3 day workshop

September 14th, 15th, 16th

Brisbane

Lead teacher: Kimberley Twiner

Co-producer: Ell Sachs

Come and get a taste of Bouffon!

Bouffon is a style of physical comedy that is rooted in mockery, satire, grotesque and tragedy. It is created through ensemble play - a style of group improvisation called ‘flocking’. Bouffon has mockery at its core. This workshop is a three day introduction to this wonderful style and is suitable for anyone who is curious!

Bouffon playfulness requires the actor to become larger than life. The work is not cognitive or conceptual and is driven by a state of very wild, child-like play. The work asks you to become bigger! Play bigger! Switch it on and turn it up! Characters, situations and themes end up highly exaggerated to the point of saturation aka satire.

The themes that appear in Bouffon work speak to its roots in Greek theatre. Bouffon tackles the big themes of the world. People interested in this style often have an interest in injustice, hypocrisy and big social problems. The Bouffon creatures revel in upending power, delight in saying the unsaid and love pointing out the shadows of humanity. Bouffons love all the roles/characters involved in a theme… They must play the oil barron millionaire, the poor sick worker, the people who fill their cars with petrol and of course they must play ‘the oil’. What does the oil have to say about all this they wonder?

The Bouffon-actor must be a shapeshifter, which means they have to SEE-IT-ALL to BECOME-IT-ALL. It requires a fast playing of multiple characters. The work is highly animistic, Bouffons can transform into anything. It is grounded in the mimo dynamique training of Jacques Lecoq, where the actor must observe the world and learn to imitate the world. Read more about Mimo Dynamiques here.

This 3 day workshop will cover the following:

Bouffon state

-The mocking state: exaggeration and amplification

-How the eyes must be used, gaze

-The rhythm and tempo of Bouffon play

-The body mask

Physical theatre

-Level of bodily engagement required

-Action and reaction, crescendo

-Gesture, pantomime and Action Mime

-Character commitment

Group improvisation

-Working together as a group, complicity

-The yes game

-Ensemble movement

-Embodied storytelling

-Developing themes

-Embodied writing processes

History of the Theatre

-Theory on Greek Tragedy

-Dionysian ritual and myth

-Commedia dell’Arte skills

A note from Kimberley:

This course is in line with the Bouffon 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 600+ 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. I have devised and performed in two Bouffon shows. For more on Bouffon read here. For more on my projects go here.

Who is it for?

This workshop is for people interested in physical theatre and/or the art of mockery. It will be great for people who want to get out of their heads and into the body; who want to work on impulse, spontaneity and saying yes to offers. It will be great for solo performers who want more experience working in groups. It will be great for people who work in ensembles who seek further tools to support group collaborations and generating content. The work is a physical practice and participants will be required to be on their feet moving for the majority of the workshop.

At no point are students permitted to video/audio record the workshop. The contents of the workshop are private and not for public viewing online.

Dates and Times:

9.30am - 4.30pm

September, Mon 14th, Tues 15th, Wed 16th

**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, you cannot leave early or arrive late.

Venue:

Lithuanian Cultural Association

49 Gladstone Rd, Highgate Hill QLD 4101

Prices

Deposit: $100.00 NON-REFUNDABLE

Super early bird price (Full payment due by August 14th): $300.00

Standard early bird price (Full payment due by Sept 6th): $350.00

Late bird price (For payments made after Sept 7th): $400.00

APPLY VIA EMAIL

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

In your letter please introduce yourself and address:

Your existing physical theatre practice (short bio of previous training and shows)

Your experience with Bouffon and 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.

Minimum participants: 9

Maximum participants: 16

Minimum number of participants must be enrolled by Aug 30th for the workshop to go ahead. Read the refund policy here.

Keeping scrolling to read about the additional two day workshop specifically on Bouffons in Queensland.

Got questions? Contact Kimberley Twiner on ktwiner@gmail.com or 0468664466.

2 day workshop

September 17th & 18th

Brisbane

Lead teacher: Kimberley Twiner

Co-producer: Ell Sachs

Keep on playing! Spend two days deepening your Bouffon practice by targeting the theme of Queensland politics!

Pre-requisite: You must have completed a minimum of 3 days of Bouffon training with Kimberley Twiner or Giovanni Fusetti.

This workshop is for people who are curious to target the theme of ‘Politics in Queensland’ from a Bouffon perspective. A Bouffon devising process has specific steps that support an embodied-writing process. This embodied process draws out an uncanny collective intelligence. Participants will face the tension between wanting to ‘say something important’ versus ‘what wants to be played by the body’.

Participants will learn about:

-The ethics of Bouffon satire

-Propaganda vs poetry

-The dilemma of the writer and the player

Participants will deepen:

-Group chorus improvisation/flocking skills

-Emergent embodied devising

-Non-linear writing processes

-Cresendo

-Working together as a group, complicity

-Embodied storytelling (mime, gesture, mimo dynamiques)

-Developing themes from improvisations

-The ingredients needed for short Bouffon skits

Who is it for?

This workshop is for people interested in continuing to work within the Bouffon form. They will want to interrogate the theme of ‘Queensland Politics’ through the lens of physical theatre and the art of mockery. It will be a great container for further practicing the targeting>flocking>recalling>recreating>consolidation process that can lead to creating short Bouffons skits. The work is a physical practice and participants will be required to be on their feet moving for the majority of the workshop.

At no point are students permitted to video/audio record the workshop. The contents of the workshop are private and not for public viewing online.

Dates and Times:

9.30am - 4.30pm

September, Thurs 17th & Fri 18th

**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, you cannot leave early or arrive late.

Venue:

Lithuanian Cultural Association

49 Gladstone Rd, Highgate Hill QLD 4101

Prices

Deposit: $100.00 NON-REFUNDABLE

Super early bird price (Full payment due by August 14th): $150.00

Standard early bird price (Full payment due by Sept 6th): $200.00

Late bird price (For payments made after Sept 7th): $250.00

Read the refund policy here.

APPLY VIA EMAIL

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

In your letter please introduce yourself and address:

Your existing physical theatre practice (short bio of previous training and shows)

Your experience with Bouffon and Lecoq theatre work

Your experience with activism/political themes?

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.

Got questions? Contact Kimberley Twiner on ktwiner@gmail.com or 0468664466.