Check out our very exciting CIRCUS WORKS Master Class & Forum series featuring Clare Bartholomew, Sue Broadway, Gail Kelly, Emil Wolk and special guest panel members. Designed to assist practicing artists in the continued development of their craft, this project has been generously supported through the Ian Potter Foundation.

PLEASE NOTE: Dates for Clare Bartholomews and Sue Broadway's Masterclasses have been changed. Please see below for correct times and dates.
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The Act Lab

Thursday 3rd December 2009: 2.00pm to 5.30pm
Masterclass leader: Sue Broadway

This is an interactive process in which Sue directs a piece of work for each participant while the rest of the group acts as audience and assists with feedback. Each session begins with a group warm up focusing on presence and play.

Each participant brings a small piece of work - at any stage of development from starting point to finished piece - which is then performed, considered and reworked. Participants may work as duos or groups if they wish.

Sue has been presenting this process since the Adelaide Festival Fringe Masterclass series, hosted by the Circus Festival in 1998, and has successfully used the process with aerialists, street performers, clowns, actors, dancers, puppeteers and even a magician.

Participants are asked to bring everything they need to present a piece of between 90 seconds and five minutes. A supportive, challenging and fun environment is created which can generate major insights for performers in a very short time frame.

Maximum Number: 8

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You! Clown? Or how to be stupid onstage, without being a dunce!

Masterclass leader: Clare Bartholomew
Friday 4th December 2009: 2.00pm to 5.30pm

A very short and silly trip into the world of clown and physical comedy.
Childish, ridiculous, tragic, naughty and naive, sometimes even angry, although forever optimistic, the clown longs for their chance to be in the spotlight and 'save the show!'

Working solo and in duets with specific exercises and tasks, performers will each find their own 'clown' relationships and characters and discover different techniques that work for them. Emphasis will be on the playfulness and complicite between performers onstage and their joy at being 'seen' by the audience.

Maximum Number: 12.

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Vaudeville Routines

Sunday 6th December 2009: 10.00am to 1.30pm
Masterclass leader: Emil Wolk

Emil's Master Class will deal with the refinement required for performing particular vaudeville routines, concentrating on the style and comedy of the material as handed down to him by professional exponents in these fields; in particular Johnny Hutch (the Herculeans) and Cor van Velthoven (the Como Bros.). Emphasis will be put on character rather than solely physical skill and to the discipline and economy of execution necessary in the performance of these remarkable pieces of work. Time permitting Emil will also look at some short extracts from solo pieces by the participants and apply some of the discoveries of the workshop to their acts.

Maximum Number: 12

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Directing Circus & Physical Theatre.

Thursday 10th December 2009: 2.00pm to 5.30pm
Masterclass leader: Gail Kelly

This is a practical hands-on master-class, which introduces circus & physical theatre performers to a range of ways of devising & directing within the art forms of circus and physical theatre (What's the difference?)

Practical explorations will include investigations into: concepts / ideas / collaborative working methodologies / cross art form infiltrations / provocations & manifestos / act development & integration / structural mappings & meanings / performer & conceptual connections / near misses and the fine flow of segue and sequences.

The participants will work as both the performer and the director and within a range of combinations that will explore: the solo, the duet, the trio and ultimately the whole.

Participants will need to come with an idea, an image and a piece of music.

Maximum Number: 12.

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Performance Presence

Friday 11th December 2009: 2.00pm to 5.30pm
Masterclass leader: Sue Broadway

This is a workshop focused on the presence of the performer - what it is, how to work with it, and how it generates meaning in our work. The sessions use group exercises and play as well as exercises in small groups and solo.

The three key modes of performance presence (performative self, enacted character, neutral) are generated through exercises that enable the participants to feel the quality of each state internally and to witness their effect on an audience.

The three key modes of audience relationship (fourth wall, presentational and interactive) are similarly explored.

This is a very useful workshop for performers who wish to understand better their effect on their audiences and how to work with it.

Maximum Number: 12.

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The CIRCUS WORKS Master Class Series is designed to assist practicing artists in the continued development of their skills and craft.

To apply, interested artists should send a brief 1 page CV including a summary of your experience and what you hope to achieve by participating in these Master Classes to theatreworks@fastmail.fm

Applications open on Sunday 1st November 2009.
[Applications will not be accepted prior to this date]
Workshop places will be filled in order of eligible applications received.

COST:
Full Price: $50.00 / workshop. [+bf]
ACAPTA members: $30.00 / workshop. [+bf]

These heavily subsidised rates have been made possible through the generous support of the Ian Potter Foundation.