CLOWN & DARK CLOWN - COURSE FAQ’S - mandatory reading before booking onto a course
What is Dark Clown?
Dark Clown is a new clown genre developed by Peta Lily over the last 30+ years. You can read about it briefly in the free eBooklet you get when you join the mailing list; you can also see the documentary ‘Peta Lily’s Dark Clown; Taking Laughter to the Limits'. The film, made by the remarkable photographer and documentary filmmaker Robert Golden, is 26 minutes long and traces the steps of taking a group on the Clown & Dark Clown Course journey, from the light to the dark. GO HERE: https://vimeo.com/203375301
Read about the work on the blog at www.petalily.com. Posts specific to Dark Clown are here : http://www.petalily.com/clown-dark-clown-theatre-practice-blog/category/dark-clown
What can I expect on a course?
You can read this blog post: http://www.petalily.com/clown-dark-clown-theatre-practice-blog/whats-it-like-on-a-clown-dark-clown-course
(The booking information on each course covers basic practical information such as course hours, what to wear etc.)
If it's an online course, then you can take a look here.
‘Dark Clown is not for the fainthearted, but it is rewarding in opening one’s vocabulary of voice, emotion and movement in response to dark themes. Contact with the audience is an essential skill which I became acutely aware of and comfortable with.’ – Mary Lyn Oliver, Performance Maker.
Why is the course called: Clown & Dark Clown?
Great question. Dark Clown is always taught in the first instance in the Clown & Dark Clown Course. This is because one of the hallmarks of the Dark Clown is ‘Troubled Laughter’ and in order to create that, we need to understand how laughter itself works. Participants gain the possibility to create, grow and manage laughter more reliably with comedy craft which is taught in Red Nose Clown mode (along with openness, audience awareness, release into play and helpful rules of play). With all this in place, we can then move onto the steps which provide the extra skills and awarenesses for the Dark Clown work.
The Red Nose Clown work also allows us as a group to play and bond together before we head over to the Dark Side. Red Nose Clown is also returned to from moment to moment to a) provide an energy-cleanse, and b) to remind everyone of Play - we are playing (though in a Darker mode - see Dark Side Play in this blog post)
There is now a Level Two Dark Clown Course - which, when scheduled, is open to those who have already done the Clown & Dark Clown course.
Is the course suitable for me? And what will the group be like?
The in-person Clown & Dark Clown Course is offered to those with some experience of Clown already. (i.e. you have already attended at least one clown workshop).
The course is open to people who are punctual and who commit to be present for all hours of the course.
Participants' background experience can vary – past participants include circus performers, improvisers, puppeteers, physical theatre practitioners, cabaret performers, comedians. Some participants have also been therapists, theatre directors, stage designers, writers, lawyers, IT consultants and once, a tree surgeon.
Group size for in-person courses varies. It is often around 16, usually no more than 22.
ONLINE COURSES are around 12-14 participants.
The work is for people aged 16 and over.
Do you have a specific age or health issues question? See further below.
What will I get from it?
Over the whole course, participants can gain insight, skill, finesse and understanding to work the discipline of comic craft applied to both Red Nose Clown work and to generating laughter in a Darker context. The course helps develop the individual’s ability to gain heightened audience awareness and to enhance their ability to respond to audience reaction. Proper engagement with this course can teach the participant how to recover from failure, how to maintain rapport with audiences and how to build and manage laughter, as well as how to be more effective and authentic as a clown performer.
Course participants report they find their understanding of comedy accelerated and widened.
The ability to portray Marginalized Emotions with more ease is another often reported outcome.
Some report they feel 'energised' and 'liberated' after a workshop.
‘Dark Clown has led me to a much stronger understanding of how to affect the audience and the possibility there is in any performance between laughter and suffering.’ – Clovis PJ, Actor
Is it a good place to come play with others?
The Clown & Dark Clown workshop is taught with clarity and precision as well as with fun and compassion. Many clown teachers say that the clown performer has the play of the child plus the rigour of the adult. This course is for people seeking to open up and advance their understanding of creating laughter and develop their range of expressivity for the audience - it is joyful work rather than free-range play-time.
