peta LiLY
  • ABOUT
  • COURSES
  • Shows
  • BLOG: Dark Clown, Clown plus
  • Contact
  • FAQs for the Clown & Dark Clown course
  • Creative Mentor / Acting Coach / Director
  • ONLINE COURSE INFO
  • What people say about the Clown & Dark Clown course
  • What people say about the Alchemy of Archetypes course
  • What people say about the Barefaced Commedia dell'Arte course
  • PLAYS and POETRY
  • What people say about the Clown Course

The unexpected fun of playing Death

5/28/2021

2 Comments

 
PictureSome of the 'family'; Hero, Child, Lucifer, Death, Fool and Trickster (clockwise). Photo by Robert Piwko (manipulation PL).
For my Alchemy of Archetypes course, I was inspired to work with Frankie Armstrong and Janet Rodgers' book ‘Acting and Singing With Archetypes.’  and to combine the journeys with mask work. Trestle Theatre Company sell a set of 8 archetype half-masks. But now when I teach, I work with 10 Archetypes. I commissioned a Maiden mask from British mask-maker Stephen Jon Cooper. And I found, in the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre giftshop, a papier-mâché skull mask. I didn’t buy it when I first saw it but something was planted in me and I made a phone call. ‘Yes, we just have the one left’. ‘Hold it for me!’ and I dashed across town to buy it.
 
Archetypes Online
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, I adapted to run my Alchemy of Archetypes workshop online, without masks, using the process of stepping in and stepping out as described in Frankie and Janet’s book but also as I learned it from theatre practitioner Mollie Guilfoyle who ran Soylent Theatre People’s Theatre, creating plays that included masked and unmasked characters which demanded a shared level of ‘heightened’ playing (more physical / not-naturalism). In most of my teaching, I encourage a playing state which is both physically embodied and imaginatively immersed. My experience learning with Butoh performers (Sankai Juku, Natsu Nakajima and UK-based Yumino Seki), planted the seed for surrender to the essence. My great respect for comedy and clown also brings forward the joy of play and the joy of otherness.

How I came to develop the Death Archetype:
Inspiration was always there in memento mori paintings and illustrations of Death and the Maiden, and
in recent years, the work of Hungarian artist Zsuzsanna Ujj. I took her images below as inspiration for the character of Gloriana, in a  freely-adapted student production  of ‘The Revengers Tragedy’
at RADA in order to give Vindice’s dead girl friend a presence and a voice in the play.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Mantra 
Frankie Armstrong and Janet Rodgers collaborated with John Wright, well known for his mask ‘mantras’. At home with the mask I became generating options for the Mantra. I tested a few in a workshops and decided on the mantra. ‘I am the inevitable.’

The image on the left here is an illustration from wonderful artist Tracey Tofield’s workshop sketchbook, with her generous permission.

​Mirth + Dread = Funny Bones
In 2020 and continuing in 2021, with sensitivity in this time of the Pandemic, I list the Death Archetype in my workshop description as ‘The Carnival Figure of Death’, so as to remind people of the creative play possible around darker subjects, and of the ages-old human impulse and ability to both flirt with fear and to counter fear with laughter. 

Respect - checking in
I take care with this Archetype to check with participants whether they might be recently bereaved and to check their willingness to take the Journey - giving an option to take time out if needed.  

The Heritage of Carnival
(from Wikipedia) '...common features of Carnival include mock battles such as food fights; expressions of social satire; mockery of authorities; costumes of the grotesque body that display exaggerated features such as large noses, bellies, mouths, phalli, or elements of animal bodies; abusive language and degrading acts; depictions of disease and gleeful death; and a general reversal of everyday rules and norms.

The process for playing the Archetype of Death includes a warmup guided by the skeleton and celebrating joint articulations. 
 
‘Enjoy your bones as you move.’ I repeat Viola Spolin’s phrase from her book ‘Theatre Games for the Lone Actor’. Spolin says: Feel your skull. Feel your skull with your skull. 
 
Next follows a Carnival-esque ‘Dance your Bones’. Tom Waits’ track ‘Singapore’ has a perfect rhythm and is dark and downbeat but still jaunty.
I give side prompts during dance to get people to raise elbows, explore hips, think of empty eye sockets and explore teeth and jaw. Have fun playing with what funny things your legs can do. And then the hips. Death can be as dry as dust, but s/he/they can be a bit cheeky as well.
Towards the end of the track, everyone is at the Skeleton Ball, and dance together (if online, it’s fun to play ‘peekaboo’ by coming and going out of the screen).
 
