Participants of the 2019 Get Your Bouff-On 8 week course.
Image: Stu Mannion
GET YOUR BOUFF-ON!
LE JEU & THE ART OF GROTESQUE SATIRE
Wild, hilarious, powerful & provocative, Bouffon has been used across cultures for centuries. To unite, to ignite, to shout out and be heard. To give a voice to the voiceless, find light in the darkness and to rock, and mock, the status quo.
Bouffon is, in short, a style of ‘grotesque satire’ in which outcasts mock their oppressors. The mockery is designed to charm the audience while ruthlessly targeting and exposing the hypocrisy and injustices in the culture at large.
Made famous through the Lecoq and Gaulier schools, Bouffon training allows us to break free of inhibitions, unlock our childlike pleasure and build complicity and sensitivity with an audience. Through exploring Bouffon and its techniques, performers can achieve increased spontaneity and courage and discover a profoundly greater physical presence and power on stage.
This masterclass explores:
-Playfulness and Le Jeu (the game),
-Complicity and Ensemble work,
-Body masks & the power of disguise
-Creating connection with the audience
-The techniques of parody
-Devising using Bouffon for contemporary theatre.
Workshops can be tailored to fit your class lengths and times and the needs of your group.
“Easily the most profound, inspiring workshop I have ever attended” - Carly Ford, Gladstone Park SC
“The students absolutely loved the Le Jeu and Bouffon work. Emily is an outstanding teacher, passionate about her work and the students were captivated. This was an invaluable workshop which aligns beautifully with VCE Drama, but is perfect for any secondary drama students”. Carey Saunders – Woodleigh School
"Emily does an amazing job of transferring her playful, informative workshops onto the screen. She manages to overcome the limitations of Zoom, creating a closeness with her class, while preserving a silly, non-judgemental atmosphere that provides a unique opportunity for play and experimentation.” – Edward Rickards, Monash University
Performer and Theatre maker Emily Goddard offers a range of acting and devising workshops for Drama students, teachers, actors & community groups, based around the principles of Philippe Gaulier’s Le Jeu (the game). Fun and challenging, the workshops are designed to inspire new ways of approaching performance and theatre making. Emily has taught Le Jeu and Bouffon for USQ, Melbourne University, Brave Studios, Drama Australia, Victoria and NT, Belvoir Theatre, VCA, Sixteenth Street Actors Studio, Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, Second Echo Ensemble, Empire Theatres, Hothouse Theatre, Collarts, The Monobox, London and across secondary schools nationally.
IMAGE: Sarah Walker
Le Jeu
The pleasure to play
Philippe Gaulier believes that play is the cornerstone for great performance and theatre making. When an actor is having fun, their spirit is free and the theatre is alive. Without it, theatre becomes the greatest crime…b, b, b, boring! This workshop introduces participants to the main principles of Le Jeu including Complicity, audience connection, Major & Minor and the pleasure to pretend.
Get your Bouff-on!
The pleasure of parody
The art of mockery has been used across cultures for centuries. Playing with the performance style of Bouffon and the body mask allows students to stretch themselves physically and vocally, break down boundaries and discover increased freedom. An irreverent riot of grotesque (and charming) madness!
Clown
The pleasure of failure
Often the greatest miracles in performance and theatre making come from what we think are our greatest mistakes. Clowning allows us to embrace our individual spirit and ‘inner idiot’. A liberating lesson in laughing at ourselves and each other.
Devising – solo / ensemble
Interrogate the devising process and actively explore games and activities that allow for an expansion of creative discoveries in our theatre making. For ensembles, the workshop includes complicity building exercises borrowed from Le Jeu, Greek Tragedy & Bouffon to aid connection with fellow actors and provide tools to improvise and devise together. For solo performers, we examine how these games and tools can be applied individually as techniques for devising alone.
“Emily navigated our requirements superbly, and balanced technical skill with the joy of collaborative practice, taking those under her care on a unique journey. Together, participants discovered their skill and refined their craft under the guidance of a truly exceptional artist” – Ari Palani, Empire Theatre.
WORKSHOPS CAN BE A COMBINATION OF STYLES & TOPICS TAILORED TO THE NEEDS OF YOUR GROUP.
FOR MORE INFORMATION INCLUDING BOOKINGS & FEES CONTACT EMILY: goddard.emily@gmail.com