How Dark is it?
The vast majority of participants find the work valuable, saying it is: ‘invigorating’, ‘inspiring’, ‘liberating’, ‘thought-provoking’ and even ‘fun’. Some call it 'necessary'.
Some think Dark Clown will be scary clown or grumpy clown or naughty clown or cynical clown or ‘bad’ clown or creepy clown*, but Dark Clown, as taught by Peta Lily, is more socially relevant and edgier than these things.
While Red Nose Clown mainly tends to express a range of emotions from silliness and joyfulness through to pathos and anger; Dark Clown looks at humanity in extremis. Dark Clown work helps performers portray human emotions including distress, guilt, pain, desperation, shame and existential horror (this is imaginative work, no emotional recall is required), and then to apply to this portrayal, the rules of comedy to create the ‘Troubled Laughter’ which is the hallmark of the work. Pain and suffering is recognised to be part of comedy and Dark Clown is an extension of that – a work which many find both invigorating and highly relevant.
Some participants report that once able to achieve the layering up (a) investing in the pretended circumstances and b) applying audience contact and the principles of comedy craft), that they experience a new clarity - a level of detachment, where one can see and appreciate the horror more clearly, with no disrespect to those who have suffered (and even a sense of a wider compassion).
Please also see N.B. below.
‘I had misconceptions about Dark Clown and I think it would have been hard to understand it without seeing and feeling different examples, but it has enabled me to venture into very dark parts of humanity that I didn’t ever realise I had been blocking from my imagination.’ – Course Participant
Is it like Bouffon?
If you don’t know what Bouffon is, feel free to google - but you do not need to know Bouffon to attend and engage with the Clown & Dark Clown Course, because Dark Clown is a separate form. Here is a blog post talking about Bouffon, Satire and Dark Clown: www.petalily.com/blog-dark-clown-clown-plus/bouffon-satire-dark-clown
The short answer is that Bouffon plays satire – Dark Clown does not have that luxury. Bouffon is usually considered as the ‘outcast’, the Dark Clown is oppressed or in extremis. Bouffon’s position in society is tenuous, but can poke fun, Dark Clown is in extremis or trying to survive the next 30 seconds.
It is a more existential look at the human condition.
Is there a personal development aspect to the work?
Dark Clown work is a performance genre, although some find it liberating and enlightening at a personal level.
The teacher runs the course with playfulness and also with respect for the subjects approached.
There is a clear, simple procedure to follow in the rare case of any upset.
The prime aim of the work is performance-based and not therapeutic.
Participants must take responsibility for their own well-being.
Please also see N.B. below.
What if I feel nervous about coming?
Many people feel nervous beforehand, then report they have found the course liberating. It is normal to feel nervous doing something new. The course leader aims to work with people at their own level. People frequently report a good mix of ‘support and challenge’.
Sometimes people fear (and some occasionally desire) that the Dark will require soul-searching or delving into personal emotions; it does not.
The work does require stamina of attention and good workshop ethos*. The curriculum is full and detailed - punctuality is required.
* Punctuality and focus of attention shows respect for the work in hand and respect for the other participants on the course.
Something deeper niggling at you?
Inform yourself. Watch the video. Read the blog posts (see What is Dark Clown? above).
If you fear being triggered, then do consider that the course is not for you.
‘This was an opportunity to go deeper and darker into unknown territory to find true connection with our creative selves and our complicit audience.’ – Naz Yeni, Theatre Maker and Lecturer
Please also see ‘Notice of Content’ and also N.B. below.
What if I arrive late?
The teaching builds incrementally and so class participants need to arrange to be present for all the advertised hours of the course. It is expected that participants respect the process and each other by good timekeeping (coming back from breaks at the appointed time, etc). The steps to get to the Dark Side have been carefully designed**. It is a value-for-money course with many activities and the course leader aims to give each group as much access to the work as possible.
People largely report the work as being different to anything they have experienced before.
The course has a lot of content - when the group all progress together, we can cover as much ground as possible.
** when people return late from breaks, the course leader cannot begin the next exercise and other, ready participants lose some of the class time.
How physical is the work?