Set up for the Immersion / Guided Journey:
Dina Glouberman invented ‘Imagework’. You use the body-mind’s ability to access knowledge intuitively by allowing spontaneous images or sensings of metaphors which can contain helpful information of issues and allow, through inhabiting and moving and calling in mentors or adopting different viewpoints, a transformation of unhelpful fixed patterns. The work includes imaginal journeys - for example, you can visit the House of Health; The House of Sleep; The House of Time; the House of Money - there are steps to pass through and it's possible to gain some startlingly helpful insights. 
 
On an advanced course, Dina led us on a journey to meet Death. And  most of us were empowered to find how calming it was to have that experience. Many of us found that Death is just a doorkeeper. That's their job. They're not scarily coming after you with a knife, they're just very patient. And very pragmatic. 
 
Death The Doorkeeper
Can you get a sense of this expression of Death, the functionary? For your voice: use your bones, or use your parchment skin or use the atmosphere; the dry, possibly dusty or slightly chill environment Death is in. Is there a table? On the table there is a ledger. Do you have a thermos? Is there a clock on the wall – does it tick? Are there no hands on the clock?  You can be whatever gender expression you like. What are you wearing? A poorly cut suit? A drab skirt and cardigan? Summon an image of an empty office space, a grey-hued Kafka-esque scene. Film director Roy Andersson in his film 'A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence’ evokes a cold-colour-palette world where figures with pasty faces stand in uninspiring, pragmatic surroundings. See image below.
Picture
Preparation for Immersion / Guided Journey
Participants are invited to close your eyes, if you are willing, but to stay safe in the space, do crack your eyelids open to see where you are stepping.
 
Immersion / Guided Journey
The 'journey' allows participants to explore Death in her/his/their workplace. First, participants are invited to visualise how they this Archetype of Death, to invite a spontaneous sensing or visualisation – the way inspiration delivers that he/she/they appear for you in this moment - then to step in and transform in shape and texture.
 
There you are, in your place of work. Just a functionary. Long hours, but you’re used to it. What does it sound like in there? Is there a desk in the room beside you? With a ledger on it? Is there a clock? Perhaps a filing cabinet you never use. You're on duty. There beside the door. It's a slow day today. So you're just patiently there: and your mantra is: ‘I am the inevitable.’ Sing it, speak it, chant it, or hum while thinking it.
 
The 'journey' continues with Death meeting a succession of characters: old man, young man, maiden, dog, child. Their names are crossed off and Death ushers them through the door.

There may be little admin tasks in the lulls. A pencil to sharpen? A sip of tea? Or just waiting. 
 
When Death's breaktime rolls round, I encourage participants to explore: What do you like to do in your break? Do you have a stand-up comedy set that you’ve been working on? A nice ‘tight five’ for the next open mic? What’s your catch phrase? Is it: ‘I am the inevitable’? Are you working up a tap routine? Are you practicing to juggle? Or is there a song that that you're working on? Do the lyrics include: ‘I am the inevitable’? Flamenco dancing? Where you rattle your bones like castanets? 

Very, very occasionally Death gets to go up and get someone. Up in the sun. But it's rare, you have to wait for orders.

You are good at your job, it may be hard work on your feet, but you’re used to it.
'I am the inevitable’ …
 
Step out step in:
And in this next moment, I'm going to invite you to take a small step backwards or to the side like a hand coming out of a glove. You're going to step yourself out. Don't open your eyes. Just step out for a moment. So you can feel the difference: feet on the floor, crown toward the ceiling - the normal self. 
And then just step back in so that you can prove to yourself that you can access that Archetype again. Yes. ‘I am the inevitable’ - their memories, their physicality, the quality of their skin. Go to your favourite moment, either from the dance or from the most vivid moment or from the most boring moment …
 
And once again, breathe and breathe and just slip out like a hand coming out of a glove.
 
And be sure to transition gently. Respect what you've done. Respect the transformation of the body.
twinkle your fingers and toes. Shimmy like a dog coming out of a puddle (as per Frankie Armstrong and Janet Rodger's journeys) and then place your hands either side of your face and remove that imaginary mask and set it very respectfully somewhere safe for now.
 
If you are feeling cold after the Journey:
This is Donna Eden’s Triple Warmer exercise from her book Energy Medicine. It’s a Chinese Medicine meridian, governing the adrenal gland.
https://www.edenmethodvictoria.com/triple-warmer
Mainly used for soothing nerves or when overheated, you can run Triple Warmer in the opposite direction to warm-up, if cold.
Rub your hands. Place the palm of your right hand on the ring finger of your left hand. Smooth up the slight outside of the forearm, upper arm, the back-ish of the neck, behind the ear and up over the ear to the temple. Do it three times.
Repeat on other side (x3).
 
Moving on to work with Text
I use a monologue I pieced together for the character of the dead Gloriana from the adapted version of ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’ and I also use a slightly adapted piece of text from Selena Godden’s book ‘Mrs Death Misses Death’.
 
