We recently ditched the levels and have returned to a class structure that is more horizontal than vertical. We want to emphasize a continued practice over the need to climb the ladder of accomplishment. We find that this kind of play holds infinite growth so we invite you to dive in and hang out for awhile in an ongoing class. If after some time you feel like a change, great, hop on over to another ongoing class with a different director and new group of performers. Or jump into an Extra-Idiot class.
OKAY BUT HOW DOES IT ACTUALLY WORK? We break the classes into two categories: Core Idiot and Extra-Idiot. The Core Idiot classes contain all the original Idiot principles and the Extra-Idiot classes take Idiot principles and apply those to other disciplines like writing, movement, scene work, creating bits etc. If you are interested in the Core Idiot classes then we require you to begin with INTRO. Once you have passed INTRO you can join an ongoing class (simply called “The Idiot”) where we encourage you to stay for as long as you are feeling challenged. If you are interested in taking one of the Extra-Idiot classes (scroll down) you can join those at any time with no pre-requisite requirement. All classes unless otherwise stated run in six-week blocks.
CORE IDIOT CLASSES
INTRO - There is Game in Everything
Pre-requisite: Some previous performance experience is encouraged | Class size limited to 13 | Cost: $275 | 6 weeks | Attendance of first class is mandatory. Please consider enrolling when you can attend the first class. |
This class is good for all types of performers from Improvisers and Stand-Ups to Screen Actors to Dancers.
PRESENCE • PLAY • GAME • COMMITMENT • AUDIENCE
An introduction to the basic principles of The Idiot. Performers in The Idiot Workshop learn to be present and playful allowing them to improvise organically without having to follow improv rules or formulas. Performers are encouraged to eschew common “types” and discover their own comedic voice that serves their personal identity. Range is developed through strong commitment to choice, character, self and partner. Performers will explore the physicality of their choices raising their performances to ones that are fully embodied and deeply visceral.
We name and acknowledge that our identities shape the way we do this work, AND as this work requires us to break the fourth wall and create a relationship with our audience we must also acknowledge that the identity of the audience shapes that way we do the work. How do our various identities influence this relationship with an audience? We see that forces of oppression are operating and by naming them we will together discover a fuller, uninhibited comedic self.
THE IDIOT
Pre-requisite: INTRO | Class size limited to 13 | Cost: $275 | 6 weeks
Dig deeper and continue your search into The Idiot. We are not seeking to graduate but to explore...
RISK• RHYTHM • THE LITTLE SHIT• STAKES • DRIVE • GAME • ENERGY • TENSION & RELEASE • VERBAL & PHYSICAL RELATIONSHIPS • STATUS • FOCUS
The search for The Idiot is intensified. Performers discover the strength gained by magnifying flaws into hilarious and memorable character traits. Performers tap into their own sense of the ridiculous in order to riff more freely, taking bigger risks with the audience. Performers are introduced to the the idea of The Idiot as catalyst and Little Shit, gaining insights and acquiring the techniques on how to work a room through stakes, tension and release, energy placement, drive and game.
Performers learn to play with stage partners. For The Idiot there is never a fourth wall, so care is taken in order to sustain the relationship with the audience. Performers will discover ways to create more visual scenes including the use of tableau, stage pattern, space and architecture. Performers will discover ways to create tension and dynamics through the use of status in their relationships.
Performers will learn to generate comedy through contrast, layers, and juxtaposition in a stage picture with multiple concurrent perspectives. Performers will discover how rhythm plays a key role in the exchange between multiple players and how the throwing and taking of focus drives the scene forward. Performers will explore creative and playful ways to challenge each other including counter-intuitive ways to “yes and” one another.
EXTRA-IDIOT CLASSES
BITS & PIECES - Creating Material for the Stage
Pre-requisite: NONE | Class size limited to 13 | Cost: $275 | 6 weeks
Focus will be on solo and duo performance pieces. The goal is to devise stand-alone pieces that can be put up in all kinds of shows. Students are encouraged to bring in ideas they would like to develop.
