IN PERSON Classes

SPECIAL WEEKEND WORKSHOP: DEVISING THEATER

Class Type Open
Dates June 21/22, 2025
Times Saturday & Sunday 12-5pm
Location The Stomping Ground, 5453 Alhambra Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90032
Instructor David Bridel
Cost $299

From clown shows to dramas, solos to ensemble performances, David's experience in devising makes this weekend workshop essential for creators, writers, performers, and directors alike. Last offered during the pandemic, this is a rare opportunity to explore this precise and influential curriculum. Explore the potentials of space, theme, movement, text, and image in the process of devising original material for the stage.

Ages 18 and older.

Prerequisite: None. All experience levels welcome!

SUNDAY NIGHT SERIES: CLOWN 3

Class Type Advanced
Dates July 20 - August 24, 2025
Times 6-10pm, Sundays ONLY
Location The Stomping Ground, 5453 Alhambra Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90032
Instructor David Bridel
Cost $449 (discounts available for previous Clown School participants)

“Incredibly transformative! Clown School taught me truly life-altering skills!” CSH, Los Angeles

For participants who have come through the Clown progression, the chance to make a Clown show together. Enjoy the thrills of your clown character making material and creating beautiful routines. Everything culminates in a presentation for friends and family. Don’t miss this totally unique opportunity to be a part of a fabulous adventure!

Ages 18 and older.

Prerequisite: Clown 2

Ages 18 and older.

Prerequisite: None. All experience levels welcome!

Book your place now for the astounding Clown School Summer Intensive at The Clown School in July 2025. Welcoming participants from all over the country and all over the world to Los Angeles, the Intensive is rigorous, irreverent, playful, personal and profound, with a unique and transformative clown curriculum that can’t be found anywhere else! From vulnerability to a relationship with an audience; from levels of energy to physicalization and imagery; from emotional connection to archetypes and routines; this comprehensive exploration of the beauty and wonder of clowning offers a breakthrough experience for performers, comedians, artists, professionals, the curious, and the seekers of all stripes. A rare opportunity for newcomers and returners alike to go big and go bold - and release parts of the self into the creative process that have, until now, remained blocked.

MONDAY NIGHT SERIES: VAUDEVILLE!

Class Type Open
Dates July 21 - August 25, 2025
Times 6-9pm, Mondays ONLY
Location JJ Gym, 6232 Mary Ellen Ave, Valley Glen, CA 91401
Instructor David Bridel
Cost $399 (discounts available for previous Clown School participants)

“I can't remember the last time I felt so creatively inspired!” JE, Los Angeles

Do you have a vaudeville act or an eccentric routine you want to develop? From nutty physical comedy to bizarre musical numbers, from quirky clown business to surreal dressing up, the broad church of vaudeville is a place where your craziest notions are welcome, and where they come to life! Burlesque, song, dance, poetry… Anything is possible! Enjoy our instructional course that can accommodate your inspiration and, at the same time, will teach you how to make something out of nothing. The final class consists of a live presentation of your material to friends and family.

Ages 18 and older.

Prerequisite: None. All experience levels welcome!

Hot on the heels of our Summer Intensive comes a new intensive in the art and practice of mime. A glorious opportunity to explore the art form as it relates to the world of clown and physical comedy. Learn isolations that help you to articulate your physical movements; beats, phrasing, punctuation, and sub-divisions to develop the grammar and language of mime; and develop hilarious and poignant scenes that test and stretch your compositional abilities. Perfect for performers, artists, and seekers who want to practice silent story telling as a unique, magical, and exciting art form.

Ages 18 and older.

Prerequisite: None. All experience levels welcome!

THE CLOWN SCHOOL SILENT MOVEMENT PRACTICE INTENSIVE

Class Type Open
Dates August 4-8, 2025
Times 10am-Noon, Monday-Friday
Location Madilyn Clark Studios, 10852 Burbank Boulevard, North Hollywood, California 91601
Instructor David Bridel
Cost $349 (discounts available for previous Clown School participants)

“Understanding each other without verbally communicating is so powerful. Thank you so much for this incredible experience.” NM, Los Angeles

A unique, original class that explores energy, physical communication, and connection - with self and others - in silence. Fusing elements of meditation, contact improvisation and balance work, Viewpoints, and David’s own movement curriculum, each session unfolds without speech and opens up new channels of somatic listening and learning. By joining this class, you pledge to enter the studio in silence and to maintain that silence throughout the class experience.

