.:: PROGRAM 2009 ::.

CLOWN-BUFFOON- NEUTRALS MASKS – MELODRAMA CLASSICAL TEXTS –PHYSICAL TRAINING AND THEATRE ANTHROPOLOGY

For: For professional actors and theater students.
Date: From January 7th to June 12th.
Timetable: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10 AM to 15 PM, plus an auto gestation work on Friday from 10 AM to 1 PM (The modules Melodrama And Buffoon include little modifications)
Place: Near the Subway Station  Estrecho, Madrid, Spain
Teachers: Gabriel Chamé Buendía, Hernán Gené, and guests
Booking dead line: November the 30th, 2008 (Only 24 places)

Goals:
That the students dedicate themselves to the theater art with passion and with a clean technique.
That they are capable of creating a personal theatre style and characters who are surprising for their honesty, beauty and humility.
That they enjoy being on stage and don´t bore their audience.
That they discover the pleasure in the creation of a new live theatre.
And that they learn to manage their own work, in order to generate their own performing opportunities.
To achieve all of this, we feel that all the practical and theoretical subjects we offer (Clown-Buffoon- Neutrals Masks – Melodrama Classical texts –Physical Training) are essential to understanding and living this experience.

Program:

CLOWN I AND NEUTRAL MASK
From January 7th to February 12th

Goals:
Using the clown, play and improvisation the pupil will discover his own self on stage, his way of being on stage, and how not to be trapped in the cage of stereotypes and false interpretation.
In this course we will try to overcome the fear of ridicule, discover a clown of our own, and use it to compose a character.
The clown is that part of each one of us, (the ridiculous part) that makes people laugh and feel. With this objective in mind, it is necessary to let go completely, truthfully and generously.
To learn to make an audience laugh, simply wait for their reaction joyfully, and become conscious that nobody laughs. That’s what ridiculous means! This is a good experience for our dignity, a truly uncomfortable feeling. Ignoring it, hiding it, won’t work, obviously, and it is one of the first essential experiences for someone who wants to make people laugh.
The clown, unknowingly, unable to understand, believes in everything and tries to do everything right, in such an extremely positive manner, that he/she’s left out of society. He is an anti-hero who re-encounters innocence, simplicity and a mature consciousness of childhood.
This clown-course is dedicated to finding this essence and above all, it is a lot of fun.
The neutral mask makes the performer´s presence on stage grow. It puts him/her in a state that is open to discovering, and prepared to receive.
With the neutral mask the pupil will explore his/her own expressivity and the real sense of ACTION and at the same time he/she will start to create her/his own language on stage.

BUFFOON
From February 16th to February 27th (Two weeks, from Monday to Friday)

Goals:
Investigate different creative possibilities through this new character, and move towards a tragic intensity.
We work basically in groups (attention and position in the play).
Physical and mental deformity, costumes and fillings to create deformities.
Parody: the buffoons lived all together in swamps and gave parties to avoid boredom where they would mock and imitate the people of society, the sons of God.
Developing a critical and suspicious intelligence.
The buffoons are the Devil’s sons. Working on the buffoon is dealing with monstrosity, the monster we have inside, a monster that’s critical with society.
What God stole from his image, the Devil gave to his intelligence.
The buffoon curses and criticises God’s sons (us), but with a suspicious and masterful intelligence, as they can’t do it coarsely, otherwise our society would kill them, exterminate them like rats.
The buffoon can tease someone in his presence, their pleasure is visible when everybody laughs, and in their eyes there will be a spark of evilness observing the mocked, bothered person bearing the irony. But if the buffoon sees that things are turning against him and his fragile existence is in danger, he will beg pardon, admit his guilt, he’ll cry and touch everyone’s feelings, and when he sees the first tear on his victim’s face, a devilish laughter will rise from him confirming the mockery.
The buffoon is opposite to the clown, and therefore complementary. They speak the same language but the buffoon is vertical and the clown is horizontal, the buffoon travels between God and the Devil, and the clown is down on earth with the humans and the fools. But the buffoon is not a fool. Their physical or mental deformities grant them a fearful intelligence. Working on the buffoon we connect with a fantastic and mystical world while playing to criticize society.

CLOWN II (Includes a Seminar “The performer’s energy” by Lluis Masgrau)
From March 3rd to April 2nd

Goals:
That the student goes deeper in the investigation of his/her character, her/his own clown.
Starting from the character created by every pupil, we will use improvisations to explore its personal universe: obsessions, rhythms, topics, what the character has to tell, and how the character tells it, etc.
Clowns work with the raw material that nourishes acting; freedom to play, imagination in the body, and poetry. They are instrumental actors who, acknowledging their possibilities, function on the stage within their own universe, perceiving the essence of the characters they interpret. In this way, even Shakespeare, Molière, Chejov, Beckett… will be enriched thanks to the irreverent lack of solemnity of the clown.

MELODRAMA
From April 13th to April 24th (Two weeks from Monday to Friday)

Have you brought handkerchiefs? Or Kleenex? Today is joy of tears, sobbing, moaning, emotions and feelings: Melodrama! (Philippe Gaulier)
Goals:
To create and prepare the characters and the plots of this XVIII century style.
There’s a villain; a poor and unfortunate man or woman; a young, beautiful and chaste lady; etc.
Creating their own scenes and arguments, the students start to learn to develop their own dramaturgy.

CLOWN III
From April 28th to June 11th

Goals:
To use all the material (Clown, Melodrama, Buffoon, etc.) to create a personal world.
To look for, through little dramatic structures, a personal construction of the character.
We will explore writing and composition techniques to give to the students the tools they need when they want to tell a story or create a number or a bigger performance.

NOTES
Easter: from April 5th to April 12th. The school will be closed.
Physical training: during the whole course physical preparation and voice training play a very important role. There’s daily training, yoga and different exercises from theatre anthropology, aimed at creating a body that is prepared and present on stage.

If you wish to receive more information of the courses and the tariffs or wish to ask for the inscription, writes to the mail: info@chame-gene.com or the form in the contact section.