August Clown Lab

The day's format tends to fall into three segments: games, clown improvs, and technique. Specific exercises vary from week to week. No theatrical experience necessary. We're here to build community, be our authentic selves, laugh, play, and learn. Bring your open hearts and minds to explore the mysterious ingredients that tickle our funny bones.

*This is a PWYW workshop: please consider pitching in $25-35 to cover the space rental + facilitator's time for curriculum prep and teaching! Thank you!* You can donate through Eventbrite or at the workshop. Please arrive a little before 10:00 so we can start on time.

Clowning has personally taught me more about acting (and living) than any other training I've done. It's also some of the most challenging, rewarding (and fun!) work I've ever done. I find that it's also an amazing blueprint for living your life fully. I love it and I've studied several different pedagogical approaches that I draw from.

One of my teachers, Giovanni Fusetti beautifully says: "As a theatrical territory, Clown has a unique poetic potential because it allows the performer to explore and play joining the naiveté and the vulnerability of the child, with the rigor and the technique of the adult, thus revealing the poetry of the ridiculous."

About me: I've been studying clown and performing original clown shows for about 16 years. Original shows include: the acclaimed short 'Banquet', 'The Adventures of Rocketman and Beano', and the clown version of 'The Iliad' at Shakespeare and Company.

I've also devised/written/contributed to the shows 'New Day Rising', 'Blackout', 'The Plague', and 'Apocalypse Clown'. I've studied clown with Giovanni Fusetti, Aitor Baisuri, Sue Morrison, Jane Nichols, and George Lewis - among others - and I've taught at Freehold Theater, University of Puget Sound, and the Village Theatre, along with my own classes.

Host or Publisher Tom Spangenberg