November 21 -23, 2015 (Saturday – Monday)
43 Dore St
San Francisco, CA 94103
Bouffon (English originally from French: "farceur",
"comique", jester") is a modern French theater term that was
re-coined in the early 1960s by Jacques Lecoq at his L'École Internationale de
Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris to describe a specific style of performance work
that has a main focus in the art of mockery.
Artistic Director, Nathaniel Justiniano, is offering his
award-winning, weekend-long Bouffon Intensive. This is a crash course in
bouffon performance with the only company in the United States exclusively
dedicated to the research and performance of bouffon.
Saturday, November 21st 10a - 6p
Sunday, November 22nd 10a - 6p
Monday, November 23rd 6p - 10p
The appetite of the bouffon is singular: To play with
what society has to hide. The bouffon does not judge. With a no-holds-barred
relationship with the audience, they are a dangerously perceptive fun house
mirror of us all. Why? Because it is fun. The bouffon uses mockery, wit, and
parody. They dance beautifully and are grotesquely obscene in the same moment.
Why practice bouffon? To practice facing life head on. To undermine apathy. To
acknowledge the tragedies we share, the shame we hide, and the beauty of
acceptance. This is an athletic, intensely physical form of comedic performance
that demands the in-the-moment engagement of your intellect and imagination. We
welcome performers of all skill levels and interests. Actors with limited
experience in physical theater or devising are especially encouraged to
participate because this work has a powerful impact on one's freedom and
creativity. The poetic dexterity and incisive play that we cultivate in this
intensive is immediately applicable to any process involving scripted theater,
dance, performance art, activism and beyond.
If this resonates with you, we would love for you to join
us.
What you will be learning and practicing:
* Finding your personal bouffon
* Entering into and creating within a state of ecstatic
play
* Choral, movement-based improvisation
* Mercurial acting techniques for shape-shifting between
characters of heightened text and grace to those of base, groveling goblin
prophets
* Audacious and confrontational status play with the
audience
* Wielding stillness and silence like a scalpel
* Parodying social maladies and hypocrisies
* Ramshackle techniques for on-the-fly costume creation
Cost: By November 6th: $200; by November 13th: $225; after
November 13th: $250
The full listing for November 2015 events:
The full listing for December 2015 events:
