SPECIALTY Classes
our specialty classes are unique in style, frequency and length. if you are looking for something a little different from our core classes, or in addition to them, you are in the right place!
many of these classes are OPEN TO beginners, INTERMEDIATE and advanced students. They can be taken solo, and all are permitted to repeat them endlessly. No two classes are alike!
LOS ANGELES: The Jester at play (winter 2019)
Class Type Intensive
Dates January 1st, 2019 thru January 3rd, 2019
Times 1:30pm-6:30pm, daily
Location Live Arts LA, Eagle Rock
Instructor David Bridel
Cost $299, plus a $15 materials fee (discounts for previous Clown School participants)
Delve into the amazing world of the jester, the clown that satirizes, teases, mimics and mocks every aspect of human existence. Bizarre and fantastical costumes, outrageous parodies, and stupefying gangs of weird jesters will pepper the stage and infiltrate your imaginations. Start the new year off by shattering every sacred cow you ever dreamed of. Not for the faint of heart.
Ages 18 & older.
Prerequisite: None. All experience levels welcome!
Sacred Clown
Class Weekend Intensive
Dates February 2nd & 3rd, 2019
Times 10am-4pm, daily
Location PAM Residences, 5810 1/2 North Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90042
Instructor Mike Funt
Cost $200
Since the dawn of humankind, Clowns have served as leaders in communication and healing process. Long before the clown was a staple in circuses and theatres, he featured as a prominent part in Tribal Rituals and Ceremonies in cultures all over the world. Borrowing from its shamanistic roots, this class will explore how Clown and Performance can be a place of shared communal, transformative experience. The class will explore Balinese Masked Clown Ceremonies, Hopi Rituals, ecstatic festivals like Mardis Gras and Carnivåle, Commedia dell’Arte, Noh, the Holy Fool Traditions, Heyokah, Clown Traditions of the Pueblo, Dakota, and Zuni Tribes, the Trickster figures of Coyote and Raven, and many more.
While this class serves as excellent actor and performer training, the focus is more on developing the self holistically and developing and sense of community with those around you, similar to the goals of Yoga and Meditation. The class will feature improvised clown activities, prepared pieces, personal story-telling, and discussion. A well-known clown once said, “The clown is not about making the audience laugh. The clown is about changing the way the audience breathes.” Join us for this and release your fearlessness and playfulness while finding the sublime in the ridiculous and the ridiculous in the sublime.
Ages 18 and older.
Prerequisite: None. All experience levels welcome!
LOS ANGELES: The divine clown
Class Type Weekly
Dates February 17th, 2019 thru March 24th, 2019
Times 1pm-4pm, Sundays only
Location Middle Way LA, 6512 Arizona Ave Playa Vista, CA 90045
Instructor Caitlyn Conlin
Cost $299 (discounts for previous Clown School participants)
Burst open your clown chakra and let it bathe in the pure glory of boundless giggles. Break out of everything that binds and limits you and find the freedom, bliss and power of the human heart as we unearth this metaphysical being called The Clown. Through the process of joy we will embrace the sunshine, the darkness, the genius, the foolish, the zenith point of zany and everything that makes us beautifully human.
Ages 18 & older.
Prerequisite: None. All experience levels welcome!
LOS ANGELES: IMPROVISATION AND THE ITALIAN COMEDY
Class Type Intensive
Dates Summer 2019
Times TBD
Location Live Arts LA, Eagle Rock
Instructor David Bridel
Cost $399 plus a $15 materials fee (discounts for previous Clown School participants)
Take a plunge into the commedia dell’arte, or Italian comedy, an amazing world of masks, obsessions, and human comedy. While commedia is often thought to be a narrow theatrical discipline, with strict demands on how to play the stock characters, this class will open up a different, vital aspect of the form - its extraordinary opportunities for improvisation and the lessons it can teach us about action, fantasy, and play. It’s a perfect playground for actors, clowns, and improvisors alike.
Ages 18 and older.
Prerequisite: None. All experience levels welcome!
LOS ANGELES: PURE POETRY
Class Type Intensive
Dates Summer 2019
Times TBD
Location Live Arts LA, Eagle Rock
Instructor David Bridel
Cost $399 plus a $15 materials fee (discounts for previous Clown School participants)
This integrated intensive combines David’s pure clown training with his approach to the Poetry of the Clown. First, make a glorious mess in front of the audience; next, turn that mess into clown magic with beautiful music, mad props, and wild dreams that come alive. Clowns will start earthbound but end up flying!
Ages 18 and older.
Prerequisite: None. All experience levels welcome!