Nov 2nd - 6th

Emotion as Action: From Neutral, to Nature, to Melodrama

Lead Teacher: Kimberley Twiner

A workshop on the moving vitality of emotions that embraces a non-psychological approach to acting.

Scroll down for details.

Nov 9th -13th

Red Nose Clown: The Somatic Clown Journey
Lead Teacher: Kimberley Twiner

A unique process that finds the clown character hiding in plain sight.

Scroll down for details.

Nov 30th - Dec 4th

Fantastic Bouffons: Fairytales and Extreme Characters

Lead Teacher: Kimberley Twiner

A playful bouffon approach grounded in archetypcal characters and stories.

Scroll down for details.

Dec 2026: Christmas Clowns Project

Expressions of interest and info coming soon!

**Notes on Giovanni Fusetti 2027. We will run a 4 week bouffon training/project with a performance outcome approximately in February 2027.

Any questions can be directed to melbphysicaltheatreschool@gmail.com.

PAST EVENTS

May 11th - 15th

Bring Your Clown Back - SOLD OUT

May 4th - 8th

Bouffon - Play Fuels the Fire - SOLD OUT

April 27th -1st May

Red Nose Clown - The Somatic Clown Journey - SOLD OUT

Mar 21st - 22nd - PAST EVENT

The Improviser Meets the Larval Mask

Mar 9th - 13th - PAST EVENT

Neutral Mask - The Wilderness of the Body - SOLD OUT

March 23rd - 27th - PAST EVENT

Personality dell'Arte - SOLD OUT

February 23rd - 28th - PAST EVENT
The Storyteller - SOLD OUT

February 16th - 20th - PAST EVENT
The Language of Gestures - SOLD OUT

5 day workshop

Nov 2nd - 6th, 2026

Lead teacher: Kimberley Twiner

What if we didn't have to 'get emotional' to play emotions?

Can the performance of emotions be purely physical? Purely rhythmical?

What if we don't have to go psychologically searching in our own mind or history to perform character psychologies?

This workshop is a study of the moving vitality of emotions. Every script, every character, every story will involve playing emotions. Working within the pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq who posits ‘tout bouge’ translated as ‘everything moves’ the workshop will unpack how the emotions move. A character expresses itself through action and emotions are actions in space. The workshop is grounded in the Lecoq methodology of Mask, Mime and Movement Theatre.

"If a character becomes identical with personality there is no play. It may be possible for this kind of osmosis to work in cinema, in psychological close-ups, but theatre performance must be able to make an image carry from stage to spectator. There is a huge difference between actors who express their own lives, and those who can truly be described as players." Lecoq, 2000

Physical theatre is a study of and recreation of movement patterns. This applies to emotions. The Lecoq work says that there is a common ground, one that is pre-verbal, and totally embodied in its storytelling. The common ground of embodied movement allows the audience to participate in the universality of the work. In our Mimo Dynamique practice we can move as a dog and that is quickly and easily identifiable… So let's apply the same principles to emotion. Read more about Mimo Dynamiques here.

The beginning of the workshop will involve the Neutral Mask, attuning us towards a sense of neutrality. The Neutral Mask is an essential compass. It reveals our habitual somatic structure and opens us up to a sensitive physical presence. There is usually some movement pattern or structure that we can let go of in order to be available for transformation.

The second part of the workshop will focus on the natural world and the infinite inspiration it offers. In the Lecoq work we call this a Mimo Dynamique study. Nature provides us with an embodied movement analysis with variations in rhythm, tempo, shape, breath and sound. We will create a non-psychological lens to access the emotional work. We will then study the archetypal movement dynamics of the core human emotions.

The final part sees us play in the very fun and very heightened genre of Melodrama. We will use some classic Melodrama improvisations and some famous texts as frameworks to amplify our emotional play.

The work will cover:

• Individual somatic movement analysis
• Mimo dynamique practice
• Identifying and playing specific movement patterns
• Maintaining and amplifying physical choices
• Playing together, complicity, action/reation
• The level of physical engagement required for stage work
• Fixed point, articulation of movement
• The fundamental actions (push/pull) and fundamental tempos (fast/slow)
• Playing within existing structures (lazzi)
• Improvisation skills in the style of Commedia dell’Arte (lazzi)
• Heightened performance skills specific to Melodrama
• Developing themes/building crescendo

The work is play-based. We will learn through embodied collective tasks moving on the studio floor and through improvisational play. It is not an acrobatic work though it does involve a level of basic mobility. All participants are encouraged to work to their own capacities.

