Clowning and Vulnerability
This workshop is for beginners and for those who have experience as performers and human beings and who are looking to get back in touch with that playful state in the company of others.
What happens to us if we put on the smallest mask in the world? We will play some games to explore the clown state and explore our own inner clown through a relationship with the audience.
We will use games to find and discover the play in ourselves and with others as well as exploring the energetics of being on stage and in a clown state. We will then explore the potential of our own clown through an exploration of our own inner state and vulnerability and use this in interactions with the audience. We will look to answer the questions through the body of where my clown comes from, how does it speak and listen, how does it move. What is the imagination of the clown and how does it live on stage.
On day two we will move this exploration into scenes and look to explore how a clown appears in front of an audience and how we can devise scenes and improvisations together.
This work is rooted in the somatic clown work and whilst it has potential therapeutic elements, it is not therapy. Although we may heal and encounter parts of ourselves in this work, this is not the end goal of our work in this workshop. Likewise, this workshop will encourage you to look at yourself and your vulnerability and how to use those elements in your work as a professional artist so please be aware that although this workshop is not therapy it will have potentially therapeutic elements.
I look forward to discovering this wonderful world with you!
Sean Gittins is a Clown, Performer and Play Therapist who has trained at L'Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris, with Giovanni Fusetti and Matteo Destro, Spymonkey, Judith Shahn, Theo Morin, John Wright and others. He has performed as a Clown in London and Europe and is currently working on his Solo: My name is Ap. Sean loves working with people and their vulnerability to help empower them as performers and the stories they want to tell. He is also a Play Practitioner trained with PTUK specialising in work where artistic methods are utilised for therapeutic purposes.
