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"The clown takes our deepest human weaknesses and makes them funny.
The clown is also an anarchist. The clown gets to break the rules."
David Shiner
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Focus on the demanding, challenging, imaginative, physical, exhausting,
and beautifully messy world of clowning.
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Explore the fundamentals of clown work under the tutelage of master
teachers of physical theatre, and in-demand professional clowns.
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Study and work in the tradition of pioneers Jacques Lecoq and Philippe
Gaulier, and seek to liberate the creative spirit from the doldrums of
everyday life.
- Confront your own creative safety zones and dig deep to find inner trust and faith.
The workshop is by audition or invitation only to thirty (30) select undergraduate and graduate level actors of intermediate or advanced level. The course is also open to ten (10) acting teachers who are interested in learning more about this work for their own classrooms.
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Interested actors submit a picture and resume along with one letter of
recommendation and audition for acceptance into the workshop. Audition
must be either in person with Course Coordinator Hugh O'Gorman at the
CSULB campus or by sending a digital copy (VHS or DVD) of two
contrasting monologues - no longer than five (5) minutes total - with
your application.
- Send the materials listed in Step One and your completed Registration Form to the Summer Arts Registration Office by Monday, June 2, 2008.
Professor Hugh O'Gorman
CSU Long Beach
hugh@hughogorman.com
562-985-4043
Undergraduate: DRAMA 426, 3 units
Graduate: DRAMA 626, 3 units
none
David Shiner
Leading Master Teacher of Clown Work. Best known as a clown, he started out as a street mime in Paris and his career really took off in 1984 when he was discovered at the renowned circus festival, Cirque de Demain. He went on to perform with a succession of well-known companies including the German troupe Circus Roncalli and the Swiss National company Circus Knie. Between circus engagements he toured with Cirque du Soleil veteran Reny Bazinet performing the two-man show they created.
His first formal association with Cirque du Soleil came in 1990, when he performed in Nouvelle Expérience, which toured for 19 months throughout Canada and the United States and played for another year in Las Vegas. Thanks to such antics as stepping through, on, and over much of the audience, and his classic improv-based staging of a mock silent-movie melodrama with four members of the audience, he is probably the best-remembered of Cirque's clowns. The production was filmed for HBO in 1991 and his other television performances include numerous appearances on The Tonight Show.
Mr. Shiner made his feature film debut in 1992, playing the part of a clown in Lorenzo's Oil, and the following year he played straight man to Bill Irwin in Sam Shepard's Silent Tongue. He and Mr. Irwin then created the two-man, wordless show Fool Moon, featuring music by the Red Clay Ramblers, who had also performed in Silent Tongue. This evening of "inspired lunacy" ran from 1992 to 1999, including three separate runs on Broadway. Fool Moon won a special Tony Award for Live Theatrical Presentation in 1999, a Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience, and an Outer Critics Circle Special Achievement Award.
In 2000 Mr. Shiner originated the role of the Cat in the Hat, the host and guide of the Broadway stage musical Seussical. With the support of a grant from the Pugh Foundation he went on to develop a show at Seattle's ACT Theatre, and later adapted part of that show for his one-man production David Shiner in the Round.
Mr. Shiner's most recent production for Cirque du Soleil is the touring production of KOOZA, which he directed. About KOOZA he said, "KOOZA is about human connection and the world of duality, good and bad. The tone is fun and funny, light and open. The show doesn't take itself too seriously, but it's very much about ideas, too. As it evolves we are exploring concepts such as fear, identity, recognition and power."
Leading Master Teacher of Clown Work. Best known as a clown, he started out as a street mime in Paris and his career really took off in 1984 when he was discovered at the renowned circus festival, Cirque de Demain. He went on to perform with a succession of well-known companies including the German troupe Circus Roncalli and the Swiss National company Circus Knie. Between circus engagements he toured with Cirque du Soleil veteran Reny Bazinet performing the two-man show they created.
His first formal association with Cirque du Soleil came in 1990, when he performed in Nouvelle Expérience, which toured for 19 months throughout Canada and the United States and played for another year in Las Vegas. Thanks to such antics as stepping through, on, and over much of the audience, and his classic improv-based staging of a mock silent-movie melodrama with four members of the audience, he is probably the best-remembered of Cirque's clowns. The production was filmed for HBO in 1991 and his other television performances include numerous appearances on The Tonight Show.
Mr. Shiner made his feature film debut in 1992, playing the part of a clown in Lorenzo's Oil, and the following year he played straight man to Bill Irwin in Sam Shepard's Silent Tongue. He and Mr. Irwin then created the two-man, wordless show Fool Moon, featuring music by the Red Clay Ramblers, who had also performed in Silent Tongue. This evening of "inspired lunacy" ran from 1992 to 1999, including three separate runs on Broadway. Fool Moon won a special Tony Award for Live Theatrical Presentation in 1999, a Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience, and an Outer Critics Circle Special Achievement Award.
