Tuesday 27 November 2007

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.

3 comments:

Danny Schlesinger said...

Hi Jon,
Thanks for the workshops, I had fun and learned a lot. This term was about failure - do you think you succeeded in your investigations? What did you fail at yourself?!

For me the thought provoking stuff was the variations of "Zip Zap Boing". I liked the versions and the clown became apparent when there were too many things happened at once.
Go to go now to meet you for lunch!

Danny

Jon Davison said...

Thanks for lunch, Danny. That was nice.

I think we succeeded fairly well in our investigations into the nature of failure. There is still work to do, some of which we will continue with in February, but I feel nearer a clear definition.

I failed to follow my own plan. I tried but after a few weeks, I realised I should go back to my usual way: a wandering path that keeps coming back to the same point and heading off again in another direction, rather than a well-mapped out trip.

I also enjoyed overburdening zip zap boing with more rules. I think I take great pleasure in rendering theatre games unsustainable.

Anonymous said...

hi jon, thanks for the workshops they were very enjoyable.

i really liked looking at failing, accepting failure and attaining attention through failure. i'd like to comment about 'can you always fail 100%?' I feel that at some point there needs to be success in order to then fail. without success there can not be failure.

Thanks again for the workshops, i look forward to starting again in february.

Will