IDEATION •DEVISING • COLLABORATION • PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Culminating in a performance, this class will explore what it means to take each performer's unique Idiot out of the classroom and into the theater with a live audience. Performers will find and develop material that is unique to their comedic voice. Participants will develop a process for building a dynamic piece from a simple idea or impulse, and pieces will be developed and refined through technical focus on basic theatre skills, live direction and talkback.
A VERY SPECIAL WRITING CLASS - with Claire Titelman
Pre-requisite: NONE | Class size limited to 10 | ZOOM | Cost: $225 | 6 weeks
We're wondering : what would happen if we wrote in the Idiot Workshop. What would we say? What are we thinking when we're not thinking? How can we write that? And how do we say what we've written?
ABOUT THE CLASS:
This is a playful and challenging class with weekly exercises and writing prompts — that run the gamut from surreal to straightforward, very deep to very dumb — will encourage you to get out of your head, delve into your unconscious, and develop your authentic voice, leading to vulnerable, funny, fierce, strange, and surprising work. Each week, we’ll subvert elements of memoir, theater, fiction, and other genres to help inspire creativity, with a curriculum that’s designed for artists of all kinds: writers, comedians, performers, filmmakers, visual artists, and non-artists interested in exploring creative expression. Dropouts, shut-ins and people picked last in gym class are welcome!*
*Jocks, geniuses and the well-adjusted also welcome. This is an inclusive class.
STUDENT TESTIMONIALS:
“Taking Claire's class reminded me of the joy of exploration and the connection that’s made possible by being vulnerable in my writing.”
“Claire is a master of uncorking the absurd. Her class created an attitude of play and honored a part of my brain that is not linear or logical, giving me permission to allow myself to go in more divergent creative directions.”
“I had a blast and was super inspired. This class totally got my creativity flowing in a great way and now I’ve been writing almost every day.”
“The prompts unlock my lazy brain and suddenly ideas flood in to such a thrilling degree that writing becomes not only a lot fun, but necessary.”
Acting As Disaster - with Meera Rohit Kumbhani
6 Week Course
Pre-requisite: NONE | Class size limited to 12 | Cost $275 | 6 weeks
When we pick up a text, where do we go?
This is a scene-study class where we approach our work using both traditional acting tools AND the principles of clown and idiot. In clown, we learn that the audience loves to see us in disaster. It's freeing, it's unpredictable, and it makes us human. In acting, whether on stage or on camera, it is no different. Even if we know all our lines up to the end of a play, we still need to find ourselves in the chaos, performance after performance, unsure of what could happen at any moment. And so we confront our misconceptions of achieving "perfect craft" and let it topple onto the floor. We shed the the "shoulds" and "should nots". We shed expectations and rules and pedestals. There is text, there is a story, there is a physical relationship between all things living and not, and there is the messy, fearless, and beautiful YOU.
Students will primarily work on scenes from classical or contemporary plays, though screenplays may also be an option. While two-person scenes will be encouraged, students with particular constraints can choose to work on monologues.
Body Brain Smoothie, a movement class - by Darrian O’Reilly
Pre-requisite: NONE | Class size limited to 15 | Cost: Varies | 1-day to 6-week options
This six-week workshop series is designed to attune you to your moving body— its beauty, its infinitude, its limitations, its comedy! Each class will introduce basic movement sequences influenced by Bartenieff fundamentals and release technique. We will then explore improvisational techniques to track our physical impulses, develop movement ideas, and expand our physicality. We will play games to free our creative well-springs, find humor, and surprise ourselves as we discover new aspects of our creative identities. We will dance for ourselves and for each other. Class is open to all types of performers and all levels and abilities.
