Clown Workshop (Göteborg)

– from the neutral mask to personal ridiculousness

Kursen är producerad av Kulturakademin i samarbete med Danskompaniet Spinn och TeaterAlliansen med stöd av Västra Götalandsregionen och Region Halland

Description of the workshop

Clownery is a poetic and powerful way to explore the most human parts of ourselves, and allows us to look at our imperfections with empathy, and encourages us not to take ourselves so seriously. It invites us to look at our flaws with curiosity and kindness, and helps us unlock creative expression rooted in authenticity, generosity, and absurdity.

During this five day intensive workshop, we will dive deep into the universe of the clown and investigate our personal ridiculousness. Through a range of exercises drawn from physical theatre, Lecoq-based movement analysis, improvisation, and mask work, you will investigate your personal comic potential in a safe and inclusive environment. By moving, observing, playing and learning various physical theatre and improvisation techniques we will…give birth to clowns. 
The aim of the workshop is to increase the awareness of our comical potential and explore how to transform it into the universal level of the clown.

Workshop Goals & Structure

Preparational work with neutral mask and other pedagogical techniques / tools from the Lecoq pedagogy

• Increase actor’s awareness of the body, moviment and space
• Learn to verbalize observations and practice accurate, meaningful and constructive feedback 
• Explore the mimetic nature of acting: how we imitate, transform, and stylize reality through our bodies
• Make visible personal movement qualities and mannerisms

Developing the Clown: The Red Nose

• Celebrate the beauty of failure and the acceptance of the mistakes and discover how they become a ground for connection and laughter
• Using mistakes as a source of clown improvisation
• Breaking the fourth wall to seek a direct, vulnerable, and dynamic connection with audience 
• Nourish the playfulness and imagination in your expression
• Holistic and conscious transformation from personal ridiculousness to your clown (the voice, body structure, movement quality and state of mind)

Outcomes

By the end of the workshop, you will:

• Develop a personal clown character informed by their own physical and emotional landscape
• Understand key principles of clown dramaturgy and improvisation
• Gain tools to support ensemble play, audience interaction, and performative risk-taking
• Cultivate a joyful, humble, and embodied approach to stage presence

Who can apply?

Practitioners in the wide and wild field of performing arts. For you who want to challenge your habits, expand your expressive spectrum and cultivate a deeper sense of presence and connection – both with yourself and with your audience. Previous experience in clownery is not necessary.  

Questions about the workshop?

Please contact Sassa Wickman, sassa@kulturakademin.com.

Soile Mäkelä

Soile Mäkelä (MA) is a physical theatre artist and pedagogue who has indelibly lost her soul for the smallest mask in the world, the Red Nose. She has been teaching physical theater with various masks for twenty years.
Soile is one of the founding members of Helsinki based physical theatre company Teatteri Metamorfoosi, which has been her artistic-pedagogical playground since 2006. She works currently there as responsable of education and mask making, teaches workshops and co-leads The Clown Chorus. 

Soile is approaching theater from the physical point of view, highly influenced by the pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq. Soile's most important teachers and inspirations on his own clowning journey have been Giovanni Fusetti, Mario Gonzalez, Pierre Byland and Philippe Gaulier, and of course all of Soile's own numerous clown workshop participants, with whom she has been able to unravel the great mystery of clownery.

Photos and more information: www.soilemakela.com