International Clown Research Project

In October 2007 the International Clown Research Project got under way at Central School of Speech and Drama, London. We have just completed the first series of workshops, and it's now time to reflect on the experience, view the videos, and look ahead to the next sessions, which will be taking place in Barcelona in December.

The project is funded as a Creative Fellowship at Central, with project partners such as the Escola de Clown de Barcelona, Madrid International Workshop Festival and the London International Workshop Fetival. As well as the workshops in London and Barcelona over the three-year period, I am planning groups in New York (hopefully in conjunction with the Michael Chekhov Actors Studio) and in St. Petersburg (in collaboration with Pejo Theatre Company).

And so I leave this thread open to anyone, participant or not, to discuss the issues being raised as we begin to get a feel for what this project can be over the coming years.

Welcome to ClownBlog. I started this blog as a way of stimulating discussion worldwide on the subject of clown. It’s a serious subject but it’s hard to find serious discussion about it on the web. I’m not against forums that allow you to swap information on clown shoes, but I’d like to address other concerns, like:

What is clown in our contemporary world? More and more people seem to be turning to clowning as a kind of answer to difficult questions, in health, politics and spiritually. 50 years ago this would have been unthinkable. So, what’s going on?

(A note on language: I will endeavour to publish as much as possible in English and in Spanish. Comments and discussions in French and Catalan are also very welcome, but I am unable to moderate in other languages.)

Jon Davison

Bienvenidos a ClownBlog. He empezado este blog para poder estimular la discusión mundial del tema del clown. Es un tema serio pero es difícil encontrar algo serio sobre el clown en la web. No estoy en contra de los foros que te permiten intercambiar información sobre los zapatos de payaso, pero me gustaría hablar de otras cosas, como:

¿Qué es el clown contemporáneo? Cada vez más parece que la gente mira al clown para responder a unas preguntas complicadas, en la salud, la política y la espiritualidad. Hace 50 años esto habría sido impensable. Entonces, ¿qué pasa?

(Una nota sobre los idiomas: intentaré publicar lo más posible en inglés y español. También los comentarios y discusiones en francés y catalán están bienvenidos, pero no puedo moderar en otros idiomas.)

Jon Davison