NEW CLOWN BOOK: "Clown Readings in Theatre Practice", by Jon Davison

My new book, Clown - readings in theatre practice, is finally out and available!

It's a mixture of clown history, philosophy, and practice, with a lot of the material I've come across over the last few years of research. My aim has been to present as many different perspectives on clown in their historical and social contexts, and covers a range of topics: the origins of the auguste/clown duo, shakespearean clowns, female clowns, contemporary clown training, gags books, analyses of clowns past and present, etc.
More information here: http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=498885

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