Clown 3: Devising
A toolkit for creating Clown Performance

Want to create a clown act but don’t know where to start? The Bristol Clown School’s new course is designed to help you create your clown masterpiece!

Join Robyn Hambrook (Bristol Clown School) and Hester Welch (The Lost Cabaret Bristol) for a 6-week journey into clown devising to help you to craft ensemble and solo clown acts.

Each week we’ll be exploring dynamic ways to create clown performance including objects, emotions, character and status play.

This hugely practical course offers exercises, tools and invitations to help you create comedic material out of thin air.

In exploring a toolkit to creating a clown performance we will:

 • Explore character, object play, emotion and status as a base to create and craft skits
• Develop, shape and hone the act with group feedback and facilitator support
• Learn to structure a piece
• Discover how to keep the audience engaged

This course will support you to take your ridiculous ideas to a finished piece that you can unleash at cabarets, scratch nights, on festival stages or form the basis of a longer show.
Clown 3:Devising is an exciting collaboration between the Bristol Clown School and The Lost Cabaret Bristol – the Bristol’s wild alternative comedy cabaret. A space for big ideas & experimentation, from the risky to the absurd.

***As part of this unique collaboration, there will be up to three slots for acts created during this course to be featured at The Lost Cabaret at the Wardrobe Theatre on Sunday 2 March.***

Who's this for?

This is for clowns, comedians, physical performers, theatre artists, dancers, musicians, visual artists and anyone who looked at the stage and thought “I want to be there!”

All exercises will be tailored to the participants' needs and everyone will have the opportunity to work both individually and in groups with allocated time for reflection and feedback.

If you’re not sure if your level of experience would support you to join this workshop, please email [email protected] and we will be happy to help identify if the classes are right for you.

How it works

Dates & times:
Thursdays
16, 23, 30 January, 6, 13, 20 February 2025
7.30 - 9.30pm

Venue:
Windmill Hill Community Centre, BS3 4LW

Investment:
6 week course (12 hours training)
£180 - Full price
£160 - Concession (low/no income, student)

EARLYBIRD discount: £20 off if you pay before 23 December 2024
Payment will be requested via paypal or BACs

Enrolment deadline:
Friday 9 January 2025

Prerequisites:
Clown 1: Foundations or previous clown training

apply

★ "Robyn helped me challenge myself in a safe and enjoyable space. She’s intuitive, supportive and allows me to take risks that expand my thinking and being in everyday situations. I’d highly recommend her classes for everyone who wants a fresh look at themselves."
Participant, 'Clown Soup' Weekly Clown Classes

★ "Thank you so much. Your clown coaching is very helpful because it is honest and direct. I thought the weekend was great and I am inspired to wear a red nose again."
Participant, 'The Activist Clown Weekend'

About the facilitators

Robyn Hambrook is a Bristol-based director, teacher and performer. With over 20 years experience she is a passionate practitioner of clowning, physical theatre, circus and street arts. She has a MA in Circus Directing, a Diploma of Physical Theatre Practice and trained with a long line of inspiring teachers including Holly Stoppit, Peta Lily, Giovanni Fusetti, Bim Mason, Jon Davison, Zuma Puma, Lucy Hopkins and John Wright.
Robyn has run workshops in corporate, community, education and humanitarian settings for companies including Let's Circus, Impact Arts, Islington People's Theatre, Active Inquiry and in tertiary education for the University of Bristol, UWE, Circomedia and Circus Central. Robyn is driven to create collaborative, research spaces, testing and pushing the limits of the artform to create new knowledge and methodologies for her industry. Recent  collaborations and teaching projects have included the Nomadic Rebel Clown Academy (5-day Activist Clown Training), The Laboratory of the Un-beautiful (Feminist Grotesque Bouffon Training for Womxn Theatre Makers) and the Clown Congress (annual gathering of clowns, activists & academics collectively exploring what it means to be a clown in this current era).

Hester Welch is an International Theatre Maker/Deviser, Director, Performer, Teacher, Producer, Community Arts Facilitator and Clown. She has directed and taught actors, artists, students, teachers, and community groups in the UK, India, Malaysia, China, France, Italy and Indonesia. Trained at Ecole Philippe Gaulier (France), Goldsmiths (University of London, UK), Chekhov Collective (UK), Trinity Laban Centre (UK), National Theatre (UK), SACPA (Indonesia) and with Clowns Without Borders (UK). She is Co-Artistic Director of Malaysian based company, Wayang Kitchen,  and is the founder and co-founder of The Lost Cabaret Bristol and Paris, respectively.
She has worked with devised & physical theatre pioneers David Glass Ensemble for 6 years, as well as Bristol Old Vic Theatre, Trinity Community Arts, Goldsmith’s University, Bristol Beacon, The Egg Theatre Royal, The Wardrobe Theatre, Shoreditch Town Hall, Jackson’s Lane, Bristol School of Acting, We The Curious, Borderlands, Legal Aliens Theatre, F Shambala, London Clown and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, as well as unconventional spaces such as Bristol Zoo, the Brunel Tunnel Shaft and the Clifton Suspension Bridge Museum.