February 9th-12th, 2026
MELBOURNE, Australia
CONVERSATIONS
WITH THE FOOLS
A week of panels, seminars and community events
exploring the nature of the theatrical process
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Welcome to a week of panels and seminars
exploring the nature of the theatrical process.
In four playful and highly interactive events
we will explore some fundamental fields of Physical Theatre
cultivating the individual and collective awareness of our shared poetic practice.
PANELS
A panel is a conversation of practitioners
A gathering of minds and poetic bodies
A sharing of stories in which experience searches for its way into expertise
A dance of mutual provocation
A banquet of Bring Your Own Wisdom and Ask As You Can
A chorus of intellectual attunement and multi-generational harmony
SEMINARS
A hybrid between, a lecture, a performance, a movement class and a collective improvisation, a SEMINAR is a playful epistemological banquet.
An extended Q&A: Questions & Answers & Further Questions.
In a Seminar the focus is on the Theory that stands behind a practice. It is a space of reflection and intellectual elaboration: it creates a field of discussion, analysis, examples, questions and synthesis. Experiential exercises are integrated by moments of discussion and intellectual and emotional integration.
A seminar gives food for the mind, references, history of ideas, articulation of principles, awareness of awareness. And inspires further research, practice and action.
Etymology tells us that the word theory means something you observe, a spectacle, and it is connected with the word theatre. They both contains the element thea = to look at, to see. A theory is a choreography of ideas and principles moving in the mind space and seen by awareness. An intellectual performance to attend and enjoy. A theory that can’t be performed in space is, most likely, not that good.
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THE CALENDAR
Monday February 9th
THE NEUTRAL MASK
A Panel Discussion with
Giovanni Fusetti
John Bolton
Kimberley Twiner
Steph Kehoe
10:00 to Noon
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The Neutral Mask is one of the most precious gifts that we have received from the research and practice of theatre masks within the lineage of Jacques Copeau, Suzanne Bing, Jean Dasté, Jacques Lecoq and Amleto Sartori, just to name some key names in the story.
The Neutral Mask is a fundamental step in the journey of Movement Based Theatre. It is a mask that doesn’t have any dramatic expression, it exists before all other theatre masks.
The Neutral Mask is a powerful pedagogic instrument. It inspires a fascinating learning process, profoundly poetic, both intimate and collective. It allows the actor to explore the difference between movement and drama, between body and character.
It emerged from poetic and pedagogic questions like these ones…
Is there a mask that can train the actor to reach the physical state of engaged presence that is necessary in order to play all other masks?
Is there a mask that can prepare the poetic body to the process of shape-shifting and form-shifting that character play requires?
Is there a mask that can teach the actor not only to create space and time, but to become space and time?
What is the body saying while the actor is trying to not say anything?
And maybe the most crucial of all questions: do we share a common language, a common somatic vocabulary that comes before culture and time; before and beyond gender and race; what Lecoq named the common poetic background? What is the relevance of this question today, in a time of relativism, post-modern thinking and identity quests?
In this panel we will explore the core elements of this poetic quest and we will try to re-actualise the powerful depth of this mask.
This panel brings together two elders of the work: Giovanni Fusetti and John Bolton. As well as Steph Kehoe who teaches at VCA. And Kimberley Twiner who has begun teaching the work in the Melbourne community.
Find the BIOs at the end of this page.
Tuesday, February 10th
COMMUNITY CLOWN COFFEES + TREATIES
Join us for our first clown coffees of 2026!
In 2025 Kimberley initiated a semi-regular/clown-regular/regular-enough catch up where people interested in clown could come and say hi. So we are keeping the tradition alive and Helikos school is sponsoring the coffee and the treats! Special guest of honour – Giovanni Fusetti!
Happening on February 10th, 10am – 12noon.
If you consider yourself a part of the clown community or you want to come and simply be close to some clown-like folk, then come along. All are welcome.
Bookings are essential so we can organize the catering. Looking forward to seeing you all!
BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL VIA THIS LINK
https://www.trybooking.com/DILJD
Tuesday, February 10th
WHEN THEATRE LEAVES THE THEATRE
A Panel Discussion
with
Lily Fish
Giovanni Fusetti
Carolyn Hanna
Penny Baron
Kimberley Twiner -Moderator
2:00 to 4:00 pm
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What happens when theatre leaves the traditional theatrical spaces and enter the world? Streets, squares, parks, events, parades, site-specific performances…
What is the power of the theatre outside ? And OUTSIDE what?
What happens when the theatre itself reaches out to the audience, in the spaces where the life of the community happens?
In the beginnings, and in many cultures all around planet earth humans gathered in collective rituals. There was a continuum between performance, ritual, social and spiritual life. In the ancient Mediterranean world a journey of individuation emerged and theatre developed its distinct form. But the relationship between the theatrical event and the space that contains it, has been a constant flow with infinite variations. From the ancient processions outside the Greek theatres, to the Mystery Tales, from the Middle Age jesters, the Commedia dell’arte in the Piazze, the Carnival, onward through the experimental theatre of the ’60s and ’70, the Bread and Puppet and Boal’s Invisible Theatre… till now… Melbourne 2026. The exploration and constant re-definition of the theatrical space is a colorful story-line through the history of western theatre and constantly engages us in a quest for collective vitality and artistic citizenship.
The panel features
-Penny Baron and Carolyn Hanna from Born in a Taxi
-Lily Fish as Moderator
-Giovanni Fusetti
Find the BIOs at the end of this page.
Wednesday February 11th
&
Thursday February 12th
THE JOURNEY OF THE POETIC BODY
The legacy of Jacques Lecoq in the vision of his pedagogy
with Giovanni Fusetti
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Jacques Lecoq worked during his entire life at the development and constant refinement of his theatre pedagogy. His theatre school in Paris, the Ecole Jacques Lecoq, was the laboratory where he discovered, devised and articulated his vision, that took the form of a two-year training.
Giovanni Fusetti received this pedagogic form in the 90s, when he was fist student and then pedagogic assistant and teacher at the Ecole. After Lecoq’s death in 1999, he kept working within this lineage for over 25 years, diving further into this brilliant pedagogic landscape. He further developed elements of this pedagogy within the Kiklos (2000-2004) and Helikos (2010-2014) schools, and in a variety of other training formats.
This seminar is a overview of the Lecoq’s Pedagogy through a review of the arch of the school training. It is a pedagogic journey, a celebration of the sources, a tribute to a master and an ode the vitality of this phenomenal body of work.
The seminar will include different ingredients:
~ Lectures on theatre practice and theatre pedagogy
~ Collective Exercises
~ Improvisations
~ Discussion on the questions from the participants
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PRACTICALITIES
CONVERSATIONS WITH THE FOOLS
Drawing from the practice and the lineage of different practitioners these events wishes to provide a space of inspiration, discussion and learning for theatre practitioners.
The events are open to anyone who is using theatre in performance, pedagogy, education, social work, health care, politics, community work, therapy… life!
Each event will provide a variety of insights, knowledge, exercises and tools for practitioners. All material will be shared for the common good of individual and collective awareness and as a celebration of artistic and pedagogic research and creation.
LOCATION
Coburg Uniting Church
19 Victoria St, Coburg VIC 3058, Australia
FEES
These events are meant to nurture the poetic garden with seeds of inspiration. All profit from the events will contribute to the ongoing practice, research and writing process of the contributors.
We have a set of suggested donations but all amounts will be welcome. You are able to self-identify what you can afford and what you think is fair payment to contribute to the people involved.
Panels: Sliding scale $30.00 – $80.00
Two day seminar: Sliding scale $100.00 – $300.00
Community Clown Coffees: RSVP essential via this link https://www.trybooking.com/DILJD
REGISTRATION
To book please email seminars@helikos.com.
Once you have emailed you will receive an automatic reply with the payment details.
Please note that the contributions are strictly non-refundable. Each event will be confirmed as soon it reaches 10 participants.