Who is it for?

This workshop is for two kinds of humans. Theatre artists who are wishing to involve themselves in a rigorously embodied playful theatre training who seek practical stage skills. And for humans who work in fields with emotions. Such as therapists, psychologists, teachers etc who are fascinated by the expression of emotions and how they show up in real time in the human body. The workshop is open to people of all levels of experience. All participants must submit a letter of application to join the class.

Dates and Times:

Mon 2nd Nov - Fri 6th Nov

9.30am - 4.00pm each day

**It is compulsory to attend all classes as this is a strict learning continuum aka one class leads into the next.

Location:

Pascoe Vale Sth Uniting Church, 10 Cumberland Road, Pascoe Vale Sth, 3044

Prices

Deposit: $250.00 NON-REFUNDABLE

Super Early Bird (Full payment due by Sept 2nd): $550.00

Early applications (Full payment due by Oct 2nd): $625.00

Standard Price (For payments completed after Oct 2nd): $700.00

Student Loyalty Price: $550.00

This is for students who have attended two or more 5 day workshops with Kimberley in 2026.

Once accepted into the course you are required to pay a non-refundable deposit - which secures your place in the course. Failure to pay within 5 days will see your place forfeited. If you are paying the entire fee straight up please know that it contains the deposit.

Read the refund policy here.

Minimum participants: 8

Maximum participants: 12

APPLY VIA EMAIL:

Please send an email to Kimberley outlining what motivates you to continue your work with clown. Please outline any further training you’ve done since we last met and if you have taken your clown out to the stage/performances and your reflections on that. What do you desire to find more of in the clown work?

Send emails to: ktwiner@gmail.com

A note on AI. Please do not use AI to generate your letter, this is not a job application, it is not about you ‘looking good’ it is about you expressing your drives, motivations, urgencies and poetic visions. We are fierce resistors of the plagiarizing machine that is known as AI. We deplore its impact on ecology, society and creativity. AI is inherently uncreative and applications shaped by AI will not be accepted.

Any questions can be directed straight to melbphysicaltheatreschool@gmail.com or call Kimberley on 0468664466.

5 day workshop

Nov 9th - 13th

Lead Teacher: Kimberley Twiner

The Somatic Clown Journey is a great gift to every stage actor who wants to become aware of what is uniquely comedic about them. This is a process created and refined by Giovanni Fusetti and which I have learned to teach. The Somatic Clown Journey is directly related to the study of Neutral Mask. In Neutral Mask we wish to calm our idiosyncrasies, we want to become neutral, to clear the slate to prepare to put on character masks - for theatre is a practice of wearing masks. However, The Somatic Clown Journey is a process parallel to this where we embrace and celebrate what is non-neutral about us and amplify it - voila we have a comedic form!

So, we will find your clown form by working with… YOU. Your body is already wonderfully stupid and we will go hunting to find what is hiding in plain sight, to amplify your natural stupidity. This amplification of stupidity will lay the bones of play for your ‘clown form’ or ‘clown mask’. The word stupid, comes from Latin ‘stupere’ which means to be in awe, amazed or stunned. We use the word stupid in its positive and regenerative sense - for being available to wonder is naive. Clown work must contain a play of wonder, a play of amazement. Each clown character will engage in the world with a unique sense of stupidity. To be stupid is wonder-full.

Our clown journey will be a process of awareness building and attunement of play. There are two key processes of learning in this course 1) discovering your clown form to make comic work and 2) physical theatre skills training from the Fusetti-Lecoq lineage. The clown form will be seen via a process of mirroring and amplifying. There will be certain movement patterns in the body that, once we are aware of them, we can play them. Then, clown-actor has an endless field of comic possibilities to play with. Across the five days we will cover the fundamentals of performing in the clown state.

