Creating Clown Material with Aitor Basauri and Toby Park

This workshop equips you with the tools to take your material from early conception through to production. Along the way, you will learn how to:

• Create material from the smallest seed of an idea

• Build a number or a scene 

• Spot your greatest ideas, which are often right under your nose (if only you know how to look)

• Keep the work fresh in performance. 

The workshop investigates the fundamentals—such as the use of costumes, props, lighting, and sound—and explores more advanced concepts, such as writing tools, devising games, group dynamics, dramatic structure, physicality, and music. 

This workshop attracts a wide range of artists—actors, directors, clowns, comedians, aerialists, and more. Regardless of your professional practice, you can apply the skills learned in this workshop to any kind of performance space, from purpose-built theaters and cabarets to variety stages, circus tents, and street corners.

ABOUT AITOR BASAURI

Aitor Basauri is the founder of Spymonkey, where he has co-created and performed in all their shows to date. Performance credits include The Servant of Two Masters at Sheffield Crucible (1996), Axomate at the Seville Expo (1992), Eulenspiegel (1991) and in Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau’s Grand Paradis and Stau in Zurich (1997 and 1998). Director of Little Prince for Donkey Productions (1997), Un Vento Impetuoso for La Canoppia (1996) and Meci Y Me Fui for Pez Enraya ( 1997). In 1999 he appeared in Circus Knie, the Swiss State Circus, and in 2000 formed his own company Punto Fijo, based in Bilbao. Appeared in Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network. Appeared in Bertolt Brecht’s Senor Carrera’s Rifles at the Young Vic, directed by Paul Hunter (2007).

Directing credits include: Lily & Marlene for La Dinamica (Spain 2015); Looking for Duende for Teatro Entre Escombros (Spain 2015); Hondycops for Squadra Sua (Czech Republic 2015); Ferucchio Peru is Extraordinaire for Leebo Luby (UK 2015); Manifest Destiny (New York 2015); Fabulous Bäckström Brothers (Finland 2014); Entre Escobros 600 Teatro (Spain 2014); Gloriator for Skipstick Productions (London 2013); NMIID Simone Riccio, (London 2013); Herr Ist Immer Der Natur for Die Drei Auf Den Baum (Berlin 2012); Discombobulated for Publick Transport (Bristol & UK tour, 2011); Ramshackadelicious (Bristol 2011); Shake for The Last Baguette (Switzerland 2010). Director of physical comedy for Chichester Festival Theatre’s Mack & Mabel (2015) starring Michael Ball. Co-director of Orpheus in the Underworld at Vienna Volksoper operahouse (2023).

Aitor is an acclaimed teacher of clown, regularly leading Spymonkey training in London, New York, Maine, Los Angeles, and around the world, and for the Clown Doctors organization in Germany, Austria, and France.

ABOUT TOBY PARK

Toby Park studied drama at Hull University, and trained at Fool Time Circus School, Bristol, and with Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneaux in Paris.

Toby has co-created all Spymonkey shows to date. He performed in Stiff (1998-2011), Cooped (2001-2019), Zumanity with Cirque du Soleil (2003-2005), Bless (2007), Moby Dick (2009), Love In (2010), Oedipussy (2012), Mrs Hudson’s Christmas Corker (2014), Every Last Trick (2014), The Complete Deaths (2016), Christmas Carol (2018), The Frogs (2024).

From 1994–97, he was co-musical director and actor with Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau in Zurich; member of the Improbable Theatre Lifegame company (1998–2000), including an Off Broadway run.

Musical director and composer for: all Spymonkey shows to date; Guy Dartnell’s Would Say Something (1998); acro-dance-theatre Mimbre’s Sprung (2001), Trip-Tic (2003) and The Bridge (2007); site-specific pieces with Graeme Gilmour at Kielder Water Northumberland (2006) and Forth & Clyde Canal Glasgow (2007), and with Phil Supple/The Electric Estate for the National Trust at Cragside Northumberland.

Appeared in Sandi Toksvig’s Christmas Cracker, starring Ronnie Corbett at the Royal Festival Hall (2009). TV appearances include Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network and BBC2 Hyperdrive.

Director of Fabulous Bäckström Brothers, a clown opera in Helsinki (2014), Big Bang Siegfried for Orchestra Hagen Germany (2016), Enter the Dragons for A&E Comedy (2017); co-director of The Flop for Hijinx Theatre Cardiff; director of physical comedy for Chichester Festival Theatre’s Mack & Mabel (2015); RSC’s Merry Wives of Windsor (2018); Tartuffe (2019) and Jack Absolute Flies Again (2022) for National Theatre; Hello Dolly! (2024) for Michael Harrington Productions.

Co-director of Orpheus in the Underworld (2023, 2024, 2025) for Volksoper Vienna and Spymonkey’s Hairy (2023).

ABOUT SPYMONKEY

Spymonkey are the United Kingdom’s leading physical comedy ensemble, based in Brighton and comprising of a core team: artistic directors Toby Park and Aitor Basauri, executive producer Emily Coleman, founding associate Petra Massey, associate artists Lucy Bradridge and Carl Grose, founding associate Petra Massey, and general manager Nur Khairiyah Ramli.

Spymonkey have been making Theatre of the Funny since 1998. With their dark, edgy physical comedy rooted “somewhere between Monty Python, the Marx Brothers, and Samuel Beckett” (The Houston Chronicle), Spymonkey have proved to be a truly international phenomenon, enjoyed by and accessible to a wide range of international audiences.

Recent years have seen the company growing in new directions as their creative focus has shifted from primarily a performing ensemble to creating, directing, and producing, as well as an extensive international training programme. They recently directed Orpheus in the Underworld, their first full-scale opera, and Spymonkey’s first show for children, Hairy.

Stephan Kreiss was an associate artist until his death in 2021.