours that can be seen easily on Zoom, contrasting to their background. They should, if possible, be able to be seen full length, be well lit and have a chair to hand + 1 juggling ball.
This course is designed for theatre-makers and performers with some previous experience. The class will be limited to 12 students who must be 18+
From head to toe, the body talks through actions. Here actions will be amplified and refined so that a story can come across as concisely and as clearly as possible. We will explore how to create characters that speak physically through mime, rhythm, breath and timing. As the song goes: “It ain’t what you do. (It’s the way that you do it).”
Nola Rae, one of Europe’s most celebrated theatre clowns, came to London from Sydney in 1963. She trained at the Royal Ballet School and with Marcel Marceau, before launching her career in theatre that took her to 68 countries to date. It was at Nola’s instigation that the first mime festival took place at the Cockpit Theatre in 1977. She was awarded an MBE for her services to Drama and Mime in 2008.
Students should dress comfortably in colours that can be seen easily on Zoom, contrasting to their background. They should, if possible, be able to be seen full length, be well lit and have a chair to hand + 1 juggling ball.
This course is designed for theatre-makers and performers with some previous experience. The class will be limited to 12 students who must be 18+
AVNER EISENBERG
An Introduction to Eccentric Performing
Six 2-hour Zoom sessions led by Avner Eisenberg6 consecutive Suns: 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 Jan & 7 Feb
EVENT ENDED
If you would like to hear about future courses please send an email to workshops@mimelondon.com
more about this workshop >
Use the Eccentric Principles to approach performing and creating comic material from a fresh perspective.
If your world is turned upside down, it’s a perfect time to embrace Eccentric Performing – one of the most personal and paradoxical forms of theatre. It can be ingenious or dim-witted, skilful or blundering. It can have a sharp verbal wit or be completely silent. It can be extremely silly while pointing out the failure of society. Above all, Eccentric Performing is funny!
This workshop, taught over six consecutive weekends, is open to magicians, clowns, physical comedy performers, and anyone from all experience levels that wants to improve their theatrical skills. Each week, Avner will feature a new principle and propose an assignment for you to prepare. You’ll use the prompt to inspire a short video, no more than 3 minutes long, and upload it as a private video to YouTube. At the next session the group will view the videos and Avner will offer comments and coaching.
What you will learn:
• Creating and maintaining rapport with any audience
• Applying Lecoq training to clowning
• Turning any audience volunteer into an exceptional volunteer
• And much more!
The class will be limited to 12 places – each session will last approximately 2 hours and will be recorded and posted for one week to watch if you missed a session.
Students must be 18+
Avner Eisenberg was described by New York Magazine as ‘Astonishing and funny. A clown for the thinking man’. His show, Avner the Eccentric, was a Broadway hit and appeared in the 1984 and 2002 editions of London International Mime Festival. He is widely known for his portrayal of the lovable holy man in The Jewel of the Nile with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.
If your world is turned upside down, it’s a perfect time to embrace Eccentric Performing – one of the most personal and paradoxical forms of theatre. It can be ingenious or dim-witted, skilful or blundering. It can have a sharp verbal wit or be completely silent. It can be extremely silly while pointing out the failure of society. Above all, Eccentric Performing is funny!
This workshop, taught over six consecutive weekends, is open to magicians, clowns, physical comedy performers, and anyone from all experience levels that wants to improve their theatrical skills. Each week, Avner will feature a new principle and propose an assignment for you to prepare. You’ll use the prompt to inspire a short video, no more than 3 minutes long, and upload it as a private video to YouTube. At the next session the group will view the videos and Avner will offer comments and coaching.
What you will learn:
• Creating and maintaining rapport with any audience
• Applying Lecoq training to clowning
• Turning any audience volunteer into an exceptional volunteer
• And much more!
The class will be limited to 12 places – each session will last approximately 2 hours and will be recorded and posted for one week to watch if you missed a session.
Students must be 18+
Avner Eisenberg was described by New York Magazine as ‘Astonishing and funny. A clown for the thinking man’. His show, Avner the Eccentric, was a Broadway hit and appeared in the 1984 and 2002 editions of London International Mime Festival. He is widely known for his portrayal of the lovable holy man in The Jewel of the Nile with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.