Finding The Clown Form

-Personal movement analysis, mirroring

-Embodied amplification as your clown mask emerges

-Consolidating rhythm, tempo, bodily shape

-Finding status

-Finding voice

-Finding costume

-Finding the name

The Clown State

-The performers eyes, breath and body engagement

-Relationship with the audience, full eye contact

-Practising ‘affect attunement’ the clown must engage in heightened emotional play

Mask Technique

-The technique of the articulation the mask

-Principles of Commedia dell’Arte and lazzi

-Lecoq’s 20 Movements

-Gesture, pantomime and Action Mime

-Physical engagement required for the stage

Playing and Improvisation

-Techniques of improvising with solo and duos

-Status play

-Non-verbal improvisation tasks

-Noticing the themes to create physical comedy

-Action and reaction, crescendo

Feedback Process

-Performers will receive feedback from the teacher throughout the process

-Maintaining and sustaining the masked state

Clown work is mask work. Mask work is embodied play underpinned by a clear foundation of technique. Humans have been putting on masks and telling stories for a very long time. These 5 days will invite you to find a clown form. It will be a very clear and urgent mask for comedy, storytelling and anything else it dreams up!

This course is in line with ‘The Somatic Clown Journey’ a pedagogic process devised and refined by Giovanni Fusetti. Giovanni has been my main teacher since 2017. As a performer I have studied many theatrical territories under his tutelage. I am one of five Australians to have completed ‘An Advanced Training in the Pedagogy of Movement Theatre’ at Helikos School (Italy) in 2019. Since then I have accumulated 500+ hours in the role of pedagogic assistant with Giovanni Fusetti. My practice has been concretized in the Lecoq lineage of mask, mime and movement theatre. Please read my blog on the process here.

Dates and Times:

9.30am - 4.00pm

Mon 9th Nov - Fri 13th Nov

**It is compulsory to attend all classes as this is a strict learning continuum aka one class leads into the next. You cannot skip any portions of class

Venue: Pascoe Vale Uniting Church, 10 Cumberland Rd, Pascoe Vale

Prices

Deposit: $250.00 NON-REFUNDABLE

Early bird price (Full payment due by Sept 9th): $675.00

Normal early price (Full payment completed after Sept 9th): $750.00

Once accepted into the course you are required to pay a non-refundable deposit which secures your place in the course. Failure to pay within 5 days will see your place forfeited. If you are paying the entire fee straight up please know that it contains the deposit.

Read the refund policy here.

Minimum participants: 8

Maximum participants: 12

Minimum number of participants must be enrolled by Oct 9th for the workshop to go ahead.

APPLY VIA EMAIL

To apply please send a letter of motivation to Kimberley Twiner at ktwiner@gmail.com

In your letter please address:

• Your existing physical theatre practice (short bio of previous training and shows)
• Your experience with Lecoq theatre work
• Why clown? Why now?
• Any other driving provocations or inspirations that pull you towards this work

A note on AI. Please do not use AI to generate your letter, this is not a job application, it is not about you ‘looking good’ it is about you expressing your drives, motivations, urgencies and poetic visions. We are fierce resistors of the plagiarizing machine that is known as AI. We deplore its impact on ecology, society and creativity. AI is inherently uncreative and applications shaped by AI will not be accepted.

Any questions can be directed straight to melbphysicaltheatreschool@gmail.com or call Kimberley on 0468664466.

5 day workshop

Nov 30th - Dec 4th

Lead Teacher: Kimberley Twiner

In the Lecoq methodology of Mask, Mime and Movement there are three strands of Bouffon studies: Grotesque, Fantastic and Mystere. This workshop is an exploration of the Fantastic Bouffons. Fantastic Bouffons draw their inspiration from the creatures found in fairytales and myths.

Fairytales and myths are rich source texts for larger than life characters. The stories are often strange and they are complex which makes them more than just moral tales. In them we encounter archetypal figures that speak to the depth of human existence. The creatures inside fairytales are often transgressive and go beyond realistic functions; animals can talk, the natural world has personality, harsh punishments are handed down, love can be instant, huge quests can happen overnight, tragedy is often harrowing. There is an otherworldly wildness and ruthlessness to the contents that can easily move us into the saturated playful style of Bouffon.

‘As for fairy tales, they are a pure nature product. They show how nature plays with itself. They are like the dreams of those who write down their dreams but never think about them. Therefore, through fairy tales you can see how compensatory processes form: how destruction surfaces and how a solution forms, how another destruction and then another solution follow. There is no end to this process.’ Marie-Louise von Franz, Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales, 1972 lectures.

The flocking technique which is primary to our ensemble devising mimics this creation/destruction of forms cycle. The flow of play is irrational and yet sensical. Our satirical bouffons are highly playful creatures willing to amplify the splendour and putrefaction of the natural world!