In 2000 Mr. Shiner originated the role of the Cat in the Hat, the host and guide of the Broadway stage musical Seussical. With the support of a grant from the Pugh Foundation he went on to develop a show at Seattle's ACT Theatre, and later adapted part of that show for his one-man production David Shiner in the Round.
Mr. Shiner's most recent production for Cirque du Soleil is the touring production of KOOZA, which he directed. About KOOZA he said, "KOOZA is about human connection and the world of duality, good and bad. The tone is fun and funny, light and open. The show doesn't take itself too seriously, but it's very much about ideas, too. As it evolves we are exploring concepts such as fear, identity, recognition and power."
David Bridel
Director of Movement for the MFA in Acting at the University of Southern California. His work utilizes the principles of movement, mask, and clown to develop the creative life of the actor. He has taught and directed at conservatories and training programs across the United States, Israel, and Europe, including The Actors Center, UCLA, Cal Arts, Cal State Long Beach, Rutgers University, the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School, the University of Missouri, Beit Zvi, the Central School of Speech and Drama, Middlesex University, Mountview Theatre School, the National Student Drama Festival in England, and the Nitra International Theatre Festival in Slovakia. For SUNY Purchase he created a three-year training progression based on the pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq.
Mr. Bridel also collaborates with fellow master teachers Per Brahe and Felix Ivanov at Studio 5 in Brooklyn. He choreographed William Friedkin's production of Ariadne Auf Naxos at the Los Angeles Opera, and joined Mr. Friedkin again for Salome at the Bayerische Statsoper in Munich in 2006. Mr. Bridel's directing credits include: Medea , Ivanov, No-one Knows How , The Misanthropev, The Mill on the Floss, As You Like It, The Tower, Electra, and Rhinoceros.
He is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Franklin Stage Company in upstate New York, where he directed and designed The Tempest, Uncle Vanya, Twelfth Night, The Lesson & The Chairs, The Taming of the Shrew, Dog in the Manger, Hedda Gabler, and The Legend of the Dead Soldier, and The Heretic Mysteries, which he also wrote. Other plays include The Actors Rehearse the Story of Charlotte Salomon (with Penny Kreitzer), Il Gelosi, Shreds & Fancies, The Last Girl, Death of an Actress. For The Actors Center Conservatory, he has directed Glengarry Glen Ross and A Doll's House. (www.studiosixlosangeles.com)
Director of Movement for the MFA in Acting at the University of Southern California. His work utilizes the principles of movement, mask, and clown to develop the creative life of the actor. He has taught and directed at conservatories and training programs across the United States, Israel, and Europe, including The Actors Center, UCLA, Cal Arts, Cal State Long Beach, Rutgers University, the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School, the University of Missouri, Beit Zvi, the Central School of Speech and Drama, Middlesex University, Mountview Theatre School, the National Student Drama Festival in England, and the Nitra International Theatre Festival in Slovakia. For SUNY Purchase he created a three-year training progression based on the pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq.
Mr. Bridel also collaborates with fellow master teachers Per Brahe and Felix Ivanov at Studio 5 in Brooklyn. He choreographed William Friedkin's production of Ariadne Auf Naxos at the Los Angeles Opera, and joined Mr. Friedkin again for Salome at the Bayerische Statsoper in Munich in 2006. Mr. Bridel's directing credits include: Medea , Ivanov, No-one Knows How , The Misanthropev, The Mill on the Floss, As You Like It, The Tower, Electra, and Rhinoceros.
He is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Franklin Stage Company in upstate New York, where he directed and designed The Tempest, Uncle Vanya, Twelfth Night, The Lesson & The Chairs, The Taming of the Shrew, Dog in the Manger, Hedda Gabler, and The Legend of the Dead Soldier, and The Heretic Mysteries, which he also wrote. Other plays include The Actors Rehearse the Story of Charlotte Salomon (with Penny Kreitzer), Il Gelosi, Shreds & Fancies, The Last Girl, Death of an Actress. For The Actors Center Conservatory, he has directed Glengarry Glen Ross and A Doll's House. (www.studiosixlosangeles.com)
Orlando Pabotoy
Head of Movement at CSU Long Beach. He is also an actor and director whose credits include being a series regular on Comedy Central's Strangers with Candy and directing for the Juilliard Drama Division. He has also served on the faculty at the Tisch School for the Arts at NYU, and has taught at the University of Texas in Austin, Bard College, Ramapo College, The Old Globe, UCSD, Cal Arts, and at The Actors Center in New York. He was a recipient of the 1997 John Houseman Award, a 1998 Fox Fellowship, and a 2003 OBIE Award. In addition to teaching, Mr. Pabotoy is a successful director and actor.