GUILLAUME PIGÉ / THEATRE RE
Falling Man
A 5-day intensive Zoom workshop taught
by Guillaume PigéMon 4 - Fri 8 Jan
EVENT ENDED
If you would like to hear about future courses please send an email to workshops@mimelondon.com
more about this workshop >
To fall is to suddenly go towards the ground without intending to. You lose control of your weight and gravity takes over. You cannot pretend and you cannot lie. The fall is real and true.
Through the study of Etienne Decroux's Corporeal Mime repertoire and technique, we will focus on the use of weight and how to turn it into a main dramatic force to be real and true on stage.
This five-day workshop is designed for professional and semi-professional performers.
Guillaume Pigé is an actor, director, mime and magician. He formed Theatre Re in 2011 and has directed each of the company's productions to date. He is an Associate Teacher at R.A.D.A, Head of Devising at Fourth Monkey and an Associate Artist at The Point, Eastleigh. He is regularly invited to give workshops in the UK and internationally.
‘Guillaume Pigé and his company Theatre Re have been teaching and working creatively on RADA's MA Theatre Lab for some years now. Through the rigour and theatrical poetry of corporal mime / expression, the training offers our students a concrete way of extending a sense of what's possible for the actor body onstage, beyond naturalism. The training is rooted in a tradition of discipline and exploration, providing the students liberating and clear vocabularies for creating highly physical work, deepening a mutual respect for craft in the ensemble.'
Ian Morgan, Course Leader, RADA MA Theatre Lab
Through the study of Etienne Decroux's Corporeal Mime repertoire and technique, we will focus on the use of weight and how to turn it into a main dramatic force to be real and true on stage.
This five-day workshop is designed for professional and semi-professional performers.
Guillaume Pigé is an actor, director, mime and magician. He formed Theatre Re in 2011 and has directed each of the company's productions to date. He is an Associate Teacher at R.A.D.A, Head of Devising at Fourth Monkey and an Associate Artist at The Point, Eastleigh. He is regularly invited to give workshops in the UK and internationally.
‘Guillaume Pigé and his company Theatre Re have been teaching and working creatively on RADA's MA Theatre Lab for some years now. Through the rigour and theatrical poetry of corporal mime / expression, the training offers our students a concrete way of extending a sense of what's possible for the actor body onstage, beyond naturalism. The training is rooted in a tradition of discipline and exploration, providing the students liberating and clear vocabularies for creating highly physical work, deepening a mutual respect for craft in the ensemble.'
Ian Morgan, Course Leader, RADA MA Theatre Lab
MARK DOWN / BLIND SUMMIT
How to do puppetry home alone
A 3-hour Zoom session led by Mark downSun 10 Jan
EVENT ENDED
If you would like to know about future courses please send an email to Fiona at info@blindsummit.com
more about this workshop >
Blind Summit's expertise is three-person puppetry, but we're not allowed to get together and do that right now. So, what can we do?
This workshop will focus on everything that you can do at the moment to improve your skills and make some puppetry while you are locked-down or working only in small groups.
Exercises you can do on your own, or with one or two other people.
• Ideas for making work on your own.
• Things to read and watch.
• Plus a short surgery on any questions that you have.
3 hours:
1 hour - general puppet principles.
1 hour - surgery - share your puppets, puppet problems for one on one advice session.
1 hour - experiments and discussion about doing performing potential on Zoom, how can we best use it to make live performance.
Bring puppets, ideas, objects, and questions to share at the workshop.
Mark Down is Artistic Director and co-founder of Blind Summit. He originally trained as a doctor before retraining at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama on the MA Advanced Theatre Practice course.
Over his 20 years of leading Blind Summit he has developed a method of working with puppets that integrates, writing, designing, directing and performing into one process which he calls "Follow the Puppet".
As Puppet Director and designer Mark has worked with world class artists to put puppetry in new and unusual places: Sorrow in Anthony Minghella's Madame Butterfly at ENO and the Metropolitan Opera, the singing dog Sharik in Complicite’s A Dog’s Heart at ENO, DNO and La Scala, the 18 feet tall Voldemort at Danny Boyle’s 2012 London Olympic Opening Ceremony and the puppetry for Emma Rice’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe in 2016.
