NOLA RAE WORKSHOP Jan 2016
NOLA RAE WORKSHOP – I attended this.
The Clown Speaks without Words
Sat 9 > Sun 10 Jan 2016 10.30am-5pm
Jacksons Lane
Part of the 2016 London International Mime Festival
“A comedian tells a joke. The clown is the joke.”
Nola’s workshop will be an insight into how to work without text, paying special attention to the rhythm of movement and how to move the body to express ideas physically, with maximum clarity. The aim will be to build a character that is not trying to be funny, but just is.
All parts of the body (and mind) will come into play. There will be improvisation, silly dance, choreography and fancy footwork. Language will be discouraged, but not necessarily sounds. Students will have the chance to discover aspects of the clown that are universal, as well as exclusive to themselves.
Suitable for the enthusiastic student of visual comedy, professional or amateur, who is reasonably fit and not afraid to move.
Students must wear loose fitting clothes and flexible shoes. Bring one juggling ball, a long scarf, and a towel for floor work. Red noses optional.
Born in Sydney, Nola Rae immigrated to London in 1963. Trained at the Royal Ballet School in London, she danced at Malmö Stadsteater and at Tivoli Pantomime Theatre in Copenhagen before turning to mime, studying with Marcel Marceau in Paris.
In 1974 she founded the London Mime Theatre with her partner Matthew Ridout and premiered her first solo show at the Nancy Festival in 1975. To date she has toured her work to 69 countries. She has created many full-length comic dramas, andsuccessfully directed several tragedies as comedies. Lately she has worked with the tenor and director Rolando Villazón as comedy consultant on major operas at Lyon Opera, Festspielhaus Baden Baden, and at Vienna’s Volksoper. Nola was instigator of the London International Mime Festival, and, in 2008, appointed M.B.E. for her services to Drama and to Mime
Lucy’s workshop notes:
Nola Rae used the term ‘sec’ to mean dry and staccato.
The first exercise: take your ball and move with it to the music, the ball is the focus point for both you and your audience. Make large movements. Listen to the music, interpret the music. Be aware that there may be an intro. Look interesting. Look out and up. The audience never wants to see the top of your head. Smile. Your face must be alive. Before coming on, take a deep breath and hold till you are on, this increases the sense of presence. Suspension.
Hand warm up.
Shake.
Hop! Fingers splayed, palm up, alternate, one is hopped the other is relaxes and fades, turning down naturally without forcing it.
Five positions of the hands:
Thumb and forefinger
Thumb and middle finger
Thumb and forefinger and middle finger
Cup
Pole
- is for taking a small item, like picking a piece of dandruff from the shoulder.
- Is for a larger item
- Is for a newspaper etc
- Is for cups and bottles etc
- Is for poles, ropes etc
Takes: double, triple, quadruple etc
Takes – odds to front? Evens to side?
Head exercises.
Eye exercises.
+ diagonals.
E.G. use a double take to see the speck of dandruff on your left shoulder, bring the right hand up to it in a flat pose, take it using position no. 1. Bring it to the front, let it go by opening the fingers, allow the hand to go flat.
The snake
The fan
Water – normal, cold, hot.
Death rays coming from the fingers.
Wall
The wall is at the centre of the stage.
Walk towards the wall, make sound with foot BANG then the head hits REACTION.
Walk up happy, feel the wall sadly, walk away happy.
Walk up sad, feel the wall with anger, walk away sadly.
Opening door – easier outwards.
Trip
The right foot kicks the left, left in front, right in back, get balance by going right let then STOP! TURN. THINK. TURN> STOP> Lead off with LEFT foot.
OBSERVATION is very important. Watch, listen. Rhythm, hands.
In groups of 5.
Person 1 does a simple 3 beat movement. Each of the others copies it as exactly as they can. Then all 5 perform the movement at the same time.
Also do this with four people.
CLOWN DANCE – smile, even if it’s all wrong.
Rt foot front, left foot cross, right back, left back, Pas de bouree? To side, pirouette, hands, knees, mouth pop.
Lucy Childs PhD 