Devising An Idiot Dance - by Darrian O’Reilly
Pre-requisite: NONE | Class size limited to 10 | Cost: $125 | 5 weeks + Performance
In this workshop series, we will create an Idiot Zoom Movement Masterpiece. Each week, we will explore compositional strategies sourced from dance, visual art, or theatre. These exercises will progressively build into a short solo work, culminating in a live Zoom performance. Class will generally start with an enlivening dance warm-up, then a conversation, followed by focused creative practice and feedback sessions. We will build an atmosphere of support and brave risk-taking. We will play games to free our creative well-springs, surprising ourselves as we discover new aspects of our artistic identities. Class is open to all types of performers and all levels and abilities.
Prompts & Romps — by Kevin Krieger
Pre-requisite: NONE | Class size limited to 13 | Cost: $275 | 6 weeks
ZOOM Times: $150
Prompts & Romps is a gentle roll back into the creative process for creative minds of all kind. We’ll shake off the dust, piled ear high from a year in isolation and collectively build a fertile space for ideas to thrive and proliferate. We’ll do warmups in our warmups. We’ll write, improvise, perform and share, together and alone, for each other and for ourselves. There will be homework assignments, pop-quizzes and NO GRADES. We’ll even take a few looks inside, getting back to our roots with some rudimentary self-exploration. All along the way, we’ll be searching for ways to re-activate the play in our bodies and minds. It’s a yoga class with no yoga.
Red Nose Clown - by Zach Steel
Pre-requisite: NONE | Class size limited to 14 | Cost: $275 | 6 weeks
NONSENSE•WRONGNESS•SUBVERSION•TRIUMPH AND DESPAIR
A first in the history of The Idiot Workshop, a foundational class in the tradition of the red nose. We will employ some classic, euro-style clown techniques to access a more playful and ridiculous version of ourselves, to peel back the layers of politeness and know-how, and discover what it means to be radically unprepared. The clown lives at the intersection of hope and incompetence. So classic clown techniques, yes, but we will not be able to stop ourselves from disrupting some of this with a meddlesome approach. Clown work looks and feels differently on each of us and that will be embraced as a centrality in this class. Come along!
Voice & Breath — by Meera Rohit Kumbhani
Pre-requisite: NONE | Class size limited to 16 | Cost: $TBD | 1 day or 3-day
The joy and play of the clown must come from who we are, our own unique drive, that thing inside us clawing to come out. And our voice is the essence of just that - who we are. But so often in clown and acting work, psychological and physical blocks get in the way of our ability to release our free and natural voice (blocks including thoughts such as “I need to be liked!” “I want to perform the way that person performs.” “Why would anybody want to listen to me?” etc etc.), which means they get in the way of our ability to be our free and natural selves. If the impulses that come from our body and our soft mushy brain encapsulate the very heart of what makes us US, then it seems we must find a way to re-integrate our IMPULSES to our BREATH and our BREATH to our VOICE. This is a one-day introduction to voice and breath work for clowns, actors - or anybody that wants to gain confidence in the freedom of their own voice - aimed at connecting these three natural human processes. We’ll use exercises and techniques from the work of Kristin Linklater (“Freeing the Natural Voice”) and Patsy Rodenburg (“The Second Circle”). We’ll also move through warm-up sequences students can then use on their own before shows and rehearsals, and finish the class with solo work.
Wide Angle Idiot, a video class — by Blair Bogin & Amrita Dhaliwal
Pre-requisite: NONE | Class size limited to 10 | Cost: $275 | 6 weeks
Video making is for making mistakes. It allows us to stop, start, scream cut, try again and again…to keep rolling and omit afterwards. How might we play with the wide-angle wiggle room this tool affords the Idiot ? With the lens as our audience, we will learn what storytelling is possible in the riff between spontaneity and planning. Through on and off camera devising, planned and unplanned obstructions, we will wield our freedom within the limitations of the frame and also attempt to defy it. Bring your iPhone or fancy camera, anything goes. Each week, a screening and a hands-on exercise that infuses play into camera movement, lighting, frame design and other world-building techniques. Blair Bogin, MFA in Film and New Media from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, along with Amrita Dhaliwal, a graduate of The School for Theatre Creators and improv and sketch comedy programs, collaborate to take us on an exploratory journey of marrying two mediums. Class will culminate with a final screening project.