September 15th and 16th, 2018
Saturday and Sunday 11am-5pm
Space TBA
Toronto, ON
ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
Discover your inner idiot - sensitive, open, human, ridiculous - and genius! With your pleasure PLAY and ability to FLOP with panache you will engage with a powerful force that connects you on a profound level to the audience, opening a channel between you and them.
"Finding one’s Clown, in other words one's own absolutely unique and idiotic quality, is an important moment in an actor’s life. The Clown’s way of playing is a special one. He is not only using his normal virtuosity as an actor, but he also has a frequently appearing playmate: - flop -. With this training we call him Mister Flop and we treat him with a heck of a lot of respect. Playing with Mister Flop happens after many, many other flops that weren’t at all deliberate. Mr. Flop will say to the Clown: “You are in trouble! - Salvage the show! The great delight of being on stage, combined with childish pleasure, fun and perhaps a very special yell make us love him again and the Clown is off to save the show. If the pleasure in staying on stage is great, then the Clown will be forgiven. He’s allowed to be no good over and over. If the pleasure is not great enough, the clown will look like someone ashamed at being no good. He won’t be loved. With this work people have to find a way of being beautiful and surprising... and by beautiful I mean being in the grip of pleasure or freedom". - Philippe Gaulier
ABOUT JOHN BEALE
John Beale is a teacher and award-winning actor based in Toronto. He is a graduate of the Philippe Gaulier International Theatre School in Paris. He has trained, performed and taught extensively as a company member with the internationally acclaimed Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts. Now as part of the faculty at Humber College, Seneca at York University and Randolph College for the Performing Arts he teaches acting, scene study, improv and clown. He is a master clown teacher and has been holding publicly offered performance workshops and coaching actors since 2005. More at www.johnbeale.net.
Cost: $300 + HST
50% discount for returning students
20% discount for Equity and ACTRA
Pre-registration and payment is required as
space will be limited to 16 people.
"When you did study in my school in Paris I did recognize you as a great actor. When I saw your show I recognized a great writer, poet and actor. But I knew it already.
Thanks for your show.
Your friend Philippe Gaulier"
"John's workshop and his delivery were brilliant. It gave me the opportunity to be "present", feel, let my ego go and unearth some amazing ideas."
"John Beale is a skilled and engaging facilitator. His PRESENCE workshop brought back to life a more creative me. I laughed often and harder than I had in a long time. It was a very rewarding experience!"
“A fun, transformative, fast-paced and enlightening experience. Thanks John for a fantastic workshop!”
“I found John to be an excellent teacher, helping us to reconnect to that playfulness in all of us, that part which lay dormant but never forgotten. Now revitalized.”
“It seemed as if whatever plug had fallen out inside me was reconnected.”
“Thanks for guiding me through one of the most terrifying and exhilarating moments in my adult life.”
“I very much appreciated your guidance during the last two days and have certainly found some new perspectives that I would want to pursue further.”
“Thanks a bunch for your stellar workshop. I kind of feel like if I had come to a zen meditation workshop I wouldn't have made nearly the progress towards accepting the present moment as I did with you and the crew. I think i might have a closer understanding of what the Taoist mean by "non-doing" now. Thanks!”
