Clown & Theatre Workshops for Schools

The Clown Institute's Education Program presents Jacques Lecoq® play-building, clowning, and physical theatre workshops tailored to secondary and tertiary drama students in Sydney and across New South Wales.

Our workshops are carefully designed to align with the curriculum, offering engaging and practical learning experiences. Alicia places particular emphasis on assisting Years 11 and 12 students in mastering HSC Topic 4 through the lens of Jacques Lecoq's pedagogy.

To book your workshop or for more information, please complete our online booking form. If you have specific requirements or would like to explore our education program further, please don't hesitate to reach out to Alicia at [email protected]. You can also request an education program brochure to learn more about how our workshops can benefit your students.

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1. Red Nose Clown: The Playful Actor

 Using Clown and 'le jeu' to find pleasure on stage, in order to be free from physical and psychological doubt.

An insight into Jacques Lecoq's approaches to acting via the most fundamental elements of the clown and actor - Le Jeu (Play), Disponibilite (Openness) and Complicite (Connection).

A Jacques Lecoq® pedagogic voyage designed for HSC drama, tertiary acting students and teachers. This workshop will offer both teachers and students a practical investigation into Jacques Lecoq’s work using specific exercises for performance via the clown. Clowning is one of the better and fun ways to comprehend viscerally Le Jeu, Complicite and Disponibilite.

Together we will learn to listen and respond with the whole body rather than the spoken text to generate meaning in the theatre, becoming a more open and dynamic actor and theatre maker.

Main areas of discovery:

An introduction to the “smallest mask in the world” - the red nose, & the poetic body as one giant muscle of creative expression
The principles of Lecoq’s Le Jeu (play), Disponibilite (openness) and Complicite (connection) via specific clowning and movement exercises
An appreciation for the aesthetics and expression of the actor’s presence and its relationship to audience engagement.
Optional – a 20-minute talk on past productions and performances that have directly used or been influenced by Lecoq’s techniques and philosophies.

School Incursion

SUITABILITY: Stage 6, Years 11 & 12 and Tertiary students

DURATION: Choose between a 2.5-hour or a 5-hour full day Red Nose Clown lab. Workshops can also be tailored to remote classroom learning via video conference.

PARTICIPANTS: for up to 25 students

MAKE AN ENQUIRY

SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM LINKS (NSW)

Stage 6 Preliminary (Year 11)		Drama Outcomes
1. Improvisation, Playbuilding and Acting 2. Theatrical Traditions and Performance Styles	Develops acting skills Expresses and explores ideas imaginatively Performs effectively in a variety of styles Applies a variety of styles in shaping a performance Understands the variety of influences that have impacted upon performance styles Understands the dynamics of audience-actor relationship.	P1.1, P1.2, P1.3, P2.1, P2.4, P2.6, P3.2

Stage 6 HSC (Year 12)		Drama Outcomes
1.Australian Drama and Theatre 2. The Group Performance 3. Individual Project	Uses acting skills & effective performance skills Uses skills to interpret unscripted material Values innovation and originality Understands and appreciates the actor-audience relationship in various theatrical styles and movements	H1.1, H1.2, H1.9, H2.1, H3.3, H3.5

2. Lecoq's Fundamental Journey: The Physical Actor

Studying the Neutral Mask to gain a greater control over the body in movement,
and bringing a dynamic quality to the actor's presence on stage.

There are three masks: the one we think we are, the one we really are, and the one we have in common. —Jacques Lecoq, The Moving Body

This physical program will introduce students to Lecoq's® insight that tout bouge - 'everything moves' and guide them through a comprehensive journey with practical examples of Lecoq's Mimo-dynamic technique.

Students will learn and develop tools via the neutral mask, improvisation and movement analysis how to achieve physical and theatrical presence. They will explore the movements of nature and how they correspond to movement of the human condition and emotion.

Main areas of discovery:

Practical demonstration of the neutral mask and its ability to ‘raise the game’ of the actor and accentuate time and space as well as elevate text above the everyday leaving the essential on stage.
Dynamic study of nature (Identification) as an approach to creating characters (Transference) through: elements, materials, colours and animals
An appreciation for the aesthetics and expression of the actor’s presence and its relationship to audience engagement.

School Incursion

SUITABILITY: Stage 6, Years 11 & 12 and Tertiary students

DURATION: Choose between a 2.5-hour or a 5-hour full day Neutral Mask lab. Workshops can also be tailored to remote classroom learning via video conference.

PARTICIPANTS: for up to 25 students

Make an enquiry

SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM LINKS (NSW)

Stage 6 Preliminary (Year 11)		Drama Outcomes
1. Improvisation, Playbuilding and Acting 2. Theatrical Traditions and Performance Styles	Develops acting skills Expresses and explores ideas imaginatively Performs effectively in a variety of styles Applies a variety of styles in shaping a performance Understands the variety of influences that have impacted upon performance styles Understands the dynamics of audience-actor relationship.	P1.1, P1.2, P1.3, P2.1, P2.4, P2.6, P3.2

Stage 6 HSC (Year 12)		Drama Outcomes
1.Australian Drama and Theatre 2. The Group Performance 3. Individual Project	Uses acting skills & effective performance skills Uses skills to interpret unscripted material Values innovation and originality Understands and appreciates the actor-audience relationship in various theatrical styles and movements	H1.1, H1.2, H1.9, H2.1, H3.3, H3.5

3. Creating Theatre that Moves: The Actor-Creator

Creating original theatre through an understanding of character, dramatic motor, rhythmic mount and the dynamic of text.

