time to get
Training
Under-researched and under-performed bouffon encompasses a realm of satiric theatre loosely codified by the French theatre pedagogue, Jacques Lecoq, who labeled it the broadest form of theatre. According to Lecoq’s former colleague and our mentor, Giovanni Fusetti, there is much more to explore and discover about what bouffon work can entail. We invite you to join us in our ongoing exploration through our intensives.
The intensive
Ranging from 15-25 hours over the course of a week or long weekend, this is a crash course in bouffon creation and performance with the only company in the United States exclusively dedicated to the research and performance of bouffon.
The appetite of the bouffon is singular: To play with what society has to hide. The bouffon doesn’t judge. With a no-holds-barred relationship with the audience, they are a dangerously perceptive fun house mirror of us all. Why? Because it’s fun. The bouffon uses mockery, wit, and parody. They dance beautifully and are grotesquely obscene in the same moment. Why practice bouffon? To practice facing life head on. To undermine apathy. To acknowledge the tragedies we share, the shame we hide, and the beauty of acceptance. This is an athletic, intensely physical form of comedic performance that demands the in-the-moment engagement of your intellect and imagination. We welcome performers of all skill levels and interests. Actors with limited experience in physical theater or devising are especially encouraged to participate because this work has a powerful impact on one’s freedom and creativity. The poetic dexterity and incisive play that we cultivate in this intensive is immediately applicable to any process involving scripted theater, dance, performance art, activism and beyond.
If this resonates with you, we would love for you to join us.
“This weekend was such an incredible experience. Moments keep replaying in my head…the cry laughing, the uncomfortable laughing, the camaraderie, the aching pain in my quads…you really brought us a treat, a special nugget of an out of body experience wrapped neatly in a weekend workshop (and ace bandages). With every layer I peeled away, I realized more and more how important your lessons are to my every day living. I was looking into the world with my new bouffon glasses…I want to just tear into it like a hungry beast. So, now you have planted a seed. Thank you for allowing us the safe space to discover.”
Topics covered include crafting a personal bouffon, creating within a state of ecstatic play, choral and movement-based improvization, mercurial and shape-shifting acting techniques, audacious status play with the audience, parodying social maladies and hypocrisies, and ramshackle techniques for on-the-fly costume creation.
If you would like us to bring our intensive to your town, company, or school, contact us. Email: nathaniel [at] nakedempirebouffon [dot] org to start the conversation.
Testimonials
“Nathaniel creates a deviously fun and supportive environment to explore our deepest fears and insecurities while laughing at them. His class isn’t merely about gaining new physical theater skills, it’s about the nature of comedy and perception.”
“Nathaniel is a bang up, up-to-date activist theatre maker offering enormous bouffon devising wisdom and experience. His exercises that encourage self-empowerment within the body should be the basis for all activists.”
Contact and Connect
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Naked Empire Bouffon Company
San Francisco / Boston
Email us: info [at] nakedempirebouffon [dot] org