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, how our greatest ideas are right under our noses (if only we know how to look), how to build a number or a scene, and how to keep the work fresh in performance. We investigate the fundamentals—such as the use of costume, props, lighting, and sound—and we explore more advanced concepts, such as writing tools, devising games, group dynamics, dramatic structure, physicality, and music. The 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 in any kind of performance space, from purpose-built theaters and cabarets to variety stages, circus tents, and street corners.

Anyone participating in an in-person workshop at Celebration Barn must be fully vaccinated and have received at least one booster shot. For details regarding protocols and policies related to Covid-19 at the Barn please see our 2023 Health and Safety Guidelines.

ABOUT AITOR BASAURI

Aitor Basauri is joint artistic director, performer, and co-founder of Spymonkey. He is a performer, director, and one of the most eagerly sought-after teachers in the world for clown and physical comedy, a visiting tutor at the École Philippe Gaulier in Paris and Cirque du Soleil’s Cirque du Monde Foundation in Las Vegas. He teaches clown around the world in London, Berlin, Barcelona, Zurich, New York, Los Angeles, Colombia, and Mexico.

ABOUT SPYMONKEY

Since their inception in 1998 Spymonkey has created some of the most outstandingly original comedy theater, including Stiff, Cooped, Moby Dick, Oedipussy, and The Complete Deaths.

Television and stage appearances have seen them work alongside Sacha Baron Cohen, Naomi Campbell, Miranda Hart, Sandi Toksvig, Ronnie Corbett, Fiona Shaw, and Nick Frost.

Widely acknowledged as world leaders in the fields of clown and physical comedy, they are sought out as teachers, consultants, and directors for their insight and experience in creating brilliant, original, and singular work by organizations such as the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.

Their expanding program of professional masterclasses and workshops regularly sell out in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, and London.