SPECIAL WEEKEND WORKSHOP: MEDICAL AND HUMANITARIAN CLOWNING

Class Type Open
Dates August 23/24
Times 12-5pm
Location Madilyn Clark Studios, 10852 Burbank Boulevard, North Hollywood, California 91601
Instructor Raquel Gendry
Cost $299

Discover how the magical, transformative power of the clown can be applied in hospital, care-giving, and crisis settings to access healing through humor and spiritual renewal. The clown has been a healer throughout time, bringing a message of hope and wonder to societies and individuals in every corner of the world. Now you can study this beautiful application of the clown arts at The Clown School.

Raquel Gendry is an award-winning actress and master trainer in performing arts with over 30 years of professional experience in theatre. radio, television and film. She has performed and taught in North and South America as well as western Europe. But what she is most passionate about is her work as a humanitarian clown and bringing back hope and joy to the lives of those who have lost them.

She is the founder and president of Narices Rojas, an Ecuadorian non-profit organization that she started in 2006 after experiencing a life-threatening disease herself, and the depths of despair that can exist in hospital intensive care units. She has since trained over 200 volunteer humanitarian clowns. Together they have positively impacted over 290,000 people in local hospitals and refugee camps, and continue to do so.

Ages: 18 and older.

Prerequisite: None. All experience levels welcome!

SUNDAY NIGHT SERIES: CLOWN 1

Class Type Open
Dates September 7 - October 19, 2025
Times 6-9.30pm, Sundays ONLY
Location The Stomping Ground, 5453 Alhambra Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90032
Instructor David Bridel
Cost $449 (discounts available for previous Clown School participants)

“I think all people, big and small, fat and tall, outlandishly extroverted or shy and squeaky, believing or non-believing, happy or sad, beautiful or butt ugly, ready or not, should TAKE. THIS. CLASS.” KS, Los Angeles

Delve into the magical world of the clown. Learn to meet an audience on equal terms. Discover the energies inside you waiting to be tapped, relish the liberation of laughter, confront your fears and support your peers. You’ll be amazed how the clown inside you emerges into the limelight and experiences the pure pleasure of connection.

Clown 1 is our foundational class, and most popular offering.

Ages 18 and older.

Prerequisite: None. All experience levels welcome!

MONDAY NIGHT SERIES: SLAPSTICK & PHYSICAL COMEDY

Class Type Open
Dates September 8 - October 20, 2025
Times 6-9pm, Mondays ONLY
Location JJ Gym, 6232 Mary Ellen Ave, Valley Glen, CA 91401
Instructor David Bridel
Cost $399 (discounts available for previous Clown School participants)

If you’re a fan of fights and mud-pies, comic gags and routines, the work of Chaplin, Keaton and Lucille Ball, this class is for you! Learn the hidden principles of Slapstick and Physical Comedy, and then apply them in a series of improvisations and routines that will illuminate your approach to creating and sustaining physical comedy! David’s incisive curriculum offers take-home methodologies that you can utilize in your own practice. And it’s a great workout for your clown, comedy, and character muscles! First offered in early 2025, the class is back because it was too much fun to leave in the locker!

Ages 18 and older.

Prerequisite: None. All experience levels welcome!

SPECIAL WEEKEND WORKSHOP: CHEKHOV’S CLOWNS

Class Type Open
Dates October 4/5, 2025
Times Saturday & Sunday 12-5pm
Location TBA
Instructors David Bridel and Christopher Earl
Cost $299

Join David and Christopher Earl, the team that brought you the wonderful Shakespeare’s Clowns, for a unique examination of Chekhov’s final masterpiece, The Cherry Orchard, through the lens of clown and comedy. Slip-ups, malfunctions, quirks, missed connections, physical comedy, self-centered foolery, mood-swings, and the heartbreaking humor of lost opportunity… The poetry of clowning is a magical way to encounter and experience Chekhov’s timelessly eccentric characters. With character study, improvisations, and comic business galore, don’t miss this one-of-a-kind chance to see behind the drab curtain of sincerity and discover just how and why Chekhov was convinced that his plays were comedies at heart.

Ages 18 and older.

Prerequisite: None. All experience levels welcome!