He is a visiting lecturer at University of the Arts, Wimbledon and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
This workshop will focus on everything that you can do at the moment to improve your skills and make some puppetry while you are locked-down or working only in small groups.
Exercises you can do on your own, or with one or two other people.
• Ideas for making work on your own.
• Things to read and watch.
• Plus a short surgery on any questions that you have.
3 hours:
1 hour - general puppet principles.
1 hour - surgery - share your puppets, puppet problems for one on one advice session.
1 hour - experiments and discussion about doing performing potential on Zoom, how can we best use it to make live performance.
Bring puppets, ideas, objects, and questions to share at the workshop.
Mark Down is Artistic Director and co-founder of Blind Summit. He originally trained as a doctor before retraining at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama on the MA Advanced Theatre Practice course.
Over his 20 years of leading Blind Summit he has developed a method of working with puppets that integrates, writing, designing, directing and performing into one process which he calls "Follow the Puppet".
As Puppet Director and designer Mark has worked with world class artists to put puppetry in new and unusual places: Sorrow in Anthony Minghella's Madame Butterfly at ENO and the Metropolitan Opera, the singing dog Sharik in Complicite’s A Dog’s Heart at ENO, DNO and La Scala, the 18 feet tall Voldemort at Danny Boyle’s 2012 London Olympic Opening Ceremony and the puppetry for Emma Rice’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe in 2016.
He is a visiting lecturer at University of the Arts, Wimbledon and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
LES BUBB
Playing with the Invisible - A Crash Course in Mime
Five 1-hour Zoom sessions led by Les BubbMon 11 - Fri 15 Jan
EVENT ENDED
If you would like to hear about future courses please send an email to workshops@mimelondon.com
more about this workshop >
Mime is an essential tool for actors, clowns, dancers, puppeteers, singers - practically any branch of the performing arts.
We all have an imagination. This is a given, but our human characters differ due to a myriad of individual experiences. Play is key to keeping an audience engaged with what otherwise would be the pure exercise of technique.
This course is for anyone wishing to learn how to create believable illusions through the medium of mime, and to develop their capacity to play with these new-found skills. It will entail brief exercises to limber up and ensure your body is in a fit state to absorb this new skill without injury, but individual ‘warming up’ prior to the start of each session is encouraged. We will create magic when we learn how to isolate and articulate different parts of the body, exploring the movement range of the joints required to create illusions. We will learn how to hold objects, ascertain their physical qualities and show the weight of them by picking them up, putting them down, and passing them from hand to hand. Larger scale illusions will be achieved largely with upper torso work and the shifting of weight. The isolation and articulation of the hip, knee and foot joints will lead to ‘mime walks’. All of the exercises are about making visible the process of effort, the key ingredient to believable illusions.
You CAN learn this in a week AND remotely via Zoom.
Les Bubb studied mime with Desmond Jones in London, and with Etienne Decroux, Theatre du Mouvement, Daniel Stein, Thomas Leabhart, Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux in Paris. He quickly became popular with his unique blend of mime and metaphysical clowning, joining the new wave of alternative comedy of the 1980s, touring as a support act with contemporaries Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Lenny Henry. From 1997 to 2002 Les starred in and co-wrote the series HUBUBB for BBC1, making his distinctive surreal humour popular to a whole new generation. More recently Les has worked on several Harry Potter films, toured with Take That and performed in Kneehigh’s The Tim Drum.
The course is aimed at people with some previous performing experience, whether professional or not. Body-awareness or movement skill (dance, acrobatics, yoga, etc) would be an advantage, but are not strictly required.
The class will be limited to 16 people.
Minimum age is 18 years.
We all have an imagination. This is a given, but our human characters differ due to a myriad of individual experiences. Play is key to keeping an audience engaged with what otherwise would be the pure exercise of technique.
