SUBLIME STUPIDITY: Red Nose 5-Day Workshop in Kansas City, MO

The Kansas City Workshop is almost full!! Register now - Contact Beth Byrd @ www.byrdproductions.org

SUBLIME STUPIDITY:
An Introduction to Red Nose Theater Clown (yours, that is) 

with Elizabeth Baron

Monday - Friday, August 16 - 20, 2010 

 

in Kansas City, MO

TO REGISTER, please contact Beth Byrd: (816) 305-8188 or www.byrdproductions.org

Dates:  Mon - Fri, 8/16 - 8/20

Times: 3:30pm - 9:00pm

Cost:   $300

• Studio Location: Fringe Central, 1730 Broadway, Kansas City, MO
• Ages: 16 and Older
• Class Size: Max. 10 / Min. 6
• Clothing: Clothes you can move in - not too baggy
• Color of clothes: Black preferred, or gray

Workshop Description: The focus of this 5 Day Intensive Workshop is on giving birth to your clown, and beginning to play and speak as your clown. The clown is based on you – your body, your movement, and many elements of you as yet unnoticed and/or un-celebrated. The tools we use to help you discover and begin to play as your clown are drawn from myriad Mask and Movement-Theater techniques and traditions. By identifying and learning to glory in what is uniquely and inherently stupid about each of us, we begin to know and embody our clowns. Ironically, these qualities, which we often are unaware of and/or struggle to keep hidden from those around us, are in fact the gateways to hysterically funny, profound and sublimely simple work.

This approach to clown is rigorous in terms of physicality and specificity. Participants will be asked to listen to themselves and to the reactions of the ‘audience’ (the rest of the class) with the intense curiosity of a scientist. Through the workshop, participants will gain the skills and insight to create in the moment, based on this ‘listening.’ They will also laugh a lot, quite hard, and probably be moved to tears by the other clowns. This blend of rigorous technique and laughter combines to birth and nurture the first days of play in the lives of each participant's clown.

In the first days of workshop, we focus on birthing the clown - finding each clown's physical form.  The clowns move from solo work into duos and trios, 'playing' with another clown on stage, and creating through structured improvisation.  Students learn and hone the skills and technique of mask work ('takes,' finding and developing the 'theme,' listening, responding in the moment, etc.)  In the final days, we begin the vocal resonance work.  Each clown finds his or her unique 'voice,' and moves from playing using only sounds, reactions and his or her body into playing and creating utilizing speech and/or song.  (Meaning - it gets even funnier.)

The workshop is useful for performers and non-performers, alike!  It helps us tap into a resource hidden inside each of us, providing us with insight, creativity and freedom for years to come.  

ELIZABETH BARON is an award-winning teacher, director, actor and collaborative theater-maker.  She leads mask, voice, acting, red nose, and movement workshops and classes throughout the US and Internationally.  She holds an MFA in Lecoq Based Actor-Created Physical Theater, from Naropa University/London International School of the Performing Arts (LISPA.)  

She is known for her compassionate, humor-filled teaching style, and her deep love of and belief in the power of the Red Nose to unlock our hidden, delightful selves. Liz sees this work as an invaluable tool for the artist, connecting us to an endless source of creativity and poetry, and providing a treasure trove of insight and inspiration. All while being very stupid.
 
Elizabeth is currently studying and teaching as part of the intensive pedagogic training at Giovanni Fusetti's international school of theater creation – Helikos: Scuola Internazionale Di Creazione Teatrale. After having completed the three-month workshop, “The Pedagogic Journey,” with Giovanni Fusetti in Boulder, CO, in the Fall of 2009, Liz will be continuing the training in Florence, Italy, between the Fall of 2010 and the Spring of 2011, as pedagogic assistant of the First Year program. This will involve theoretical classes, discussions with the faculty, supervised teaching sessions, and the development of her own voice-work curriculum, in collaboration with Giovanni Fusetti. 

For Liz's full bio, click here.

For Student and Host Teachers' Blurbs, click here.

Liz is a generous and committed artist and a sensitive, hearted and insightful teacher. Her clown, Mowanna, taught me about vulnerability and the openness of the clown heart. I am delighted to recommend her as a clown teacher: she will joyfully cast the spell of the red nose onto you. -- Giovanni Fusetti

Sublime Stupidity Banner Credit: Alex Miles Younger Photography 

Student and Teacher Blurbs

Thank you again for leading us through this most amazing work. I've never had this much fun learning so intensely. You are gifted in recognizing and encouraging the playful aspects of each person and in getting the group to engage meaningfully with each other.  I experienced insights into myself and my relationships that astonished and explained so much – much more than therapy or any other method of self-exploration! I can't thank you enough for bringing your wisdom and compassion to bear on the human vulnerability we all share.  

