SpyMonkey Master Classes in US November 2013

SPYMONKEY CLOWN MASTERCLASSES in NY & LONDON

We’ve featured Spymonkey classes here in the past, but they’ve mostly been in NY or London.

They’ve added an L.A. class this year. (y’hear, West Coast– you’ve got your chance!)

11-15 Nov 2013 London ( led by Petra Massey & Toby Park)
6-10 Nov 2013 New York
12-16 Nov 2013 Los Angeles

Here’s the US details:

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Spymonkey Clown Masterclass NEW YORK
6th – 10th November 2013
TRISKELLION ARTS BROOKLYN
118 North 11th St, Brooklyn NY 11211
10am – 5pm (Wed 6th 12pm-7pm)  cost $500
to book please contact Hilary Chaplain on  hilary@hilarychaplain.com

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Spymonkey Clown Masterclass LOS ANGELES
12th – 16th November 2013
ARTWORKS THEATER & STUDIOS
6569 Santa Monica blvd, 90038
10am – 5pm $500
to book please visit www.brownpapertickets.com/event/475822

A five day workshop with Aitor Basauri, Spymonkey co-founder and one of the most eagerly sought-after teachers in the field, formerly staff tutor at the Ecole Philippe Gaulier, Paris.

With their hit shows Stiff, Cooped, Moby Dick and Oedipussy, Spymonkey have become recognised as world leaders of clown comedy theatre, delighting audiences around the world from Just For Laughs Montreal and Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas to Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh Festival and London’s West End.

This workshop is specifically designed for professional performers from the worlds of theater, comedy, circus and dance looking to widen and develop their experience of clown and physical comedy.

In the SPYMONKEY CLOWN MASTERCLASS, you will learn to further discover what makes you funny, hone your skills and practice making an audience belly laugh! Through clear and specific instruction, Aitor will support you to develop and hone your comedic skills in a safe and fun environment. This positive group dynamic will allow you focus on following your impulse, being adventurous and taking risks. You will learn how to shine as an individual and improve on every spontaneous opportunity. In this highly enjoyable workshop you will play games, do exercises developing trust and complicity with the group. In this atmosphere of discovery and revelation, you will be developing and showing new material. Be prepared to find the pleasure in your own ridiculousness, stay optimistic, discover your comedy gold, and get ready to laugh until your face hurts.

AITOR BASAURI is one of the most sought-after clown teachers in the world, regularly holding sell-out masterclasses in London, Berlin, Zurich and New York. Teaching has included: staff tutor at École Philippe Gaulier Paris; Cirque du Monde/Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas; Celebration Barn Maine; New York Clown Theatre Festival; Smith Center Las Vegas; Sam Houston State University, Texas; National Institute of Dramatic Arts. Damascus Syria; Taipei Taiwan, British Council; Jyvaskyla Festival Finland; American School, Madrid; Kliniclown Clown Doctors, Berlin; Uppsala University Sweden; International School of Humour, Vienna; Centro Cultural el Helenico, Mexico City.

Aitor talks about clown:

“I do theatre because it is fun because it makes me live life twice and I love life! The clown lives in a fantastic theatrical world. For an actor the clown stimulates a fresh immediacy full of pleasure and mischief. It is this brimming pleasure that fills the performer and touches an audience. The audience in turn feel they are watching something very special and unique because the clown is generous, sharing with them their most intimate vulnerability, fun and unique personality.

“The performer who dares to stand before a crowd, unafraid to make mistakes and find pleasure in being wonderfully silly will reap fruitful rewards. In Spymonkey we strongly believe that it is in this moment that the seed for the best performances can begin.”

Jane Nichols of The Yale School of Drama says:

“Aitor has boundless energy. He loves what he teaches and he loves to teach. Aitor’s easy, even temperament is as genuine and reassuring as it is compelling and empowering. His enthusiasm for what he does is evident and contagious. He approaches his students as he approaches the material … with humor, with clarity and authority, with knowledge, and with profound respect.

“Just as he and the other members of the remarkable Spymonkey approach weighty, sometimes perverse or tragic material with humor and a touch of grace, so to, as Aitor approaches a student’s despair or resistance or personal tragedy he applies the same humor and grace. That his professional work aligns dignity with absurdity is testimony to his genius as an artist. That he, as an artist, is dedicated to eliciting that same sensibility from his students is testimony to his depth as a humanist, – and to his commitment to education.”

contact education@spymonkey.co.uk for more information.