As a director, he has created, assisted, and staged/co-staged shows for the Juilliard Drama Division, NYU, Actors Center Conservatory, and Ma-Yi Theater Company. As an actor, he has performed at The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park, New York Theater Workshops, The Metropolitan Opera House, The Old Globe, and Yale Repertory Company. He has done shows for the Division 13 Theater Company (where he is an Artistic Associate), The Flying Machine Company, Ma-Yi Theater Company, IMUA Theater Company, among other New York projects. His television/film credits include guest starring on JAG, In the Weeds, Blue Hour, The Beat , and Whoopi . (www.studiosixlosangeles.com)
Head of Movement at CSU Long Beach. He is also an actor and director whose credits include being a series regular on Comedy Central's Strangers with Candy and directing for the Juilliard Drama Division. He has also served on the faculty at the Tisch School for the Arts at NYU, and has taught at the University of Texas in Austin, Bard College, Ramapo College, The Old Globe, UCSD, Cal Arts, and at The Actors Center in New York. He was a recipient of the 1997 John Houseman Award, a 1998 Fox Fellowship, and a 2003 OBIE Award. In addition to teaching, Mr. Pabotoy is a successful director and actor.
As a director, he has created, assisted, and staged/co-staged shows for the Juilliard Drama Division, NYU, Actors Center Conservatory, and Ma-Yi Theater Company. As an actor, he has performed at The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park, New York Theater Workshops, The Metropolitan Opera House, The Old Globe, and Yale Repertory Company. He has done shows for the Division 13 Theater Company (where he is an Artistic Associate), The Flying Machine Company, Ma-Yi Theater Company, IMUA Theater Company, among other New York projects. His television/film credits include guest starring on JAG, In the Weeds, Blue Hour, The Beat , and Whoopi . (www.studiosixlosangeles.com)
Hugh O'Gorman
Hugh O'Gorman appears in the HBO mini-series John Adams, which airs in January 2008. Los Angeles theatrical productions include Johnny on the Spot at the Matrix Theatre, Lemonade at the Tamarind Theatre opposite Maxwell Caulfield and Heather Tom, and C.K. Dexter Haven in The Philadelphia Story at the Court Theatre. Other theatre credits include the Broadway production of Brian Friel's Translations ; and on Off-Broadway: The Yiddish Trojan Women (AJT), The Tempest (AEC) and Cloud 9 (Perry Street). As a founding member of New York City's Mint Theatre Company (2002 Drama Desk Award), Professor O'Gorman directed The Harvest , and appeared as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew , Nick in The Time of Your Life , and the Doctor in Anton Chekhov: stories from my youth . He has worked in over a dozen regional theatres around the country, most notably the Seattle Repertory, Charlotte Rep, Huntington and Asolo theatres, and has spent seasons with the North Carolina, Montana and Idaho Shakespeare festivals. For four years he portrayed Jeff Singer on AMC's critically acclaimed, Emmy and CableAce award-winning show Remember WENN (SAG Award nomination). Other recent television credits include Father Tim on CBS' That's Life; and Burly in the mini-series The 10th Kingdom, US Attorney Chuck Rodman on Law & Order, and a guest turn on ER, all for NBC. For ABC he appeared on One Life to Live and All My Children. He played the leads in the feature films Upstate and Killers. Professor O'Gorman earned his BA from Cornell University, and his MFA in Acting from the University of Washington. (www.hughogorman.com)
Hugh O'Gorman appears in the HBO mini-series John Adams, which airs in January 2008. Los Angeles theatrical productions include Johnny on the Spot at the Matrix Theatre, Lemonade at the Tamarind Theatre opposite Maxwell Caulfield and Heather Tom, and C.K. Dexter Haven in The Philadelphia Story at the Court Theatre. Other theatre credits include the Broadway production of Brian Friel's Translations ; and on Off-Broadway: The Yiddish Trojan Women (AJT), The Tempest (AEC) and Cloud 9 (Perry Street). As a founding member of New York City's Mint Theatre Company (2002 Drama Desk Award), Professor O'Gorman directed The Harvest , and appeared as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew , Nick in The Time of Your Life , and the Doctor in Anton Chekhov: stories from my youth . He has worked in over a dozen regional theatres around the country, most notably the Seattle Repertory, Charlotte Rep, Huntington and Asolo theatres, and has spent seasons with the North Carolina, Montana and Idaho Shakespeare festivals. For four years he portrayed Jeff Singer on AMC's critically acclaimed, Emmy and CableAce award-winning show Remember WENN (SAG Award nomination). Other recent television credits include Father Tim on CBS' That's Life; and Burly in the mini-series The 10th Kingdom, US Attorney Chuck Rodman on Law & Order, and a guest turn on ER, all for NBC. For ABC he appeared on One Life to Live and All My Children. He played the leads in the feature films Upstate and Killers. Professor O'Gorman earned his BA from Cornell University, and his MFA in Acting from the University of Washington. (www.hughogorman.com)