The workshop will work through three explorations: 1) Characters (figures/creatures), 2) Stories and 3) Bouffon amplification/dramatic transposition.

Our first step will be movement explorations of classic figures from fairytales, how they move and what their core urgency is. For example: the giant, the witch, the fairies etc. The second step will be exploration of the stories themselves and core character pairings inside them. For example: the hero and the villain, the asleep one and the awake one, the predated/the predator. That will provide us with exciting themes like love, greed, revenge, quests, trickery and more. Our last step will be layering in the Bouffon eye. We can ask where do these characters and themes appear in our society? Who are the giants of the now? Who are the sleeping beauties of our modern world? Who are the children shouting 'But the emperor has no clothes on!'

Bouffon is a territory of theatrical study found in the pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq. The bouffon taught at Melbourne Phsyical Theatre School draws on Giovanni Fusetti's continued thorough research of the style. That style being a satirical, grotesque style of physical comedy that aims to ‘say something and (most importantly) play something’ about the hypocrisies of humanity. Read more about Bouffon here.

The work is play-based. So we will learn through collective embodied tasks moving on the studio floor and through improvisational play. The work draws on mask work (Commedia dell’Arte) in the sense that the actor works within a strong masked state to generate their content. From that state they find themes to improvise in, then look for amplification and crescendo to build the story.

The work will cover:

• Creating and maintaining physical characters from fairytales/myths
• Amplifying characters to bouffon saturation
• Playing together, complicity, action/reation between performers
• The Bouffon ‘state’
• The level of physical engagement required for physical theatre
• Fixed point, articulation of movement
• The fundamental actions (push/pull)
• Improvisation skills in the style of Commedia dell’Arte (lazzi)
• Devising/writing
• Developing themes/building crescendo
• Writing specific to the comedic mocking style of Bouffon
  

Workshop pre-reading:

To ensure there is a shared language to draw from the participants will receive a reading list of fairytales to familiarize themselves with prior to the workshop.

Who is it for?

This workshop is good for anyone engaged in theatre performance such as stage performers, storytellers, roving performers, improvisers, choreographers, writers, directors, designers. It is also good for people who want to make political theatre or protest art. It may also be of interest to therapists or people who work with humans investigating the human psyche. The workshop is open to people of all levels of experience. All participants must submit a letter of application to join the class.

Dates and Times:

9.30am - 4.00pm

Mon 9th - Fri 13th

**It is compulsory to attend all classes as this is a strict learning continuum aka one class leads into the next. You cannot skip any portion of class.

Venue: Pascoe Vale Uniting Church, 10 Cumberland Rd, Pascoe Vale

Prices

Deposit: $250.00 NON-REFUNDABLE

Super Early Bird (Full payment due by Sept 30th: $550.00

Early applications (Full payment due by Oct 30th): $625.00

Standard Price (Full payments made after Oct 30th): $700.00

Student Loyalty Price: $550.00 (This is for students who have attended two or more 5 day workshops with Kimberley in 2026)

Once accepted into the course you are required to pay a non-refundable deposit which secures your place in the course. Failure to pay within 3 days will see your place forfeited. If you are paying the entire fee straight up please know that it contains the deposit.

Read the refund policy here.

Minimum participants: 9

Maximum participants: 16

APPLY VIA EMAIL

To apply please send a letter of motivation to Kimberley Twiner at ktwiner@gmail.com

In your letter please address:

• Your existing physical theatre practice (short bio of previous training and shows)
• Your experience with Lecoq theatre work
• Why this? Why now?
• Any other driving provocations or inspirations that pull you towards this work

A note on AI. Please do not use AI to generate your letter, this is not a job application, it is not about you ‘looking good’ it is about you expressing your drives, motivations, urgencies and poetic visions. We are fierce resistors of the plagiarizing machine that is known as AI. We deplore its impact on ecology, society and creativity. AI is inherently uncreative and applications shaped by AI will not be accepted.

Any questions can be directed straight to melbphysicaltheatreschool@gmail.com or call Kimberley on 0468664466.