This course is for anyone wishing to learn how to create believable illusions through the medium of mime, and to develop their capacity to play with these new-found skills. It will entail brief exercises to limber up and ensure your body is in a fit state to absorb this new skill without injury, but individual ‘warming up’ prior to the start of each session is encouraged. We will create magic when we learn how to isolate and articulate different parts of the body, exploring the movement range of the joints required to create illusions. We will learn how to hold objects, ascertain their physical qualities and show the weight of them by picking them up, putting them down, and passing them from hand to hand. Larger scale illusions will be achieved largely with upper torso work and the shifting of weight. The isolation and articulation of the hip, knee and foot joints will lead to ‘mime walks’. All of the exercises are about making visible the process of effort, the key ingredient to believable illusions.
You CAN learn this in a week AND remotely via Zoom.
Les Bubb studied mime with Desmond Jones in London, and with Etienne Decroux, Theatre du Mouvement, Daniel Stein, Thomas Leabhart, Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux in Paris. He quickly became popular with his unique blend of mime and metaphysical clowning, joining the new wave of alternative comedy of the 1980s, touring as a support act with contemporaries Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Lenny Henry. From 1997 to 2002 Les starred in and co-wrote the series HUBUBB for BBC1, making his distinctive surreal humour popular to a whole new generation. More recently Les has worked on several Harry Potter films, toured with Take That and performed in Kneehigh’s The Tim Drum.
The course is aimed at people with some previous performing experience, whether professional or not. Body-awareness or movement skill (dance, acrobatics, yoga, etc) would be an advantage, but are not strictly required.
The class will be limited to 16 people.
Minimum age is 18 years.
ANGELA DE CASTRO
How To Be A Stupid
A 5-day intensive clowning workshop.
Postponed to the summer.
More info: thewhynotinstitute.com/when-are-the-courses/
MARK DOWN / BLIND SUMMIT
What’s So Special About Zoom - An investigation into the possibilities of puppetry on live internet platforms
Five 2.5-hour Zoom sessions led by Mark DownMon 18 - Fri 22 Jan
EVENT ENDED
If you would like to know about future courses please send an email to Fiona at info@blindsummit.com
more about this workshop >
One thing I’ve learned from the lockdown is that I’m not interested in making Facebook or TikTok or Insta-videos. I am interested in LIVE and THREE DIMENSIONAL and ACCIDENTAL and CONNECTING. How can we do that in the age of COVID? I don't know, and that is exciting. Zoom is live and two dimensional and accidental and connects us at least a bit.
I feel sure there is something for puppeteers to discover.
This is a ground-up R+D into the puppetry possibilities of Zoom as a live performance medium.
What sorts of puppets will work best? Can we puppet the frame? What is the role of the puppeteer? What does doing a three dimensional art form in a two dimensions mean? Can we mess with the background? How can we go beyond the frame?
I have no idea what we will discover. We will certainly get stuck along the way. Everyone will make something to present every day. We will all learn something. How puppetry can make Zoom-performance better in the future...
Half an hour of teaching a simple puppet principle each day. Followed by 2 hours of R+D, sharing ideas, making things, trying things out on each other, working together and working alone.
12 places supported by Blind Summit Theatre.
Your only commitment is to turn up.
Mark Down is Artistic Director and co-founder of Blind Summit. He originally trained as a doctor before retraining at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama on the MA Advanced Theatre Practice course.
Over his 20 years of leading Blind Summit he has developed a method of working with puppets that integrates, writing, designing, directing and performing into one process which he calls "Follow the Puppet".
As Puppet Director and designer Mark has worked with world class artists to put puppetry in new and unusual places: Sorrow in Anthony Minghella's Madame Butterfly at ENO and the Metropolitan Opera, the singing dog Sharik in Complicite’s A Dog’s Heart at ENO, DNO and La Scala, the 18 feet tall Voldemort at Danny Boyle’s 2012 London Olympic Opening Ceremony and the puppetry for Emma Rice’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe in 2016.
He is a visiting lecturer at University of the Arts, Wimbledon and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
This is a ground-up R+D into the puppetry possibilities of Zoom as a live performance medium.
What sorts of puppets will work best? Can we puppet the frame? What is the role of the puppeteer? What does doing a three dimensional art form in a two dimensions mean? Can we mess with the background? How can we go beyond the frame?
I have no idea what we will discover. We will certainly get stuck along the way. Everyone will make something to present every day. We will all learn something. How puppetry can make Zoom-performance better in the future...
