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NEO-BOUFFON
February 14 - 19, 2026 Vancouver, BC 6 days (30 hrs.) Participants should be prepared for extra hours of evening homework and preparation outside of class time. Applicants must be 19+ Prerequisite: Although not a requirement, those with previous clown/bouffon and performance experience may be given first consideration. Workshop: $875+GST Click on the button below for the application form. Please note, if you are applying to both workshops you only need to fill out this form once. Shortlisted applicants will be notified in early November APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED. |
About Neo-Bouffon Due to the unique challenges of this course, enrollment is very limited: selected applicants should expect to have an interview / further inquiry into their aims with this work. This popular workshop is inspired by Karen Hines’ brilliant and provocative approach to Bouffon. In Paris and London and around the world, master teacher Philippe Gaulier teaches a style of performance known as “bouffon”, characterized by the use of physical affliction (humps, etc.) in combination with parody to achieve a highly theatrical effect. This performance style finds its roots in medieval Europe, though the lore stretches into timeless and universal territory. “NEO-BOUFFON” is Karen Hines’s Canadian response to the work: firmly rooted in the lessons of Parisian master Gaulier, but focused on finding new ways to apply the essential elements of bouffon within the context of contemporary North American culture. Through the exploration of the basic foundations of bouffon, plus in-class creation, the work encourages a comedically-oriented dissection of societal maladies and afflictions. This course aims to wring laughter from unsettling aspects of contemporary culture, in the name of timely, responsible, thoughtful approaches to parody, high performance, great entertainment and killer content. This course is designed for writers, designers and directors as much as it is for performers: much of the course is geared toward strategies for creation and development of material. Course content and exercises are challenging, often involving the realms of religion, sex and politics, and are not for the faint of heart. The work entails an unflinching look at the darker side of the human potential. |
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DEVELOPING NEW WORK WITHOUT KILLING IT...
Feb. 22 - 27, 2026 Vancouver, BC 6 days (30 hrs.) Participants should be prepared for extra hours of evening homework and preparation outside of class time. Applicants must be 19+ Prerequisite: Applicants with 3+ years of professional experience will be given first consideration. Workshop: $800+GST Click on the button below for the application form. Please note, if you are applying to both workshops you only need to fill out this form once. Shortlisted applicants will be notified in early November APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED. |
About Developing New Work Without Killing it… DEVELOPING NEW WORK WITHOUT KILLING IT walks you through practical, effective, and powerful exercises to begin writing, break through blocks, or focus and deepen your work if you are close to completion. Work at any stage is welcome: the desire to write is more important than having a full production in mind. (But we may help you to imagine a full production.) The writing exercises we’ll use are proven over time by people you may know or whose work you may have seen. From horror clowning to high performance literary artists, they all started somewhere, and we will take a look at how those things began. We will also take a deep dive into the power of values (respect, perseverance) in a healthy creative room. Maybe you have a show in mind, or maybe you have a tiny idea just beginning. In all cases, we will catalyze its development, your focus, and test the work in gentle “production simulations.” There will be micro readings, micro stagings, micro-dramaturgy - even micro casting sessions. These sessions will be guided and executed with the mantra "first do no harm”, tactics for continuing, and success beyond the course. Whether you are making a bright comedy or an immersive horror; a serious docudrama or some stylish wild theatre, DNWWKI promises to catalyze you, build you a body of work that is original to you, and send you away with tactics for its safe travels into the future. Participants will be invited to bring something they are working on, or dream of working on: as simple as a compelling concept, as elaborate as a production plan for work done so far. This is not essential: blank slates are equally as welcome. |