For performers who are clown-curious and itching to be ridiculous AND beautiful.
DESCRIPTION
Play Play Weekend Clown Creation Lab, June 2025. Directed by Janice Jo Lee.
Studio H, 1 Wiltshire Ave, Toronto (Lansdowne and Dupont)
Fri June 20, 7pm-10pm
Sat June 21, 10am-5pm
Sun June 22 - 10am-2pm
REGISTER HERE
https://janicejolee.ca/clown-creation-lab
In this creation lab, we will focus on writing, audience engagement and raising the stakes. Performers will co-create physical theatre vignettes as an ensemble, and write and workshop one solo scene using words and movement.
The director will push each performer to grow at the edge of their practice. Performers will improvise, use their bodies, their voices, write their own text, and create movement choreography. As an ensemble, we will experiment, stretch, and flop and arrive at listening and trust, where we move as one.
Play Play’s artistic method is based on the actor as clown and creator. The Clown: following your joy and pleasure, connection to your true spirit, being connected to your audience, commitment and complicity. The Creator: using our body as our instrument, our lives as our story archive from which we draw inspiration.
Registration is limited to 10 performers at a sliding scale of $100-300. Payment plans available. Performers who are racialized and/or 2SLGBTQI+ are encouraged to register.
HEALTH, SAFETY, ACCESS
Studio H is wheelchair accessible, has an overhead fan, a window, and a single stall washroom. There is no microwave or fridge. Performers may choose to wear a mask for the entire duration. Performers are asked to self-screen and stay home if feeling ill. There is free parking on site.
Performers with access needs are invited to participate and contact Janice in advance (
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TESTIMONIALS:
“I think its really lovely to explore the micro parts of clown and performing --- I love the focus on the body and how this connects emotionally through creation! It brought more awareness to my body as a performer, which was very helpful as someone who gets stuck in their head!”
“Janice speaks with precision and kindness -- her instruction is always clear, yet she somehow finds a way to leave room for exploration and discovery in all of her lessons. She is attuned with what an individual performer needs and is willing to spend the time to push people to their best. She makes class fun, yet has a dynamic approach to teaching that promotes curiosity and play within her students!”
“Janice makes training content extremely accessible for people of different learning styles, ways of life and performance backgrounds. How the content of each session applies to performance techniques is very clear and nothing seems too abstract or generalized. Play Play is always a safe, valuable and memorable time that I trust to continually elevate me as an artist.”
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Janice Jo Lee (she/they) is a queer, Korean multidisciplinary artist born and based in Tkaronto, Ontario. She is an educator, theatre maker, musician, and spoken word poet. Janice is a hard femme, queer, radical, comedian, truth-teller and satirist.
She has directed workshops and creation labs with her project Play Play Clown Theatre since Fall 2022 at Sweet Action Theatre. Janice directed devised theatre creation labs for racialized youth with MT Space, Le Project N’we Jinan, and Randolph Kids. She has facilitated arts and anti-oppression programming professionally for 15 years.
Janice studied theatre creation with: Musical Stage Company’s Noteworthy, MT Space, fu-GEN / Clown: Pig Iron Theatre School, Adam Paolozza, Deanna Fleysher / Bouffon: Nathaniel Justiniano, Adam Lazarus / Spoken Word: d’bi young anitafrika, Lillian Allen
Sound Design/Music Composition Credits: Three Fingers Back by Donna-Michelle St Bernard (Tarragon 2024), Forge Futures animations produced by lemonTree Creations (2023), This Is How We Got Here by Keith Barker (Green Light Arts 2022), Shaded by Nada Abousaleh (Cosmic Fishing Theatre 2021), I Don’t Know by Ahmad Meree (MT Space 2021), Suitcase by Ahmad Meree (Theatre Passe Muraille 2020), Will You Be My Friend by Janice Jo Lee (Green Light Arts, 2018).
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