Welcome to the Virtual Clown Lab

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people – Victor Borge

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​OVER FOUR DAYS OBSERVE AND PLAY WITH THE POETIC DYNAMICS OF A VIRTUAL LANDSCAPE, AND TOGETHER CREATE MOMENTS OF CLOWN LOGIC TO BOTH REVERSE AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS AND MAKE THEM LAUGH.

How do we authentically connect, laugh and play with audiences through screens and be with them on their journey and they in ours? How do we become a bridge for those isolated, incarcerated, separated, or sick?

Clowning as an art form can be found in children’s hospitals, aged care facilities, as well as around the world in refugee camps and now remotely via software platforms like Zoom. The need for an online audience seems apt and presents exciting possibilities in continuing to produce meaningful performances and connections, and in reaching new audiences.
 
This four-day online clown lab invites you to develop a playful and dynamic relationship with a virtual audience, in a virtual space becoming a more open, hilarious, and dynamic human-being.

​Main areas of discovery:

• Celebrate and work with your clown’s natural being state, the here and now - being present to and listening and responding to each nuance, niggle, desperation, desire, wound and dream that it offers. And creating play from it.

• Explore the best conditions for laughter in a virtual space by being inspired by the constraints, the limitations and opportunities of this environment.

• Stretch your imagination & body and search for dramatic and comic spatial possibilities and dynamics corresponding to a virtual space.

• The search for poetic disaster - transform personal tragedies and narratives into works of absurd poetic clown performance for an online environment.

• Look for a rhythmic consequence of strong images, stimulating the spectator's imagination rather than their reason.

register your interest

SUITABILITY

• Open to everyone who has some performance or clown experience, genuine interest in clowning and/or are seeking playful development and skills practice. This includes community arts practitioners, improvisers, poets, stand-ups, comedians, circus and theatre makers, directors, and devisors from other disciplines, actors and artists practicing the art of clowning.

DURATION

• This online lab is facilitated over four full days (20 hours).

LOCATION

• Uniquely designed for remote learning via Zoom, or your preferred video conference platform.

WHAT TO PREP

• Check for any Zoom software updates (test it)
• A quiet and safe space to move, play and stand up (no virtual backgrounds please)
• Enough light so that we see your pretty face (test it)
• Stable internet access (test it)​

COST

• Full price - $445 per person
• Early bird discount - $395 per person
• Maximum of 9 people.

This workshop was made possible by Create NSW who helped fund the pilot initiative as a response to COVID-19.