One-Day Bouffon Workshop

Dive into the world of satire and mockery with this one-day Bouffon workshop! We will work with finding play through children's games, group devising, flocking, the perspective of the Bouffon, creating grotesque characters, and more. This class will be taught by Soleil Kohl, a local clown, Bouffon, and physical theatre artist and teacher.

This workshop is intended for theatre practitioners with some experience in clown, physical theatre, or related performing arts.

A description of the Bouffon from Giovanni Fussetti:
"The essence of the Bouffon is in the dynamic of MOCKING**.** The MOCKER is a specific role, existing in all human societies. Bouffons represent elements of their society in an amplified, distorted or exaggerated way, thereby provoking laughter and outrage. Their Mockery doesn’t have an agenda in itself, because the Bouffons don’t have opinions, and they don’t protect any side from their mocking. They just mock everything and everybody. Their purpose is to have fun playing at being humans and therefore they use everything they find, with ferocious ecstasy and jubilation. This is their power: they see and play with everything, they feed on human dynamics in order to play with it. Bouffons never touch on individual or private themes, instead they take on big collective dynamics and roles – involving the social complexity and the very essence of society and culture."

What to bring:

• Water bottle, snack, and notepad (if you'd like to take notes)
• Please wear dark colors with no logos, preferably black, but dark blue or grey is also okay.
• The Boulder Circus Center requires the removal of shoes, so please prepare to work barefoot or wear socks/dance shoes.

Schedule:

• The workshop will last between 1 and 5pm. You must be present for the entire time.
• We will have multiple opportunities to get water, and have a 15-minute snack/bathroom break at 3:00pm

Cost: $60

• We understand that people are in several different financial positions, and therefore we offer partial scholarships to those in need.
• Additionally, Boulder Clown Club offers one full scholarship for BIPOC and low income students. Send a letter of interest to [email protected] for scholarship consideration.
• These costs go towards space rental, Meetup subscription, advertising, and paying our teachers.

To register, email [email protected] or click "Attend" on this event to reserve your spot. Payment is accepted through Venmo, PayPal, or cash.