Le Grotesque Beautifool: A 3-day Bouffon Intensive

Plunge into the madness of mockery with the highly visual parade of the fantastic and grotesque. Harness the bouffon and her merry gang of soothsayers in this rigorous workshop which will encourage your imagination to connect with the deeply surreal and strange and in doing so, uncover a unique humanity.

You will be guided through exercises, games and ambitious improvisations that promise to invigorate and encourage you to find the pleasure in ‘play’. Concluding with an ensemble-made bouffon-esque experiment, this hour-long soiree will facilitate the sharing of your findings with your nearest and dearest giving you a firm platform to satirise the ‘madness du jour’.

Suitable for independent artists, performance makers, comedians, actors seeking provocation and growth.

About the Artists

Emily Ayoub

A theatre-maker, director, performer and teacher, Emily studied at Theatre Nepean (2005) and is a graduate of Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School Paris (2011).

After two incredibly inspiring and motivating years at Lecoq, Emily founded Sydney-based Clockfire in 2011 with a vision to form an ensemble that create live performance works through collaboration and improvisation.

As a teacher and director, she seeks to draw on the artist's ability to imagine, write, collaborate and perform unique and dramatic content in a highly synergetic environment.

She has taught devising theatre, clown and Lecoq workshops at AIM Dramatic Arts, AFTRS, Casula Powerhouse, InPlay Arts, Riverside Theatres and for school drama students across NSW.

Alicia Gonzalez

Alicia Gonzalez is a practicing clown and bouffon. She is also a director-performance maker specialising in physical comedy and ensemble improvised idiot theatre, film and education.

She utilises physical training as central to the actor and clown. She has lectured and taught clown and movement at Laugh Masters Academy, the Australian Performing Arts Grammar School, Riverside Theatre and runs clownesque workshops for diverse ages, abilities and community arts based organisations.

She is creator and performer for the comedy troupe Choo Choo and is currently touring You’ll Never Guess Where I Hid the Cheese (a family show), she works as Dr Ding Dong, Idiot Specialist for Clown Doctors Australia and is Associate Director and ensemble performer for Clockfire Theatre. She trained in movement and clown in Paris, France, at Lecoq with the likes of funny man Jos Houben, she also studied clown with the hilarious Virginia Scott in NYC.