Help Molly and Éilís to Clown Around

WHAT IS THIS?

For 2 weeks in April, we (Molly and Éilís) hope to train as clowns with Teatro Schabernack in Montelaterone, Italy.

Whilst in Montelaterone we will work intensively with Teatro Schabernack, developing our clowning technique and honing our performance skills. Teatro Schabernack will offer us creative advice and expertise in clowning to help us develop a short 10 minute scratch performance that we will develop on return to Dorset.

THEMES?

Boundaries and Borders.

We're interested in how we interact with our neighbours, both on a small scale (our next-door neighbours) and large scale (our neighbouring countries). We've noticed that, as a generation, we spend a lot of time indoors away from real human interaction and connection. 

WHY CLOWNING?

Clowning will allow us to connect to the world around us and invite our audience to do so too. We've found only when there are interruptions to the normality of everyday life do people allow themselves to explore it, interact with it, play and connect with it. Clowning has the ability to cause these interruptions and disruptions to everyday life. 

"Clowning transcends way beyond language, class, disability or sexuality. It goes right to the human core. The places that trigger laughter, tears, existential yearning and silliness. Clowns have an ability to lift us up out of our selves and be true. Through our clowns we are the most human we can ever be." - Éilís, 2019.

OUTCOMES

• After our two-week intensive artistic development we will have created a short 10 minute scratch performance. We will perform this to the residents of Montelaterone and Dorset.
  
  
• Once we have returned to the UK we will continue to develop our performance practice.
  
  
• We aim to facilitate workshops with youth groups in Dorset, teaching clowning and story telling techniques for theatre. We would like to deliver inclusive clowning sessions to at least 30 young people aged 8-26yrs.

YOUR SUPPORT

We need your support with Artist costs and travel to make this happen.

Costs

£600 (Travel: Flights, Trains, Coaches, Buses for Molly and Éilís) 

£1,200 (Artist Fees: Paying Teatro Schabernack to train us) 

ABOUT MOLLY

Molly is a Dorset based Creative Producer, Project Manager and Performing Artist. She is driven by social change, equality and voicing the unheard voices, 'the others', who are often overlooked.

ABOUT ÉILÍS

Éilís lives and works in Dorset. Éilís graduated from European Theatre Arts at Rose Bruford College in 2011 with a love of clowns and a love of Europe. Now she leads an integrated training programme for young artists and is a theatre maker and theatre director for young people. Éilís hopes that the experience with Teatro Schabernack will inspire new ideas and is excited at the prospect of returning to Dorset with extra skills and a deeper understanding of clowning to share.

Photo by: Dom Moore

ABOUT TEATRO SCHABERNACK

"Schabernack are actors, musicians, directors, photographers, clowns... and they are only two! They live and work, with their dog Nelli, in Montelaterone, a small beautiful village in south Tuscany. Here they combine art with rural life, promoting every kind of artistic thing you could imagine: painting residencies, street theatre, poetry reading, clowning... With their red noses and their tractor they crossed Europe from Germany to Italy, bringing poetry and love for life, and lot of fun." - Words by Laura Fatini

Photo by: Irina Stanković