Half an hour of teaching a simple puppet principle each day. Followed by 2 hours of R+D, sharing ideas, making things, trying things out on each other, working together and working alone.
12 places supported by Blind Summit Theatre.
Your only commitment is to turn up.
Mark Down is Artistic Director and co-founder of Blind Summit. He originally trained as a doctor before retraining at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama on the MA Advanced Theatre Practice course.
Over his 20 years of leading Blind Summit he has developed a method of working with puppets that integrates, writing, designing, directing and performing into one process which he calls "Follow the Puppet".
As Puppet Director and designer Mark has worked with world class artists to put puppetry in new and unusual places: Sorrow in Anthony Minghella's Madame Butterfly at ENO and the Metropolitan Opera, the singing dog Sharik in Complicite’s A Dog’s Heart at ENO, DNO and La Scala, the 18 feet tall Voldemort at Danny Boyle’s 2012 London Olympic Opening Ceremony and the puppetry for Emma Rice’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe in 2016.
He is a visiting lecturer at University of the Arts, Wimbledon and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
THE PAPPYSHOW
How We Play and Move
A 2-day Zoom workshop taught by Kane HusbandsSat 23 - Sun 24 Jan
EVENT ENDED
If you would like to hear about future courses please send an email to workshops@mimelondon.com
more about this workshop >
This is a practical workshop that will explore The PappyShow’s playful approach to creating and devising material.
We look at approaches to making movement and playing games, delving into collaborative and inclusive approaches to make work. For anyone over the age of 16 who is up for doing some moving and shaking! No previous experience is necessary - just a playful encouraging and collaborative attitude. We will be working quite physically, so be prepared to sweat, push yourself and have lots of fun. No previous experience necessary.
The PappyShow is a playful, physical and visual ensemble theatre company. Formed in January 2013 by Kane Husbands in order to provide a much-needed space for actors to train in physical theatre. We use exercise and training to devise and create work. We are a diverse company and difference and diversity are the cornerstones to our work and process. We work with actors, dancers, movers and non-performers, but we only ever expect you to be yourself - we are just US. We believe that having a space to play, devise and fail improves us as people and we use a physical and therapeutic approach to create our work.
We look at approaches to making movement and playing games, delving into collaborative and inclusive approaches to make work. For anyone over the age of 16 who is up for doing some moving and shaking! No previous experience is necessary - just a playful encouraging and collaborative attitude. We will be working quite physically, so be prepared to sweat, push yourself and have lots of fun. No previous experience necessary.
The PappyShow is a playful, physical and visual ensemble theatre company. Formed in January 2013 by Kane Husbands in order to provide a much-needed space for actors to train in physical theatre. We use exercise and training to devise and create work. We are a diverse company and difference and diversity are the cornerstones to our work and process. We work with actors, dancers, movers and non-performers, but we only ever expect you to be yourself - we are just US. We believe that having a space to play, devise and fail improves us as people and we use a physical and therapeutic approach to create our work.
DAVID GLASS ENSEMBLE LEARNING
Devised and Physical Object Theatre
An intensive workshop with David GlassA 5-day workshop on Zoom
Mon 25 - Fri 29 Jan
EVENT ENDED
If you would like to hear about future courses please send an email to workshops@mimelondon.com
more about this workshop >
The artist is constantly using their work to help people to ‘see again’, ‘think again’ and ‘feel again’. Central to the artist’s process is learning through experience, exploration and expression.
David Glass will lead a masterclass and workshop in Devised Object Theatre, rooted in physical and image-based theatre and storytelling. The workshop will combine skill and technical practice with explorative, experience-based investigations into movement and drama.
Using David Glass’ Alchemy-Extraordinary five-stage devising process we will start from the body to explore principles of spatial dynamics, the three emotional centres of the body, the basic grammar of movement, fixed points, élan, the elements of nature and the struggle of pushing and pulling.
David Glass is an award-winning solo performer, theatre director, writer, designer, lighting designer, filmmaker, teacher and creative thinker. He is one of the principal founders of the Physical/Visual, Devised, Ensemble and Applied Theatre movements. David is a leading international theatre teacher and has taught and influenced three generations of theatre makers in 73 countries.
