Laboratory of the Un-beautiful Devising Intensive
A Bouffon & Grotesque for Womxn Theatre Makers
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Dive into the world of the Bouffon and the Grotesque in this womxn-only, 3-day DEVISING INTENSIVE workshop from acclaimed theatre-makers & facilitators Robyn Hambrook & Deborah Antoinette.
The Laboratory of the Unbeautiful DEVISING INTENSIVE gives you the chance to put into action the tools explored in the introductory Laboratory of the Unbeautiful workshops. Using guided improvisations & responding to proposals, you’ll be facilitated to create the foundations of authentic, challenging and exciting Bouffon & Grotesque sketches, which emerge entirely from the unique combination of people in the room! Strong focus will be given to ensemble devising - the Bouffon is strongest and most powerful as a chorus! We will also touch on solo sketch creation, allowing participants to explore individual moments which can be incorporated into the ensemble work. Explore the wild & satirical play of the Bouffon; rooted in mockery, parody and acid wit. As we embrace the grotesque and un-beautiful we’ll liberate our imaginations and unlock the mad & surreal! Want to create a performance which is bold & honest? Are you ready to draw on personal & socially lived experience as material for creative expression? And as an act of empowerment for yourself and other womxn? You’re in the right place! ~This workshop is designed to foster a safe space for womxn to creatively explore their physicality, voice, presence and power.~ The workshop offers a range of tools and exercises which will stretch the performer’s imagination, provide practical performance making skills, and techniques to build a sketch from scratch. KEY ELEMENTS the workshop will explore: >Bouffon’s parody & mockery >Bouffon: remaining in your play and pleasure >Grotesque movement >Feminist themes TOOLS: >Sketch structure >Ensemble devising >Character & costume creation >Relationship to audience The workshop culminates in a showing to invited guests on Sunday 20th November at 7pm. WHO IS IT FOR? Anyone who has attended a previous Laboratory of The Un-Beautiful Workshops, where they will have become familiar with the tools which this workshop will build upon. Please email [email protected] if you want to ask any questions about the workshop and whether it would be right for you. RANGE: This laboratory is a creative exploration. We invite participants to draw on their personal experience, and we’ll share our own where supportive to the process. This inner work will be source material for artistic expression. Whilst the workshop is not a therapeutic space, it is a space which seeks to honour & support your personal reflection. Deborah has trained in Systemic Constellations (Family Constellations) and both Robyn & Deborah have extensive experience facilitating theatre workshops which hold space for personal process as part of creative practice. “Amazing! Super exploratory, very deep, surprisingly deep, powerful, full of laughs, well held and very inspiring. I like the fact that it explored the darker stuff of our souls - not always given space in our society… I also didn’t expect to meet such a lovely group of people! ” |
18th & 20th November
DATE:
18th -20th Nov 2022 TIME: Fri 6-9 (3hrs), Sat 10-5 (7hrs), Sun 1-9pm (8hrs) LOCATION: Desperate Men Studios, Mivart Street Easton, Bristol, BS5 6JF APPLICATION & INVESTMENT To book your place please choose the appropriate price tier for you. It’s an honesty based system. Please only book if you have attended a previous Lab of The Un-Beautiful workshop. INVESTMENT: £175 ‘pay it forward’ £135 ‘a spot for you’ £95 ‘a supported place’ “A must for anyone wanting to take their connection with and ideas for theatre work a little closer to a devilish cutting edge. Held so competently by both Deborah and Robyn whose professional experiences clearly came to the fore.” "An amazing exploration of physicality, tapping into ugliness and taboo. Really affirming and beautiful connections with other women and non-binary folks, questioning and mocking constructions of gender and what it is to be pretty, good, or acceptable. A great starting point for understanding bouffon and what it can be. Heaps of fun!" “I knew I just NEEDED it when I saw the description!! I have experience in clown but I really needed something to shake me up and I'd never done Bouffon. The fact that it was centered on women, connected with themes I've been investigating and living! Exploring ourselves and the idea of femininity through play, wholeheartedly delighting in dark, sticky bits.” “I was inspired by the obvious knowledge and experience of Deborah and Robyn in taking participants on a journey of embodied explorations! It met my need to experience a workshop that takes these topics (such as patriarchy) into the body and plays with them as a radical act that has the power to shift thinking and experiencing. I was keen to learn and engage with theatrical devices and exercises that could support these explorations, of which there were plenty here.” "A super safe space to explore Bouffon for womxn" |
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ABOUT DEBORAH ANTOINETTE
Deborah is a writer-performer, storyteller & trainer. She facilitates transformational workshops which invite participants to discover their unique creative voice & body. For Deborah, stories hold the potential for deep healing, and comedy offers the possibility of irreverently unveiling the absurd ways the world can be. She digs into myths, flies with the magic of fairytale and revels in writing theatre sketches that shake-shit-up. Her explorations of story and Self extend to the realm of Systematic Constellations - a collective healing practise which focuses on our personal stories and seeks movement where relationships and narratives become stuck. She is the co-creator of comedy show 'Queen C**t: Sacred or Profane?', movement show 'Raven' and storytells 'Inanna', 'Sacred Bees', 'Owl Woman' and more - many of which hold feminist themes. Deborah trained at London International School of Performance Art, now Arthaus Berlin, with Thomas Prattki & Amy Russel, in the Lecoq pedagogy. |
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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, Giovanni Fusetti, Jon Davison, Zuma Puma, Deanna Fleysha, Igne Barkauskaite and Maggie Irving. 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, Nathaniel Justiniano, Tim Licata, Al Seed and the grand master Bouffon-himself; Philippe Gaulier. |
