Clown Devising

2-day Clown Devising course to help you craft ensemble and solo skits
Want to create a clown act but don’t know where to start?
Join Robyn Hambrook for a whistle-stop tour of clown devising, learning how to craft ensemble and solo skits using objects, emotions, character and status play.

This 2-day course is provides exercises, tools and invitations to help you create comedic material out of thin air.

In exploring the building blocks to creating a clown act we will:
• Explore character, object play, emotion and status as a base to create and craft skits
• Develop, shape and hone the act with group feedback and facilitator support
• Learn to structure a piece
• Discover how to keep the audience engaged

This workshop will support you to take your ridiculous ideas to a finished piece that you can unleash at cabarets, scratch nights, on festival stages or form the basis of longer show.

WHO IS THIS FOR?
This is for clowns, comedians, physical performers, theatre artists, dancers, musicians, visual artists and anyone who looked at the stage and thought “I want to be there!”
"Thank you so much. Your clown coaching is very helpful because it is honest and direct. I thought the weekend was great and I am inspired to wear a red nose again" Participant, 'The Activist Clown Weekend'
"Robyn, you are amazing. The work you do is so powerful and important and brings together so many fantastic people. It is always wonderful and inspiring to work with you." Participant, 'Bouffon Intensive, Potsdam'

HOW IT WORKS?

DATE:
29 - 30 April 2023
TIME:
10am - 5pm
12 hours total
LOCATION:
Desperate Men Studios, Cato Street, Bristol, BS5 6JL
INVESTMENT:
£150* / £140** / £130***
*This is our standard rate.
**This is our low waged rate.
***This is our supported rate for those who are unemployed or in full time education

Earlybird offer - £100 (first 5 places)
“The perfect introduction to creating material out of thin air - you start out with a random pile of objects, playing in front of other clowns, and at the end of four weeks you walk away with an act, ready to unleash on the world! Robyn provides fantastic exercises for developing material and feedback for refining it.”
Previous participant, Building Blocks to Clown Devising
★"Robyn's unique blend of directing and shaping play through quick wit and caring yet urgent tone - sets tone and pace beautifully."
Participant, 'The Activist Clown Weekend'
ABOUT ROBYN
Robyn Hambrook is a Bristol-based director, deviser, teacher and performer. With over 20 years experience she is passionate practitioner of clowning, physical theatre, circus and street arts. She has a MA in Circus Directing and a Diploma of Physical Theatre Practice as well long line of inspiring teachers including Holly Stoppit, Peta Lily, Giovanni Fusetti, John Wright, Jon Davison, Zuma Puma, Deanna Fleysha and Maggie Irving.
Drawing on her diverse experience Robyn has worked as a director for companies including Let’s Circus, The Sexual Health Circus and Whispering Wood Folk and performed with acclaimed physical theatre companies including, Derevo, Akhe, Oceanallover, and Gappad as well as her own award-winning company, Fun in the Oven Theatre.
During the pandemic in 2020, Robyn set up The Online Clown Academy with Holly Stoppit and developed a series of Zoom Clown Courses. Since then she has has been pushing, prodding and testing the limits of clowning. Robyn has developed range of classes and workshops including Clown Soup, the Activist Clown Weekend, the Nomadic Rebel Clown Academy and Clown Experiments (with the secret mission to bring about the Clown Revolution).
Robyn also has a drive to explore political edges of her work and so has dived back into the world of the Bouffon; training with Jaime Mears, Bim Mason, Nathaniel Justiniano, Eric Davis, Tim Licata, Al Seed and the grand master Bouffon-himself; Philippe Gaulier. She has also set up the Laboratory of the Un-beautiful; a collaboration with Deborah Antoinette Bard, exploring the bouffon & grotesque with womxn theatre makers.
ABOUT ROBYN
Robyn is a Bristol-based director, teacher and performer. With over 20 years experience she is a passionate practitioner of clowning, physical theatre, circus and street arts. She has a MA in Circus Directing, a Diploma of Physical Theatre Practice and trained with a long line of inspiring teachers including Holly Stoppit, Peta Lily, Giovanni Fusetti, Jon Davison, Zuma Puma and Deanna Fleysha.
Robyn has collaborated with companies including Let’s Circus, The Sexual Health Circus and Whispering Wood Folk and performed with acclaimed physical theatre companies including, Derevo, Akhe, Oceanallover, and Gappad as well as her own award-winning company, Fun in the Oven Theatre.
During the pandemic in 2020, Robyn set up The Online Clown Academy with Holly Stoppit and developed a series of Zoom Clown Courses. Robyn’s research, started during her Masters, has been exploring the meeting point of clowning and activism, online, in the real world and with international collaborators. With this drive to explore political edges of her work she has also dived back into the world of the Bouffon; training with Jaime Mears, Bim Mason, Nathaniel Justiniano, Eric Davis, Tim Licata, Al Seed and the grand master Bouffon-himself; Philippe Gaulier. She has also set up the Laboratory of the Un-beautiful; a collaboration with Deborah Antoinette Bard, exploring the bouffon & grotesque with womxn theatre makers.