Moving on to work with Improv
I work with the practitioner in the mask (or without, if online), responding to how they are in the space, or asking the 'mask' questions and seeing what arises. To play Death’s vaudeville aspect, I sometimes suggest the player sings ‘Chatanooga Choo Choo’. One course participant on an in-person workshop (playing Death) managed to entice a wary course participant out of their chair and on to the performing area to come aboard the ‘train’ and follow Death in the song, conga-style.
 
Literary references for the Death Archetype:
Philip Pullman ‘His Dark Materials’
Selena Godden ‘Mrs Death Misses Death’
Markus Zusak ‘The Book Thief’

Myth:
Charon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon
Also Anubis, Yama, Hermes, Mercury, Valkyries, Xolotl and Vanth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopomp
 
 To know when courses are scheduled, join the mailing list - go to the bottom of any page on the blog and find the mailing list sign up form! Scroll down to see the signup form below on this page
2 Comments
Colette Lacote
9/12/2021 09:50:13 am

Hi please put me on mailing list. Thanks

Reply
Peta Lily link
9/12/2021 01:56:32 pm

Hi Colette - to add you to the mailing list - I need your email. Best way to join the mailing list is to use the sign-up form at the very bottom of any page on the website. Stay safe and well!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    SEARCH by Category - scroll below

    This blog covers my Clown, Dark Clown, Comedy, and Theatre Making practices.

    ​Buy me a Ko-fi?
    I am writing a book on Dark Clown. If you enjoy the posts here, I'd love your support on my Ko-fi page. Your donation - even a small one - will help pay for time, editors, proof readers, books to inform context etc.
    ​ Thank you!
     

     https://ko-fi.com/petalily 

    30 years of practical research has created a new genre: Dark Clown. The Comedy of Terrors - Dark Clown & Enforced Performance was delivered at Bath Spa University. The work is cited in Clown (readings in theatre practice) by Jon Davison.
    ​

    Images above: Tiff Wear, Robert Piwko, Douglas Robertson, PL and Graham Fudger. Illustration by
    Charlotte Biszewski. Mask: Alexander McPherson.

