CLOWNING FOR STAGE AND CIRCUS

Tap into poetic sources of humor and connection, through this ancient and irreverent art form! We’ll explore physical comedy, improvisation, clown logic, and the nature of comedy itself. By using the clown’s unique role as a Holy Fool, we’ll explore how clowns apply their infinite stupidity to the questions of existence, in order to celebrate, mock, reinforce, combat, question, or comment on the societies we live in and the lives we lead. Inspiration will be drawn from the circus, mime, theatre, cartoons, masks, vaudeville, and ritual clowning. Taught by Nikolas Strubbe.

Nikolas Strubbe is an internationally acclaimed performing artist, director, and educator, bringing the eccentric arts (circus, vaudeville, physical theatre, mask, and more) to four continents and counting. Nikolas has been featured in Zoppe Circus, Circus Avalon, Barzirk, Burlesque Idol Australia, and TV’s MythBusters. Local roles include Banquo in We Players’ Macbeth at Fort Point and the vaudevillian Emcee Eddie in Boxcar Theatre’s immersive cult hit The Speakeasy. Nikolas is a graduate of UCSC and The Flying Actor Studio, co-founded San Francisco’s Main Street Theatre, and has taught at San Francisco’s Circus Center, the Nueva School, and workshops at Stanford University. He is currently a faculty member at the Clown Conservatory, teaching Mime and Clown to professional circus artists, and he occasionally tours as the adults-only, improv-vaudevillian The Incredible Feelzo: Man of Moderate Talent.  

THURSDAYS 7:00–9:30 PM. CLASS STARTS OCTOBER 19.

BERKELEY REP SCHOOL OF THEATRE SPONSORS