For people with some previous performance experience, either as theatre students or as professionals.
“David is one of the great teachers and artists of our time who has never been afraid to examine truth in all its manifestations; both beautiful and ugly, and has touched thousands of souls in a life-long quest to connect and build meaningful relationships.”
Amit Lahav, Artistic Director, Gecko
David Glass will lead a masterclass and workshop in Devised Object Theatre, rooted in physical and image-based theatre and storytelling. The workshop will combine skill and technical practice with explorative, experience-based investigations into movement and drama.
Using David Glass’ Alchemy-Extraordinary five-stage devising process we will start from the body to explore principles of spatial dynamics, the three emotional centres of the body, the basic grammar of movement, fixed points, élan, the elements of nature and the struggle of pushing and pulling.
David Glass is an award-winning solo performer, theatre director, writer, designer, lighting designer, filmmaker, teacher and creative thinker. He is one of the principal founders of the Physical/Visual, Devised, Ensemble and Applied Theatre movements. David is a leading international theatre teacher and has taught and influenced three generations of theatre makers in 73 countries.
For people with some previous performance experience, either as theatre students or as professionals.
“David is one of the great teachers and artists of our time who has never been afraid to examine truth in all its manifestations; both beautiful and ugly, and has touched thousands of souls in a life-long quest to connect and build meaningful relationships.”
Amit Lahav, Artistic Director, Gecko
ANGELA DE CASTRO
How To Be Even More Of A Stupid
A 5-day intensive clowning workshop.
Postponed to the summer.
More info: thewhynotinstitute.com/when-are-the-courses/
TOLD BY AN IDIOT
Building the Chaos
Two 3-hour Zoom sessions led by Stephen HarperSat 30 - Sun 31 Jan
EVENT ENDED >
If you would like to hear about future courses, please send an email to natashabergg@toldbyanidiot.org
more about this workshop >
Are you a performer interested in honing your improvisation, devising and comedy skills? Taking inspiration from the greats of silent comedy Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and Buster Keaton, this two-day intensive explores the idea of adding a fresh twist to some classic physical comedy routines.
Led by long-term Told by an Idiot collaborator and experienced performer, director and theatre maker Stephen Harper, the workshop draws on clown, commedia dell’arte and the work of Michael Chekhov to look at the technique and spirit needed to create brilliant comic set pieces.
You will take away a toolkit of ideas and practical approaches, which will enable you to make your own gags, numbers and comedy routines, including hand to hand combat techniques in order to create slapstick violence, pratfalls, double takes and throwing custard pies.
Feedback from Building the Chaos 2020 participants:
“Excellently laid out. Accessible, tangible, challenging but supported. Jam packed. We covered so much ground. It knew what it was trying to achieve and did it meticulously.”
“This was part of my Professional Development, it reminded me what it was to be a participant, allowed me to reflect on my own teaching, let me re-connect to the joy of performing, and remember the skills required to devise as an ensemble. All great creative lessons.”
“This was one of the best workshops I have attended.”
Find out more about workshop leader Stephen Harper here >
This workshop will be taught in English. There are 12 places available.
Led by long-term Told by an Idiot collaborator and experienced performer, director and theatre maker Stephen Harper, the workshop draws on clown, commedia dell’arte and the work of Michael Chekhov to look at the technique and spirit needed to create brilliant comic set pieces.
You will take away a toolkit of ideas and practical approaches, which will enable you to make your own gags, numbers and comedy routines, including hand to hand combat techniques in order to create slapstick violence, pratfalls, double takes and throwing custard pies.
Feedback from Building the Chaos 2020 participants:
“Excellently laid out. Accessible, tangible, challenging but supported. Jam packed. We covered so much ground. It knew what it was trying to achieve and did it meticulously.”
“This was part of my Professional Development, it reminded me what it was to be a participant, allowed me to reflect on my own teaching, let me re-connect to the joy of performing, and remember the skills required to devise as an ensemble. All great creative lessons.”
“This was one of the best workshops I have attended.”
Find out more about workshop leader Stephen Harper here >
This workshop will be taught in English. There are 12 places available.