The work is physical but not strenuous. Anyone with special physical concerns can adapt some exercises, or do them smaller or even imagine themselves doing them. If people have back or knee issues they can quietly seat themselves for certain moments when the group may be standing.
Energy levels an issue? Occasional sitting is fine so long as you keep your focus on the work and allow the rest of the group to keep their focus. There are breaks but due to the quantity of material that is covered, they are kept on the short side.
Lying down affects the energy in the room and is not suitable on the course.
Do check the hours of the course and consider whether the course is suitable for you in terms of stamina and/or concentration.
I have an injury or illness. Can I still participate?
The course leader uses physical theatre and some Butoh exercises in the work. Occasionally people with, for example, a long standing ankle problem, have chosen to do and have enjoyed doing the course (with some exercises not being possible). For people with a good level of health, the course is not gruelling but it does require a level of stamina of both body and attention.
People in their 70’s have participated on the workshop.
If you are not in good health, physically - it is probably best not to enrol on the course at this time.
If you are a working professional and managing your condition well, then do send an email or use the first step of the online booking process to ask about that.
Please be aware that the course leader is attending to the whole group and the needs of the work in hand
and cannot be expected to accommodate individual issues such as breaking through personal resistance, strong sensitivities to light, sound etc.
If you have strong or fresh mental health issues, the work is not advisable.
The work is not suitable for those who are easily upset or are who are disturbed by the thought of dealing with dark content.
The work is for those who value the gift brought by exploring dark themes through the comic, absurd and courageous lens of Dark Clown work. It is not for those who fear that laughter is merely dismissive and superficial.
Please also see N.B. below.
Notice of Content and Trigger awareness
N.B. Participants must take responsibility for their own well-being.
The Dark Clown section of the work requires playful courage and an open mind and is not work for those easily upset, nor advised for anyone who has recently experienced trauma.
First, some context: Dark Clown work extends and explores the relationship between suffering and comedy and aims to do this in the most respectful way possible. This is in order to create the ‘Troubled Laughter’ for an audience and also to create the compelling sensation of ‘Implication’ for an audience. There is also the possibility of generating catharsis for performer and viewer alike. The practitioner may experience a kind of cathartic release while expressing an emulation of Marginalised Emotion; the audience can have the release of discharging energy (through the sound, breath and movement of ‘Troubled Laughter’) while still being able to appreciate the horror in the Dark Clown’s predicament. It is not a ‘laugh at’ suffering but a ‘conflicted laugh while witnessing a portrayal of' suffering.
The work allows participants to portray Marginalised Emotions and heightened emotional states. Some exercises involve using the body and voice with higher than normal energy levels, or with unusual rhythms. The kind of energies and vocal agilities involved may (but do not always and are not intended to) result in a ‘shaking loose’ of something held in the psycho-physical being.
Trained actors and some theatre practitioners often have a better framework in which to view such a challenge should it visit them. This is because people with training are more prepared to engage with content regarding humanity’s less appealing moments in a resilient way, and with an artistic aim (e.g. Lear, Richard III, Macbeth, Titus Andronicus, Sarah Kane’s play Cleansed). Most actor/performers are engaged in a quest to fully open their expressivity; to be ready to portray human experience in all its forms -
and due to their training, are usually more prepared for potential psycho-physical events, and are aware of resources (even simple resources such as deep breathing) to process them.
Some energy re-stabilising techniques are integrated into the course - see Well-being below.
The Dark Clown work was inspired by a scene in an ensemble theatre piece based on enforced performances that took place in concentration camps during WWII, and this is mentioned in the 20 minute ‘Introduction to Dark Clown’ that happens during the course. The set up for some exercises mentions PTSD, some exercises involve the portrayal of physical pain. Verbal reference may also be made (either in the Introduction to Dark Clown talk or at another point during the course) to other world events such as Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia or the events in Argentina’s Dirty War. These references are given as contextual background only and though the work may be inspired by non-fictional events, none of the work is set in a realistic setting or specific historical context**, we aim to imagine a fictional totalitarian regime.
PLEASE NOTE: During a number of the exercises, the room can be noisy.