The actor is a creator rather than solely an interpreter of scripts - Lecoq trained actors are given the tools to devise theatre.

This program will equip students with the tools to invent and devise innovative and visual performances. To use the actor’s body rather than the spoken text to generate meaning in the theatre.

Students will generate physical performance languages that are stimulated through improvisation as the first approach to playwriting. The workshop concludes with short devised collaborative scene work in the style of the Lecoq pedagogy.

Main areas of discovery:

Play building techniques and improvisational scenarios for the creation of characters and situations
Working themes to stimulate student’s imagination and collective creation
An investigation into dynamic approaches to poetry, painting, music and theatre of objects
Create theatre which aims to have ‘poetic’ universal appeal irrespective of age, gender, race, language or social class.

School Incursion

SUITABILITY: Stage 6, Years 11 & 12 and Tertiary students

DURATION: Choose between a 2.5-hour or a 5-hour full day Devised Theatre lab. Workshops can also be tailored to remote classroom learning via video conference.

PARTICIPANTS: for up to 25 students

Make an enquiry

SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM LINKS (NSW)

Stage 6 Preliminary (Year 11)		Drama Outcomes
1. Improvisation, Playbuilding and Acting 2. Theatrical Traditions and Performance Styles	Develops acting skills Expresses and explores ideas imaginatively Performs effectively in a variety of styles Applies a variety of styles in shaping a performance Understands the variety of influences that have impacted upon performance styles Understands the dynamics of audience-actor relationship.	P1.1, P1.2, P1.3, P2.1, P2.4, P2.6, P3.2

Stage 6 HSC (Year 12)		Drama Outcomes
1.Australian Drama and Theatre 2. The Group Performance 3. Individual Project	Uses acting skills & effective performance skills Uses skills to interpret unscripted material Values innovation and originality Understands and appreciates the actor-audience relationship in various theatrical styles and movements	H1.1, H1.2, H1.9, H2.1, H3.3, H3.5

4. Bouffon Ensemble: Beautifool Trouble

Here's your chance to vomit glitter on all that is disturbing in the world.
Plunge into the madness of mockery with the highly visual parade of the fantastic and grotesque.

This rigorous physical lab will guide students and teachers through games and ambitious improvisations that promise to invigorate and encourage you to play, and find a firm platform to satirise the 'madness du jour'.

Students will connect their imaginations and hearts with the deeply surreal and bizarre unravelling a profound humanity.

Main areas of discovery:

Mockery & Mimicry: Discovery of parody threshold and the pleasure of playing with an audience
Experiential exploration of the Bouffon Territories: The Grotesque, Fantastic and Mysterious.
Bouffonesque Body: Creating a grotesque body and the gang with objects and materials
Performance: Play with the great texts and devise short ensemble-made bouffon pieces
An appreciation for the aesthetics and expression of the actor’s presence and its relationship to audience engagement.

School Incursion

SUITABILITY: Stages 5 & 6, Years 9, 10, 11 & 12, Tertiary students and professional performers

DURATION: 5-hour full day lab

PARTICIPANTS: for up to 25 students

Make an enquiry

SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM LINKS (NSW)

Stage 6 Preliminary (Year 11)		Drama Outcomes
1. Improvisation, Playbuilding and Acting 2. Theatrical Traditions and Performance Styles	Develops acting skills Expresses and explores ideas imaginatively Performs effectively in a variety of styles Applies a variety of styles in shaping a performance Understands the variety of influences that have impacted upon performance styles Understands the dynamics of audience-actor relationship.	P1.1, P1.2, P1.3, P2.1, P2.4, P2.6, P3.2

Stage 6 HSC (Year 12)		Drama Outcomes
1.Australian Drama and Theatre 2. The Group Performance 3. Individual Project	Uses acting skills & effective performance skills Uses skills to interpret unscripted material Values innovation and originality Understands and appreciates the actor-audience relationship in various theatrical styles and movements	H1.1, H1.2, H1.9, H2.1, H3.3, H3.5

5. Professional Development: Training for Teachers + Directors

Any workshop program can be tailored to professional development training for teachers and directors, with special weight on practical methods of teaching Lecoq.

During these intensives you will dive deep learning how to use Lecoq’s mimo-dynamic training techniques, including a study of the principles of Le Jeu, Disponibilite and Complicite and how these can be applied to theatrical productions.

We will journey together beginning with the neutral mask to create Lecoq’s fundamental neutrality and the basis of movement to ‘the smallest mask in the world’ - the red nose, and the search for one’s own clown.

Suitable for any level of teaching experience, please get in touch with Alicia to discuss your training needs.

SUITABILITY: High school teachers, university lecturers, directors and professional performers

DURATION: Choose between 1-day or a 2-day intensive

PARTICIPANTS: Maximum 20 participants.

Make an enquiry

6. Creative Surgery Coaching: Group + Individual Performance

Alicia can work collaboratively with HSC drama students in group and individual performance devised processes to create original works in which drama, comedy, time and space all play a key role in shaping a visceral experience for an audience and HSC marker.

Get in touch, if your HSC drama student/s are:

Creating devised projects as a solo-performer or within an ensemble
Searching for new performance-based tools, styles and techniques, and interested in the Lecoq pedagogy
Seeking artistic dialogue, provocation, and growth.

School Incursion

SUITABILITY: High school + HSC drama students, acting school students.

DURATION: Choose between a 2.5-hour or a 5-hour full day labs. Workshops can also be tailored to remote classroom learning via video conference.

PARTICIPANTS: 1 - 25 participants

Make an enquiry