Workshop 2023

Opposable Thumb Theatre will be leading a Workshop in contemporary clowning. Together Adam Blake (Open Attic and Wyldwood Arts) and Dik Downey (Pickled Image and Green Ginger) will impart years of experience in clowning, improvisation, street theatre and audience interaction. These workshops will incorporate games such as status hierarchy, imitation/exaggerationand embracing your failures. There will be a lot of failure and a lot of laughing. We will look at what makes us laugh and how we feel when we fail, and how that can be turned into a superpower. How can we draw an audience in to the smallest detail on stage and have the tiny things have a big impact. 

What’s ‘Cluppetry’? you ask. Well it’s a heady mixture of clown and puppetry. Together Adam Blake (Open Attic and Wyldwood Arts) and Dik Downey (Pickled Image and Green Ginger) will impart years of experience in clowning and puppetry in one big, experiential blob. We take classic clowning workshop exercises and age old puppetry techniques and chuck them into a theatrical blender and marvel at the ‘Cluppetry’ that emerges. These workshops will incorporate clowning games such as status hierarchy, imitation/exaggeration and embracing your failures, as well as looking at the intricacies of puppetry, like breath, focus and movement. Then we examine the role of puppeteer versus clown, clown as puppet, puppet as clown and everything in between. These workshops are very informative to both clowns and puppeteers, giving insight into each-others profession and arming the participants with new transferable skills.

Var: Dieselverkstaden 

När: 8 september 14.00-17.00, 9 september 14.00-17.00

Antal: 24

OBS! TVÅ DAGAR

This class will tackle these questions and more while we explore physical comedy from a clown point of view. Many clown workshops are about one’s approach to the clown character and the clown state. In this class we expand your physical vocabulary, develop tools for playing comedy using the techniques of slapstick, improvisation, partnership, comic timing, and accidents in solo, duo, and group exercises. Through games and exercises we will build short pieces of material using these skills. Physical comedy is funny within a context and because of the reaction of the performer, so we will combine technique with context to discover the funny. This class is great for old and young, experienced and novice performers who wants to bring comedy and honesty into their work!

Var: Dieselverkstaden

När: 9 september 11.00-17.00

Antal: 12

What if you get the smallest mask in the world in the form of a rednose? Come, let’s learn to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable with the power of clowning. Discover your Clown! 

Rupesh Tillu is an actor, writer, director and independent film-maker, born in Mumbai, India.
He hold's MFA in Physical Comedy from The National School of Dramatic Arts, Sweden.

Var: Dieselverkstaden

När: 7 september 11.00-17.00

Antal: 14