-- Katie McElroy

I loved it.  I felt held and I felt totally engaged in the work, and I feel that you have such a gift for bringing out each person's soft spots and gently bringing them to the surface, beautiful work.  The best performance I have seen in a long time… What a lovely, exciting, fun, brilliant workshop you brought to us.

-- Joanna Rotkin, Tinhouse Experimental Dance Theatre and Naropa University Faculty

Ms. Baron is an enthusiastic and engaging teacher, who is able to meet students on their level (whatever level that might be) and inspire them to work and make discoveries about both the topic and themselves. Her enthusiasm and professionalism in her work carries over into her teaching, and she sets a lively and productive atmosphere in the classroom/ performance laboratory. She provides a supportive environment for creative play and active learning that encourages students to take risks and try new things.

-- Elizabeth Ann Jochum, M.A., Department of Theatre and Dance – University of Colorado, Boulder

Liz is a powerful, insightful, compassionate and incredibly keen warrior.  A true teacher.  I love her.

-- Tory Capron, Senior Teacher  - The Dharma Ocean Foundation

Having attended much longer red-nose workshops, I was curious to see how much Liz could do with a weekend. Wow!  Liz guided us into some stirring and playful time in just a few hours. Everyone had the opportunity to explore their clowns.  What impresses me most about Liz's teaching is her keen clown-vision.  What she sees in someone is often so penetrating and clear, and it always provokes learning.

Liz also has the grace to allow herself to not get locked into a particular idea with someone's clown. Her insights seem at once precise and open, as perhaps parents can know their children and continue to know them more as they grow.  Aside from her knowledge and passion for evoking clown, Liz practiced great time-management skills, good reading of and response to group-energy, and she provided a safe, well-guardianed learning/playing environment.

-- Jeffry Buechler

I loved the Red Nose Workshop with Liz Baron! I have never taken a Red Nose workshop before nor have had much theater experience but Liz's teaching style made the work extremely accessible to even the novice actor like myself.  Liz has a remarkable ability of creating a safe space for the exploration of one's material to emerge while also encouraging you to dive deeper and fully embody the process.  I highly recommend this workshop and can't wait to attend more with Liz in the future!  

-- Brie Anderson, Therapist and Adoption Specialist

Elizabeth's luminous energy, her compassionate and incisive guidance, and her delight in the process were hugely important to me.  Her mastery of this form is undeniable.  She taught me to feel and use my fears, instead of denying and blocking them.  This work changed my experience of myself.  

-- Margaret Baron

We, Clowns in the USA, are very lucky to have Liz Baron as a resource. Her freshness, curiosity for people, dedication to the students and understanding of humanity make the perfect combination when I am looking for a Clown teacher. I have to say, I really love her laugh. 

 -- Mery Miguez

My main clown workshop goal was to become a better teacher by becoming more comfortable speaking in front of people.  At first I thought I had failed, as my clown did not like being on stage either.  But that was the lesson.  I knew that I had an affinity for experiential education, hence my career choices; but the embrace of my discomfort and learning that I seek refuge in the crowd/audience has helped me to move around the "classroom" more freely and allowed me to more instinctively recognize and use teachable moments.  I am unable to hide what I am feeling, yet I thought I had to hide my vulnerabilities, however not my faults, when teaching.  I used to teach middle school math in the summers to bright, inner city kids, and thought I had lost my ability to teach. 

I am finding success in the classroom again with this current group of students.  Thanks Liz! 

-- Fai Au

Liz Baron is a snake charmer. It was such a jaw dropping experience for me… I was blown away! Her humor was restaurant quality and her infectious laugh lulled my clown out of his hiding place... without it, he might still be flirting behind the curtain… What an amazing art form, and what a trans-formative experience!  The lessons repeated were the ones I need to hear every day of my life.  Breathe, Feel, Be Honest and love what comes up, because it's all welcome.  

I continue to tap into my power, presence and ability to let go, and I wonder how my clown might show up in new ways. I miss it!  Best belly laughs in a long time!  I am going to fill her next class all by myself. 

-- Ted Reavey

Taking a Red Nose workshop with Elizabeth Baron was a great Odyssey.  As a novice in clown art, I felt that we were on a ship, not exactly knowing the direction we were supposed to head up to when we started but I knew that the team was safe and that the shore would be rewarding.

And it was. We explored our inner clowns individually and collectively.

We rediscovered all the spectrum of human emotions through them.

Liz's gift to help you shape your clown's birth through body movement is amazing.

Yep, it was like being pregnant and having a great midwife at your side, someone with no judgment and very supportive.   

-- Cecile Kyriakos, Dept of French and Italian, University of Colorado at Boulder