5 Day Clown Workshop with Jon Davison
September 9-13 9am-5pm
@ Pumphouse Theatre (2140 Pumphouse Ave SW)
Registration
$500.00 + fees EARLY BIRD (register before August 6th)
$650.00 + fees REGULAR
The Calgary Clown Festival is proud to be hosting a 5 day intensive workshop with Jon Davison. This workshop starts with a look at the fundamental dynamics of clowning, how to make yourself and your friends look stupid so we will love and laugh at you.
Converting our habitual fear of ridicule into the pleasure of laughing at ourselves, we can use it to make others laugh and experience the freedom of the clown. How do clowns do what they do, how does your stupidity make you a success, and how does the unthinkably ridiculous come about?
Clowning is sometimes shrouded in mystery but in reality it’s a very simple mode of performance. This workshop uses simple exercises rooted in laughter response in order to access clowning in the most direct manner possible.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT JON: Jon Davison has been a clown performer, teacher, director and writer for the last 30 years. He taught clown, improvisation and acting at the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona from 1996-2006, when he became a co-founder of the Escola de Clown de Barcelona. From 2007-2010 he was a Research Fellow investigating contemporary clown/actor training at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where he obtained his PhD in Clown Performance Practice and is now Visiting Lecturer. He has performed at festivals, theatres, tents, streets and bars throughout Europe, and is currently produces the monthly clown performance Friday Flop. He has published two books, Clown: Readings in Theatre Practice (2013) and Clown Training – a practical guide (2015), both with Palgrave Macmillan. He runs the London Clown School, providing regular clown workshops in the UK, and teaches regularly around the world.