Over almost 40 years of teaching and directing this work, when there is an upset (and again, this is relatively rare), the point at which the upset occurs varies and the things which activate the upset vary widely.
The responses to the upset are also varied and include some participants seeing their upset as a breakthrough.
Many feel inspired by curiousity to return and immerse into the work again.
Please attend to the upset procedure as given in the Introduction to Dark Clown Talk which happens during the workshop
and please be prepared to follow the protocol.
Well-being
During the workshop, the Course Leader incorporates various exercises to allow everyone's physiology to calm and to return to equilibrium and play. Please use these tools. There is also an 'Après Dark Clown' resource sheet!
Please know that for the Dark Clown work, upset is not a requisite or necessary part of the process. However sometimes, albeit rarely, upset may occur. Usually this can be relieved by a) taking a moment out of the room to let the congested energy discharge;
b) using some of the re-stabilising techniques offered; and c) remembering the aims of the work.
A clear protocol is established to follow in case of any momentary upset and this is described in the Introduction to Dark Clown Talk which occurs partway through the course.
Please respect the other participants who have signed up to engage with the work.
Should upset or resistance recur or persist and/or should a participant decide they don’t like the work, the participant is advised to discontinue the course as a kindness to themselves.
Extra points
* The benefits of the workshop can subsequently be applied according to any given participant’s taste or personal vision for their own work e.g. to extend playing range; open to new levels of courage; or to build courage and finesse in exploring work with more edge, not necessarily within Lily’s own parameters for ‘Dark Clown’.
‘Through Dark Clown work I understand my red nose clown much better. It really helped to sort out what I really want to present to the audience.’ – André, Human Being
** As is the case with Absurdist Theatre.
What is Dark Clown?
Dark Clown is a new clown genre developed by Peta Lily over the last 30+ years. You can read about it briefly in the free eBooklet you get when you join the mailing list; you can also see the documentary ‘Peta Lily’s Dark Clown; Taking Laughter to the Limits'. The film, made by the remarkable photographer and documentary filmmaker Robert Golden, is 26 minutes long and traces the steps of taking a group on the Clown & Dark Clown Course journey, from the light to the dark. GO HERE: https://vimeo.com/203375301
Read about the work on the blog at www.petalily.com. Posts specific to Dark Clown are here : http://www.petalily.com/clown-dark-clown-theatre-practice-blog/category/dark-clown
What can I expect on a course?
You can read this blog post: http://www.petalily.com/clown-dark-clown-theatre-practice-blog/whats-it-like-on-a-clown-dark-clown-course
(The booking information on each course covers basic practical information such as course hours, what to wear etc.)
If it's an online course, then you can take a look here.
‘Dark Clown is not for the fainthearted, but it is rewarding in opening one’s vocabulary of voice, emotion and movement in response to dark themes. Contact with the audience is an essential skill which I became acutely aware of and comfortable with.’ – Mary Lyn Oliver, Performance Maker.
Why is the course called: Clown & Dark Clown?
Great question. Dark Clown is always taught in the first instance in the Clown & Dark Clown Course. This is because one of the hallmarks of the Dark Clown is ‘Troubled Laughter’ and in order to create that, we need to understand how laughter itself works. Participants gain the possibility to create, grow and manage laughter more reliably with comedy craft which is taught in Red Nose Clown mode (along with openness, audience awareness, release into play and helpful rules of play). With all this in place, we can then move onto the steps which provide the extra skills and awarenesses for the Dark Clown work.
The Red Nose Clown work also allows us as a group to play and bond together before we head over to the Dark Side. Red Nose Clown is also returned to from moment to moment to a) provide an energy-cleanse, and b) to remind everyone of Play - we are playing (though in a Darker mode - see Dark Side Play in this blog post)
There is now a Level Two Dark Clown Course - which, when scheduled, is open to those who have already done the Clown & Dark Clown course.
Is the course suitable for me? And what will the group be like?
The in-person Clown & Dark Clown Course is offered to those with some experience of Clown already. (i.e. you have already attended at least one clown workshop).
The course is open to people who are punctual and who commit to be present for all hours of the course.