For any question regarding the pedagogical content of the events you can contact Kimberley Twiner ktwiner@gmail.com or Giovanni Fusetti giovanni.fusetti@helikos.com.
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THE FOOLS
Kimberley Twiner
Kimberley (she/they) is a theatre performer, director, teacher and producer based in Naarm. She is Director of the Melbourne Physical Theatre School – a training platform grounded in the Lecoq Methodology of theatre, movement and physical comedy training. She has studied Neutral Mask under Giovanni Fusetti, John Bolton and Philippe Gaulier and began teaching it herself in 2025. Her practice is grounded in a strict application of the Lecoq-Fusetti methodology of theatre. Her mantra being: ‘Why study this stuff if you’re not going to actually apply it?’
Kimberley’s most recent comedy-theatre work ‘Stickybeak’ won ‘Best Comedy’ at Melbourne Fringe 2023. Her 2020 work: The Wholesome Hour won the Green Room Award for Theatre Design. She is Artistic Director of award-winning queer comedy troupe PO PO MO CO, and one-half of contemporary clown company Fish & Twiner’s Bait Shop. Kimberley is co-writer and director of The Travelling Sisters’ catalogue of award-winning comedy shows.
Born In A Taxi
Established in 1989, Born in a Taxi (Taxi) is one of Australia’s most highly regarded artist-led physical theatre companies. They produce highly physical, contemporary and participatory works in wide-ranging performance contexts; outdoor public spaces and events to indoor theatres and festivals.Taxi tours their award-winning work both nationally and internationally. They combine the experimental with the accessible, masterfully mixing the serious with humour. They have the unique capacity to blend old-school clowning with contemporary performance in a cross-disciplinary style that lives in between the cracks of theatre and dance.
Taxi is led by Artistic Directors Penny Baron and Carolyn Hanna (who perform in the majority of Taxi’s work). Taxi collaborates with a team of Artistic Associates trained in the company’s performance methodology: Ensemble Movement Improvisation (EMI). As custodians of the entity of Born in a Taxi, Penny and Carolyn acknowledge that the group is the result of everyone who has been part of it over the years. Founding members include David Wells, Nick Papas, Brenda Waite, Lyn Santos. Taxi gratefully acknowledge their significant teachers: Al Wunder, John Bolton and Phillip Gaulier.
Ensemble Movement Improvisation (EMI) is foundational to their work. EMI is an ever-evolving comprehensive theatre-making methodology. Masters of improvisation, Taxi asserts virtuosic performance improvisation as a genre in its own right. Their outdoor site-specific work has evolved in tandem with their experimental theatre practice, each informing the other along the way. This has led them to create over 25 roving acts (largely non-verbal), large-scale spectacles such as The Curious Game and The Whales Tale, and to create their own bespoke demountable venue, The CUBE.
Lily Fish
Lily Fish is a performer, director, theatre maker and teaching artist. They are a graduate of the National Theatre Drama School, the John Bolton Theatre School and an ongoing student of Giovanni Fusetti. Their areas of practice include clown, mask, mime, and improvised movement. Lily is a founding member of Brunswick East Entertainment Festival, a physical theatre company making scored improvised movement work for outdoor incidental audiences.
Lily has been working and training with Born in a Taxi since 2010. Taxi’s methodology and practice have influenced all aspects of Lily’s work, but in particular their work with Brunswick East Entertainment Festival. Lily’s indoor and outdoor work has won numerous awards in 2023 they won the prestigious Best Performer award at the Victorian Green Room Awards Association.
PHOTO CREDITS
Picture n.1: Pablo Picasso: Musician, Dancer, Goat and Bird (1959)
Picture n.2: Joan Miró: Constellations (1941)
Picture n.3: Neutral Masks by Donato Sartori
Picture n.4: A drawing of Kokopelli, a mythycal trickster figure
of the Native People of the SouthWest of North America.
Picture n.6: A Double Fibonacci Spiral
Picture n. 7: Midde Ages Jesters
Giovanni Fusetti 