April 16th → 18th , 2022

PORTLAND, Oregon, USA

TEACHING RED NOSE CLOWN

A pedagogic workshop
exploring the roots of Physical Comedy
and the art of teaching Theatre Clown

Henry Matisse: Icarus (1947)

Deeply rooted in movement-based theatre, Giovanni Fusetti’s pedagogy focuses on the analysis of the physical and emotional world of each actor, as revealed by their natural body. This leads to the discovery of a unique clown, with a specific body, tempo, voice, costume, attitudes, emotions, and poetic world.
The journey begins with the exploration and analysis of the body within the theatrical space. In terms of movement, no body is neutral; every body carries profoundly expressive themes, embodied in everyday movement. There is a web of “non-neutral attitudes” and physical and emotional “background noises” within each person’s movement and physical presence. If an actor is observed through the lenses of movement analysis, using the reference point of the Neutral State, this web appears like painting/markings on a white sheet. They are “dramatic” in the etymological sense: they contain a drama – an action.
The use of the smallest mask in the world: the Red Nose, and the amplification and articulation of these very personal themes allow the actor to enter the Clown state. The clown is not a character – it’s first a state of playing where everyone has access to the key question: what is so funny about myself?
To discover one’s own clown is to reveal one’s own unique comic persona and turn it into a universal comic form.
For a performer, there is something fundamental in the discovery of their personal Clown: it’s raw, pure, personal, unique, challenging, empowering, revealing, and extremely rewarding… It’s the exquisite pleasure of touching the empty space of complete comedy. As a theatre style, Clown has a unique poetic potential because it allows the performer to explore and play with the naiveté and the vulnerability of the child, and with the rigor and the technique of the adult, thus revealing the poetry of the ridiculous, and a unique personal poetic power.

THE STEPS OF THE PROCESS

• Play, action/reaction and fun
• The clown as a state of being on stage
• The Entrance: the empty space
• Contact with the audience
• From the Neutral State to the Comic State: movement analysis of the body in space
• Emotional awareness and contact with the emotional body of the actor
• The Red Nose as a mask: amplification and articulation of movement
• The role of the Monsieur Loyal
• The relationship among clowns: hierarchy, leaders and servants, levels of stupidity
• Clown Archetypes
• Performing clowns: rhythmical space and time: entrance, crescendo, development of themes, climax and exit

A PEDAGOGIC WORKSHOP

The workshop combines the experiential journey of discovering one’s own clown in Giovanni’s approach, with a theoretical and practical reflection on the pedagogy in which the practice is rooted.
This workshop will include different ingredients:
– Core exercises
– Pedagogic analysis of the core steps of the Red Nose Process in Giovanni Fusetti’s practice
– Session on pedagogic theory
– Discussion on the questions from the participants

Participants will be practicing both as clown students and teachers in training.

The work will journey from practical experiential exercise to pedagogic sessions, creating a space for discussion, analysis, examples, questions and synthesis; providing food for the mind, references, history of the practice, articulation of principles. 

The Theoretical inputs of the Seminar

– Jacques Lecoq: The Clown as a Mask of the personal comedy
– Gestalt: The Clown as the amplification of a form emerging
– Reichian Analysis and Bionergetics: The clown as a somatic character
– Process Work:  the Clown as a Non-Ordinary State

Pedagogic analysis of different approaches to clown
– State Based Clown
– Action Based Clown: slapstick, absurd, eccentric, gags
– Skilled Based Clown
– “Be Funny” Clown
– Grotesque Clown and the edge with Bouffon

The Teacher as a process facilitator, and his different tools.
    – Positive and Negative Feedback, Support, Provocation, “Via Negativa”
    – Pedagogue, Performer or Director ?
    – Teaching and playing at the edge between the Personal and the Poetic

PRACTICALITIES

TUITION
Sliding scale from US$320 to US$440.
The pandemic crisis has provoked a significant upset in the livelihood of many, so the tuition is following a sliding scale approach, that wants to acknowledge the difficult moment we are facing and the vital urgency we all feel to practice our art and to support each others and the Poetic Field. This is a professional development workshop for active teachers, but not everyone has been affected in the same way by the pandemic.
If you choose to pay on the higher side of the scale you are supporting those who have been more seriously affected, as well as supporting Giovanni’s work and research with the Helikos School.
If you need to choose the lower end of the scale you are allowing support to be shared. We are in this pandemic together, and together we need to care for the poetic garden.
Please indicate in your letter of motivation the amount that you choose to pay.

To confirm the enrollment, a deposit of $150 is due.
Please note that the deposit is non-refundable. Spots in the class will be given in the order the application was received.

The class will be confirmed as soon as it reaches 8 participants.
The maximum number of participants is 12.

Please note that tuition does not include accommodation and that participants will be responsible for organizing their staying in Portland.

Boulder Red Nose Intensive 2010

HOW TO APPLY
There is no application form. To apply to the workshop please email a letter of motivation sharing the essence of your story, vision, dream, desire, fear or un-explicable intuition that leads you to this workshop. Please include in your letter your experience teaching clown, and two fundamental pedagogic questions that you would like to be addressed during the workshop.
For any question regarding the pedagogical content of the class and if you are interested in attending the workshop, please send your application to GIOVANNI FUSETTI at

APPLICATION TIMING : by April 1st, 2022
 

For any practical information and for the payment of the deposit please contact EMILY NEWTON at newton.emily@gmail.com

Once the workshop will be confirmed, participants will receive a message containing further practical details about the workshop, as well as the most updated version of the anti-covid health and safety regulations that the group will have to comply with.

COVID PROTOCOL

The training will happen in the rigorous respect of the Federal, State and Local anti-Covid guidance and restrictions, as well as the rules applied by the venue that will host the workshop.
All participants are requested to be fully vaccinated and boosted.
On the first day of the class, all participants will need to present the result of a COVID negative test (PCR or Antigen) taken in 48 hours before the start. Upon arrival on the first day of the workshop, before entry, a rapid antigen test will be provided to all participants, free of charge.
Face masks are required, except during individual improvisations or exercises, 12 feet away from the audience.

See you in Portland !