Participants' background experience can vary – past participants include circus performers, improvisers, puppeteers, physical theatre practitioners, cabaret performers, comedians. Some participants have also been therapists, theatre directors, stage designers, writers, lawyers, IT consultants and once, a tree surgeon.
Group size for in-person courses varies. It is often around 16, usually no more than 22.
ONLINE COURSES are around 12-14 participants.
The work is for people aged 16 and over.
Do you have a specific age or health issues question? See further below.
What will I get from it?
Over the whole course, participants can gain insight, skill, finesse and understanding to work the discipline of comic craft applied to both Red Nose Clown work and to generating laughter in a Darker context. The course helps develop the individual’s ability to gain heightened audience awareness and to enhance their ability to respond to audience reaction. Proper engagement with this course can teach the participant how to recover from failure, how to maintain rapport with audiences and how to build and manage laughter, as well as how to be more effective and authentic as a clown performer.
Course participants report they find their understanding of comedy accelerated and widened.
The ability to portray Marginalized Emotions with more ease is another often reported outcome.
Some report they feel 'energised' and 'liberated' after a workshop.
‘Dark Clown has led me to a much stronger understanding of how to affect the audience and the possibility there is in any performance between laughter and suffering.’ – Clovis PJ, Actor
Is it a good place to come play with others?
The Clown & Dark Clown workshop is taught with clarity and precision as well as with fun and compassion. Many clown teachers say that the clown performer has the play of the child plus the rigour of the adult. This course is for people seeking to open up and advance their understanding of creating laughter and develop their range of expressivity for the audience - it is joyful work rather than free-range play-time.
How Dark is it?
The vast majority of participants find the work valuable, saying it is: ‘invigorating’, ‘inspiring’, ‘liberating’, ‘thought-provoking’ and even ‘fun’. Some call it 'necessary'.
Some think Dark Clown will be scary clown or grumpy clown or naughty clown or cynical clown or ‘bad’ clown or creepy clown*, but Dark Clown, as taught by Peta Lily, is more socially relevant and edgier than these things.
While Red Nose Clown mainly tends to express a range of emotions from silliness and joyfulness through to pathos and anger; Dark Clown looks at humanity in extremis. Dark Clown work helps performers portray human emotions including distress, guilt, pain, desperation, shame and existential horror (this is imaginative work, no emotional recall is required), and then to apply to this portrayal, the rules of comedy to create the ‘Troubled Laughter’ which is the hallmark of the work. Pain and suffering is recognised to be part of comedy and Dark Clown is an extension of that – a work which many find both invigorating and highly relevant.
Some participants report that once able to achieve the layering up (a) investing in the pretended circumstances and b) applying audience contact and the principles of comedy craft), that they experience a new clarity - a level of detachment, where one can see and appreciate the horror more clearly, with no disrespect to those who have suffered (and even a sense of a wider compassion).
Please also see N.B. below.
‘I had misconceptions about Dark Clown and I think it would have been hard to understand it without seeing and feeling different examples, but it has enabled me to venture into very dark parts of humanity that I didn’t ever realise I had been blocking from my imagination.’ – Course Participant
Is it like Bouffon?
If you don’t know what Bouffon is, feel free to google - but you do not need to know Bouffon to attend and engage with the Clown & Dark Clown Course, because Dark Clown is a separate form. Here is a blog post talking about Bouffon, Satire and Dark Clown: www.petalily.com/blog-dark-clown-clown-plus/bouffon-satire-dark-clown
The short answer is that Bouffon plays satire – Dark Clown does not have that luxury. Bouffon is usually considered as the ‘outcast’, the Dark Clown is oppressed or in extremis. Bouffon’s position in society is tenuous, but can poke fun, Dark Clown is in extremis or trying to survive the next 30 seconds.
It is a more existential look at the human condition.
Is there a personal development aspect to the work?
Dark Clown work is a performance genre, although some find it liberating and enlightening at a personal level.
The teacher runs the course with playfulness and also with respect for the subjects approached.
There is a clear, simple procedure to follow in the rare case of any upset.
The prime aim of the work is performance-based and not therapeutic.