    Categories

    All
    Absurd
    Absurdity
    Absurd Theatre
    Acceptance
    Accept Everything
    Acting
    Actioning
    Actions
    Adaptation
    Adversity
    Aesthetic
    All Over Lovely
    Amygdala
    Anais NIn
    An Die Musik
    Archetypes
    Aristotle's Poetics
    Arnold Mindell
    Audience
    Autobiographical Theatre
    Avner The Eccentric
    Awareness
    Backstory
    Bafflement
    Beats
    Believable Verisimilitude Of Pain And Distress
    Benefits To The Actor
    Big And Small
    Bim Mason
    Body Mask
    Bouffon
    Breath
    Breathing
    Brene Brown
    Buster Keaton
    Buzzer Exercise
    Calibration
    Call And Response
    Carlo Boso
    Carthasis Of Laughter
    Casting The Net
    Catharsis
    Chaplin
    Character
    Chastity Belt
    Chinese Clown
    Circo-therapy
    Circus
    Circus Lumiere
    Claire Dowie
    Clown
    Clown & Dark Clown
    Clown & Dark Clown Course
    Clown Doctors
    Clown Dramaturgy
    Clown Egg Register
    Clown Genius
    Clown Jokes
    Clown Logic
    Clown Poem
    #clown #poem #clownpoem #dignity #transform
    Clown Power Symposium
    Clown Professor
    Clowns
    Clown State
    Clown State Process
    Coat-of-arms
    Colin Watkeys
    Comedy
    Comedy Craft
    Compassion
    Conditions For Comedy
    Confessional Theatre
    Conflict And Pain
    Consent
    Consumer Guilt
    Content Awareness
    Contrast
    Controller
    Corpsing
    Costume
    Costume Design
    Costume Embodiment
    Coulraphobia
    Courage
    Covid
    Creativity
    Crying
    Crystal Lil
    Curiousity
    Curriculum
    C-words
    Dark Clown
    Dark Clown Documentary
    Dark Clown Dramaturgy
    Dark Clown Scenario
    Dark Clown Scenarios
    Dark Side Play
    Dave Pickering
    Deadpan
    Declan Donnellan
    Design
    Devising
    Dignity
    Dina Glouberman
    Discomfort
    Distance
    Documentary
    Dramaturgy
    Electro-pop
    Embodied Performance
    Embodiment
    Emotions
    Empathy
    Enforced Performance
    Ensemble
    Ethos
    Evil Laughter
    Exaggeration
    Extraordinary Physiological Response
    Facilitation
    Failure
    Failure As Success
    Fairytale
    Feminist Clown
    Flow
    Fool
    Fox And Maiden
    Gaulier
    Gender
    Genres
    Getting Your Message Across
    Half-Masks
    Hamlet Or Die
    Happenstance
    Hara
    Heart
    High Stakes
    High Stakes Predicament
    High Stakes Predicaments
    Honesty
    Horror
    Humanity
    Humanity In Extremis
    Hybrid Clown
    Hyper-vigilance
    I Am A Timebomb
    Imagework
    Imaginary Circumstances
    Immersion
    Implicate The Audience
    Implication
    Impossible Choices
    Impro. Clown. Clown State
    Impulse
    Impulses
    Inner Critic
    Innocence
    Inspirations
    Intention Of The Dark Clown Work
    Interview
    Interviews & Auditions
    In The Now
    Intuition
    Invocation
    It
    Jean Genet
    John Towsen
    Journals
    Jung
    Keith Johnstone
    King Lear
    Laugh At
    Laughing Gear
    Laughter
    Laughter Nudge
    Laughter To Implicate
    Learning
    Learning Lines
    Le Bide
    Line Up Exercise
    Line-up Exercise
    Lisa Wolpe
    Lumiere & Son
    Mamet
    Marginalised Emotions
    Marx Brothers
    Mask
    Mask State
    Methodology
    Mime
    Monika Pagneaux
    Motif
    Motifs
    Name Game
    Negative Emotions
    NLP
    Normal Audience
    Not Being Seen
    'not Doing'
    Okidok
    One Action
    Pain
    Pantomime
    Pema Chodron
    Pennywise
    Performance
    Perseverance
    Perspectives
    Peter A Levin
    Philippe Gaulier
    Pip Simmonds
    Play
    Play-possibilities
    Plot And Character
    Poetry
    Pop
    Power
    Predicament
    Predicaments
    Preparation
    Process
    Production
    Proprioception
    Props
    Red Nose Clown
    Rehearsal
    Repetition
    Resonances
    Reviews
    Rhythm
    Ridiculous
    Roger Rabbit
    Rough Puppetry
    Rule Of Three
    Rumi
    'sad Normals'
    Sad Normals
    Satire
    Sedona Method
    See The Cost
    Self Compassion
    Shakespeare
    Shame
    Shows
    Sobbing
    Solo
    Solo Theatre
    Stakes
    Stand Up Theatre
    Stand-up Theatre
    Storytelling
    Strange Forces
    Strategic Play
    Sufferring
    Take It Further
    Taking Laughter To The Limits
    Tarot
    Teaching
    Teaching Hygeine
    Techniques
    TED Talk
    Theatremaking
    The 'bide'
    'The Circus'
    The Comedy Of Errors
    The Cost
    The Death Of Fun
    The Fool
    The Guard
    The Little Mermaid
    The Maids
    The Menu
    The Revenger's Tragedy
    Three Women
    Tibetan Buddhism
    Timing
    Tips
    Tips For Learning Lines
    'Tis Pity She's A Horse
    'Tis Pity She's A Whore
    Tonglen
    Topless
    Torture Over Ten Feet
    Tragedy
    Transparent Teaching
    Trauma
    Trickster
    Trigger Warmings
    Trilogy
    Troubled Laughter
    Truth & Fiction
    Truth & Lies
    Truth + Pain
    Upset
    Upset Procedure
    Useful Principles
    Use Your Senses
    Viola Spolin
    Vulnerability
    Warmup
    Wendy Darling
    'what If'
    Witness
    Women And Clowning
    Women Clowns
    Workout
    Writing
    Yoshi Oida
    Zen

    Archives

    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    February 2022
    September 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    July 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    RSS Feed

workshops & shows 


Join Peta Lily Theatre Workshops on Facebook

Like Peta Lily Shows on Facebook

Follow @peta_lily on Twitter

Follow @petalily on Instagram

Curious about Dark Clown? get your FREE ebooklet when you sign up to the mailing list - see the form to the right!

Something else? If you are looking for a director / creative mentor / workshop leader for a bespoke workshop for your company or organisation or any other matter - go here.

* By signing up to the mailing list you agree to receive mailings about workshops, shows, publications and very occasionally other news, usually only about a half dozen mailouts a year. You can always choose to unsubscribe at any time – there is an unsubscribe link to click on in each email I send. Your information will not be shared with any third party.

Picture

    JOIN THE MAILING LIST & GET YOUR FREE ebooklet - 2020 extended version

    * By signing up to the mailing list you agree to receive mailings about workshops, shows, publications and very occasionally other news. Your information will not be shared with any third party.
    iCloud email addresses don't always work with the mailing system - and, IMPORTANT -please double check you input your email address correctly - if there's a typo I cannot contact you.
    iCloud email addresses don't always work with the mailing system - and IMPORTANT please be sure not to make a typo when inputting your email address.
Submit