„Pochinko-Clown-Training“in Hannover – bilingual Deutsch/ Englisch
- Pochinko Clown Training at TuT in Hannover,
- Trainer: Verena Lohner, Steife Brise Theater, Hamburg
July 26th to August 10th 2025
Registration: verena.lohner@steife-brise.de
This course is based on the work of Canadian master clown Richard Pochinko as well as European theater roots and goes by several names: Through masks to become a clown, clown through mask or baby clown – at the end of the course the participants’ clowns are “born”. The course offers special basic training in the art of clown theater.
He combines the step-by-step exploration of the emotional and mythological areas in which a clown lives with the use of targeted techniques and structures as well as physical and scenic play that brings out your unique individual expressiveness.
The Training
At the beginning of the training, we focus on our perception and, above all, on listening. Participants are gradually encouraged to develop a sense of pleasure. You will be enabled to have a fine perception of internal and external impulses, such as those of the audience, and will develop the ability to deal with them emotionally, physically and honestly. All senses are comprehensively explored as a basis for design and the learners encounter the infinite possibilities of their individual imagination.
Using targeted methods from physical theater, participants get to know their body in a new way: as an inexhaustible source for visualization, character design, dramaturgy, narrative and expression. Improvisations and working with colors also play an important role.
The Masks
Building on these experiences, participants can begin creating and wearing their six personal masks. Through physical theater and imagination exercises, they explore the innocent and experienced sides of their masks and explore their relationship to one another.
These masks serve as a guide for the baby clowns-to-be to conquer new land through design and play – and therefore they are also the guide to their original clowns. With each mask, the participants then develop a short sketch (so-called turn) without words, in which the essence of the mask is vividly expressed.
The essential clown rules are gradually introduced with these “turns” as well as in all the exercises that are carried out up to that point. This means that participants gain a comprehensive understanding of “Clown” and practical experience of the specific elements associated with it in order to be able to use them in all conceivable design and performance situations. This course is a force that unleashes the unexpected. It’s intense, humanistic, can move you to tears and is a lot of fun!
Who is it for?
For this course you don’t have to be an artist – an actor or a painter.
Being a human being – with a willingness to play, discover and leave familiar paths – is exactly the right thing for this. Please note that this is a very intensive course. We recommend that you keep other commitments to a minimum during the two weeks, as you will need time outside of core teaching times to make the 6 masks at your own pace.
The participants look at a personal repertoire of diverse characters. And they can use the flexible structures and techniques they have learned to design, research and use an infinite amount of things for their individual projects from now on.
Time
The whole “Through the mask to become a clown” or “Baby Clown” course
lasts 100 hours/16 days.
Costs
TBA
Registration
Please apply with a short letter (letter, email, video message).
Let me know what activities have been close to your heart so far and why you see this training for yourself now. We would also be happy to discuss how you might want to apply your experiences in the future.
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Die Trainerin: Verena Lohner
Verena Lohner liebt das Theater, seit sie denken kann. Es ging mit Beckett los, mit Shakespeare weiter und mit der Improvisation ist es ihr heute möglich, die ganze Welt zur Bühne zu machen. Ob politisches Dialogtheater in Russland, Businesstheater in Firmen oder spontanes Kabarett in Düsseldorf. Sie ist international in Clown- und Theaterproduktionen aktiv und hat unter anderem das Spiegeltheater „Clownclusion“ mit dem Theater „La nave va“ in Barcelona entwickelt. Sie ist langjährig und leitend dem Theater Steife Brise in Hamburg verbunden, als Schauspielerin, Trainerin, systemischer Coach und Entwicklerin.
Lange hat sie sich gesträubt, ein Clown zu sein. Dabei viele schöne Clown-Trainings gehabt, Commedia dell’arte und Buffon studiert, die Marx Brothers und Fellini-Filme verehrt. Bis das Pochinko-Clown-Training am MCCP (Manitoulin Conservatory for Performance and Creation oder The Clown Farm) in Ontario/Kanada ihr freundlich und erbarmungslos ihre wahre Natur enthüllte. Sie hat dort, ohne Aussicht auf Ende, langjährig bei und mit John Turner, Mike Kennard, Karen Hines, Fiona Griffiths, Grindl Kuchirka, Fides Krucker studiert, assistiert und mitgestaltet.