Summer 2026

A week of Panel Conversations & Seminars: Lecoq's Journey, The Neutral Mask and Street Theatre - featuring John Bolton, Born in a Taxi and Giovanni Fusetti

Language of Gestures (1 week) - by Giovanni Fusetti

The Storyteller (1 week) - by Giovanni Fusetti

Autumn 2026

Neutral Mask: The Wilderness of the Body (1 week) - by Kimberley Twiner

The Improviser and the Larval Mask (2 days) - Beth Twentyman, Tara Demmy of Melbourne Masks

Red Nose Clown (1 week) - by Kimberley Twiner

Bouffon: Play Fuels the Fire (1 week) - by Kimberley Twiner

Bring Your Clown Back (1 week) - by Kimberley Twiner

Winter 2025

Silent Comedy: No words, big funnies - by Kimberley Twiner

Slow down, Play fast: Learn to Improvise with Each Other - Kimberley Twiner

What's in a Wig: Building a Character Workshop - Kimberley Twiner

Larval Mask: Playfulness, articulation and naivety (3 days) - Beth Twentyman, Daryl Pellizzer of Melbourne Masks

Autumn 2025

Neutral Mask (5 weeks) - Kimberley Twiner

Clown (5 weeks) - Kimberley Twiner

Bouffon: Studies in Mockery, Satire and Grotesque (8 weeks) - by Kimberley Twiner

Shakespeare's Voice (4 weeks) - by Rob Meldrum

Summer 2024

Pedagogic Supervision Group (2 days) - by Giovanni Fusetti

The Greenhouse of Fools (5 days) - by Giovanni Fusetti

The Politics of The Fool (5 days) - by Giovanni Fusetti

Conversations with The Fool (5 days) - by Giovanni Fusetti

Winter 2024

Bouffon: Play Fuels the Fire (5 days) - by Kimberley Twiner

A Clown is Born (5 days) - by Kimberley Twiner

Summer 2023/24

Australia Dell'Arte (2 weeks) - by Giovanni Fusetti

Clowns Life (2 weeks) - by Giovanni Fusetti

Winter 2023

Melodrama: More is More (3 days) - by Kimberley Twiner

Character: An Embodied Way In (3 days) - by Kimberley Twiner

Physical Theatre Conditioning: Invigorating the Poetic Body - by Kimberley Twiner

Mimodynamique Training: Animal Drives - by Kimberley Twiner

Autumn 2023

Physical Theatre Conditioning: Invigorating the Poetic Body - by Kimberley Twiner

Mimodynamique Training: Animal Drives - by Kimberley Twiner

Summer 2023

Mimodynamique of The Colours - by Kimberley Twiner

Bouffon (5 Days) - by Kimberley Twiner

Summer 2022

The 20 Movements - by Giovanni Fusetti

The Red Nose Journey - by Giovanni Fusetti

The Neutral Mask in Nature - by Giovanni Fusetti

The Spirit of Commedia dell'Arte - by Giovanni Fusetti

Winter 2021

Abbotsford Convent Pivot Residency Project - by Kimberley Twiner

Autumn 2021

Bouffon 2 Day Workshop - by Kimberley Twiner

Clown Play 2 Day Workshop - by Kimberley Twiner

Flock Fit in the Park Series - by Kimberley Twiner

Winter 2020

Outdoor Physical Theatre Conditioning Series - by Kimberley Twiner

Summer 2020

From the Neutral Mask to Red Nose - by Giovanni Fusetti

The Pedagogy of Bouffon - by Giovanni Fusetti

Bouffon and the Ecstasy of Mocking - by Giovanni Fusetti

Spring 2020

Drag 101: Performing Skills - by Kimberley Twiner

Character Charge Up - by Kimberley Twiner

Pedagogic Reflections on Via Negativa an article by Giovanni Fusetti

Rabelais and his World by Mikhail Bakhtin

Copeau: Texts on Theatre by Jacques Copeau

The Archetypal Artist by Mary Antonia Wood <--- really good!

A History of the Dance by Curt Sachs

Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord

The Dance Cure by Dr Peter Lovatt

Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy by Barbara Ehrenreich

The Poetic Body (also known as The Moving Body) by Jacques Lecoq

Women Who Run With The Wolves by Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The Empty Space by Peter Brook

Why Is That So Funny? by John Wright

True and False by David Mamet

Every Little Movement by Ted Shawn

Myths of the Family by James Hillman

The Creative Fire by Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The Politics of Feeling by James Hillman

Pagan Psychology by James Hillman

Pink Madness by James Hillman