CLOWNS ON ACID Module 1:
Jump Start the Year
*PROOF OF FULL VACCINATION REQUIRED*
email to register: clowns.on.acid.course@gmail.com
CLASS:
Saturday 1/21 from 5 PM - 7 PM
Sunday 1/22 from 12 PM - 4 PM
IDIOTS EXPEDITION (“class show”):
Sunday 1/22 from 6 PM - 7 PM
ABOUT CLOWNS ON ACID MODULE 1: JUMP START THE YEAR
The workshop is for performers, comedians, clowns and artists of all genres who need a boost to start a new project, jump into creative process after a break, or are new/returning to stage work.
Most of us live like some numb mushrooms, half of the brain on the phone another in the ass. Then when we want to create risky - vibrant - electric work — all that comes out is some silent warm fart. In our day-to-day life there are virtually no occasions where we could train our inner-acid dragon. So yeah I get it — some of us even need to take acid.
This craving drew me to Butoh — super rigorous Japanese theater training — so I could vomit my darkest impulses and transform them into creative potential. I blended it with comedy, Western physical theater and a dash of clown work — I call this method Power Trip. (Been testing it on Scandinavians for the past 10 years, WORKS.)
See you soon!!! Flush those mushrooms down the toilet — this shit’s gonna be reeeeeeeal!
DAY ONE: SAT 1/21 FROM 5 PM - 7 PM
A workshop at sunset on a mountain in Santa Monica. Where you will meet your inner animal. This work is not to be confused with some ecstatic dance nonsense — its fun, absurd, psychedelic BUT ALSO rigorous and systematic technique to open the parts of the psyche that are usually non active: primal, instinctual states; learning to trust your impulses — those parts of the brain that helps us to take more risk and to be more authentic.
DAY TWO: SUN 1/22 FROM 12 PM - 4 PM
We will meet at The Elysian theater where we will be exploring Western and Eastern traditions of physical theater training.
We will practice various physical theater and clowning drills that will help us to be faster, riskier and enter a state of creative flow. Methods that are incredibly valuable when starting a new project or returning to a project after a break.
IDIOTS EXPEDITION: SUN 1/22 FROM 5 PM - 7 PM
*PARTICIPATION OPTIONAL*
Nothing can oil the rusty performance bones better than playing games with the strangers. “Idiots Expedition” is a variation on a class show, where reality meets clown work big time; (Think Andy Kaufman, think Yes Men, think Borat ). We will smuggle our idiocy into the inaccessible lands of wealth and status. We will prepare some games and INFILTRATE a place where only the ICONS and LEGENDS go. Dress code: formal, so formal, like idiotically formal.
FIVE MODULES
Clowns on Acid workshops are accumulative and consist of 5 modules. Every module is based on a unique blend of Western and Eastern methods of physical theater training. The aim of these five modules is to provide a well rounded, systematic education in physical theater and comedy. Each intensive builds on the previous one, however workshops can be also taken individually.
MODULE I January: Jump Start the Year
MODULE II February: Sexual Slapstick and Anatomy of Risk
MODULE III March: Are you tripping or are you in character?
MODULE IV April: Infinite idea machine—fundaments of physical improv ONE
MODULE V May: Infinite idea machine—fundaments of physical improv TWO
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Kira Nova is a world renowned artist, comedian and producer whose credits include the MoMa and the MET. Over the past 10 years she has created 5 solo shows and curated a number of variety theater productions. Among which was a show she created with Michael Portnoy and Reggie Watts — “Alligators! Experimental Comedy Lab”, presented in The Netherlands and Belgium.
Nova has presented her breed of one-woman shows at such venues as MoMa PS1, MET Breuer, The Kitchen in New York; Center Pompidou in Paris, Royal Academy Theater in London, Art Basel in Basel among many. While as a comedian Nova performed in many venues around NY, which include productions at The Box and House of Yes.
For the past 10 years, Nova has been leading workshops and teaching at many North American and European Art Academies, that include: Columbia University in New York (US), Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta (Canada), Paul Klee Center in Basel (Switzerland), Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), de Appel Curatorial Program in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel (Germany), Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Since 2013 Nova works as a professor at Lunds University (Sweden).