Participants must take responsibility for their own well-being.
Please also see N.B. below.
What if I feel nervous about coming?
Many people feel nervous beforehand, then report they have found the course liberating. It is normal to feel nervous doing something new. The course leader aims to work with people at their own level. People frequently report a good mix of ‘support and challenge’.
Sometimes people fear (and some occasionally desire) that the Dark will require soul-searching or delving into personal emotions; it does not.
The work does require stamina of attention and good workshop ethos*. The curriculum is full and detailed - punctuality is required.
* Punctuality and focus of attention shows respect for the work in hand and respect for the other participants on the course.
Something deeper niggling at you?
Inform yourself. Watch the video. Read the blog posts (see What is Dark Clown? above).
If you fear being triggered, then do consider that the course is not for you.
‘This was an opportunity to go deeper and darker into unknown territory to find true connection with our creative selves and our complicit audience.’ – Naz Yeni, Theatre Maker and Lecturer
Please also see ‘Notice of Content’ and also N.B. below.
What if I arrive late?
The teaching builds incrementally and so class participants need to arrange to be present for all the advertised hours of the course. It is expected that participants respect the process and each other by good timekeeping (coming back from breaks at the appointed time, etc). The steps to get to the Dark Side have been carefully designed**. It is a value-for-money course with many activities and the course leader aims to give each group as much access to the work as possible.
People largely report the work as being different to anything they have experienced before.
The course has a lot of content - when the group all progress together, we can cover as much ground as possible.
** when people return late from breaks, the course leader cannot begin the next exercise and other, ready participants lose some of the class time.
How physical is the work?
The work is physical but not strenuous. Anyone with special physical concerns can adapt some exercises, or do them smaller or even imagine themselves doing them. If people have back or knee issues they can quietly seat themselves for certain moments when the group may be standing.
Energy levels an issue? Occasional sitting is fine so long as you keep your focus on the work and allow the rest of the group to keep their focus. There are breaks but due to the quantity of material that is covered, they are kept on the short side.
Lying down affects the energy in the room and is not suitable on the course.
Do check the hours of the course and consider whether the course is suitable for you in terms of stamina and/or concentration.
I have an injury or illness. Can I still participate?
The course leader uses physical theatre and some Butoh exercises in the work. Occasionally people with, for example, a long standing ankle problem, have chosen to do and have enjoyed doing the course (with some exercises not being possible). For people with a good level of health, the course is not gruelling but it does require a level of stamina of both body and attention.
People in their 70’s have participated on the workshop.
If you are not in good health, physically - it is probably best not to enrol on the course at this time.
If you are a working professional and managing your condition well, then do send an email or use the first step of the online booking process to ask about that.
Please be aware that the course leader is attending to the whole group and the needs of the work in hand
and cannot be expected to accommodate individual issues such as breaking through personal resistance, strong sensitivities to light, sound etc.
If you have strong or fresh mental health issues, the work is not advisable.
The work is not suitable for those who are easily upset or are who are disturbed by the thought of dealing with dark content.
The work is for those who value the gift brought by exploring dark themes through the comic, absurd and courageous lens of Dark Clown work. It is not for those who fear that laughter is merely dismissive and superficial.
Please also see N.B. below.
Notice of Content and Trigger awareness
N.B. Participants must take responsibility for their own well-being.
The Dark Clown section of the work requires playful courage and an open mind and is not work for those easily upset, nor advised for anyone who has recently experienced trauma.
First, some context: Dark Clown work extends and explores the relationship between suffering and comedy and aims to do this in the most respectful way possible. This is in order to create the ‘Troubled Laughter’ for an audience and also to create the compelling sensation of ‘Implication’ for an audience. There is also the possibility of generating catharsis for performer and viewer alike. The practitioner may experience a kind of cathartic release while expressing an emulation of Marginalised Emotion; the audience can have the release of discharging energy (through the sound, breath and movement of ‘Troubled Laughter’) while still being able to appreciate the horror in the Dark Clown’s predicament. It is not a ‘laugh at’ suffering but a ‘conflicted laugh while witnessing a portrayal of' suffering.
The work allows participants to portray Marginalised Emotions and heightened emotional states. Some exercises involve using the body and voice with higher than normal energy levels, or with unusual rhythms. The kind of energies and vocal agilities involved may (but do not always and are not intended to) result in a ‘shaking loose’ of something held in the psycho-physical being.
Trained actors and some theatre practitioners often have a better framework in which to view such a challenge should it visit them. This is because people with training are more prepared to engage with content regarding humanity’s less appealing moments in a resilient way, and with an artistic aim (e.g. Lear, Richard III, Macbeth, Titus Andronicus, Sarah Kane’s play Cleansed). Most actor/performers are engaged in a quest to fully open their expressivity; to be ready to portray human experience in all its forms -
and due to their training, are usually more prepared for potential psycho-physical events, and are aware of resources (even simple resources such as deep breathing) to process them.
Some energy re-stabilising techniques are integrated into the course - see Well-being below.
The Dark Clown work was inspired by a scene in an ensemble theatre piece based on enforced performances that took place in concentration camps during WWII, and this is mentioned in the 20 minute ‘Introduction to Dark Clown’ that happens during the course. The set up for some exercises mentions PTSD, some exercises involve the portrayal of physical pain. Verbal reference may also be made (either in the Introduction to Dark Clown talk or at another point during the course) to other world events such as Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia or the events in Argentina’s Dirty War. These references are given as contextual background only and though the work may be inspired by non-fictional events, none of the work is set in a realistic setting or specific historical context**, we aim to imagine a fictional totalitarian regime.
PLEASE NOTE: During a number of the exercises, the room can be noisy.
Over almost 40 years of teaching and directing this work, when there is an upset (and again, this is relatively rare), the point at which the upset occurs varies and the things which activate the upset vary widely.
The responses to the upset are also varied and include some participants seeing their upset as a breakthrough.
Many feel inspired by curiousity to return and immerse into the work again.
Please attend to the upset procedure as given in the Introduction to Dark Clown Talk which happens during the workshop
and please be prepared to follow the protocol.
Well-being
During the workshop, the Course Leader incorporates various exercises to allow everyone's physiology to calm and to return to equilibrium and play. Please use these tools. There is also an 'Après Dark Clown' resource sheet!
Please know that for the Dark Clown work, upset is not a requisite or necessary part of the process. However sometimes, albeit rarely, upset may occur. Usually this can be relieved by a) taking a moment out of the room to let the congested energy discharge;
b) using some of the re-stabilising techniques offered; and c) remembering the aims of the work.
A clear protocol is established to follow in case of any momentary upset and this is described in the Introduction to Dark Clown Talk which occurs partway through the course.
Please respect the other participants who have signed up to engage with the work.
Should upset or resistance recur or persist and/or should a participant decide they don’t like the work, the participant is advised to discontinue the course as a kindness to themselves.
Extra points
- The work involves preparing the human physiology for laughter. Discussion of world politics, philosophy and human psychology etc during the course does not help the group experience the practical work in hand - if participants wish to read, think and discuss more widely, please do so outside of the course hours. The blog on www.petalily.com has useful information and ‘my useful book list’ has some excellent reading also.
- The work is rewarding and also challenging - be sure you have read and understood this information.
- The course leader is happy to answer questions and give guidance in the context of the creative work. The course leader cannot be expected to address blocks and resistances or serve as therapist should personal issues arise.
- Most people who attend the course find the work ‘liberating’, ‘exhilarating’, ‘validating', 'compelling’ and ‘relevant’ – some find it challenging yet still very worthwhile. Many return to do the Clown & Dark Clown workshop a second or third time. Many are eager to sign on for the Level 2 Dark Clown course.
* The benefits of the workshop can subsequently be applied according to any given participant’s taste or personal vision for their own work e.g. to extend playing range; open to new levels of courage; or to build courage and finesse in exploring work with more edge, not necessarily within Lily’s own parameters for ‘Dark Clown’.
‘Through Dark Clown work I understand my red nose clown much better. It really helped to sort out what I really want to present to the audience.’ – André, Human Being
** As is the case with Absurdist Theatre.
