Education

MARKETING PACK

1. The Company

2. Teaching Programme

3. Workshops: General information

4. Clown & PHYSICAL COMEDY Workshops

4. Other workshops

1. The Company

About Us

Shifting Sands Theatre was founded in 1998 to create comic, moving, physical theatre using

clowning, text, animation and play combined with strong visual design.

The company tour to small scale venues nationally, perform mad-cap street theatre and offer

education workshops and residencies tailored to specific needs. Shifting Sands Theatre

encourages the development of new talent via teaching and performance projects for aspiring

performers of all ages.

Company Contact: Gerry Flanagan (Artistic Director)

Email: shiftingsandstheatre@hotmail.com

Tel. 0162 955795 or Mobile: 07751996864

Website: www.shiftingsandstheatre.co.uk

Company style: Shifting Sands Theatre combine clowning, text, animation and the

techniques of physical theatre together with a strong, simple, visual design.

Imagine Buster Keaton on stage at Stratford with Laurel and Hardy

directing. Our theatre performances are often bittersweet, tragicomic, sad

and joyful – bringing the playfulness and the vulnerability of the clown to the

text and the characters, while always ensuring the work remains engaging.

The result is stimulating and accessible theatre, re-interpreting classical

texts and devising new work which is enjoyed by audiences of all ages.

GERRY FLANAGAN – Performer/Director:

Artistic Director Gerry Flanagan is one of England’s most sought after Clown practitioners. He

has performed with Theatre de Complicite, David Glass Ensemble and Bubble Theatre.

He co-founded Commotion Theatre Co. in 1991 and produced, co-devised, helped direct and

appeared in all their shows. Shifting Sands Theatre has grown out of his work.

Gerry’s directing credits include:

“Box to Hawaii” for Theatre Kurt in Frankfurt;

“Fools! Fools! Fools!” and “Don’t Let Go” for Chung Ying Theatre Company in Hong

Kong;

“When in Rome” and “I am a Viking” for Gonzo Moose.

Six musicals including “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” and “Great Expectations” for Youth

Music Theatre UK, The UK's national music theatre company for young people.

He has directed all the Shifting Sands Theatre productions.

Gerry has taught clown for over 20 years in universities, colleges, schools plus the Circus

Space and the City Literary Institute, London.

2. EDUCATION - TEACHING PROGRAMME

Shifting Sands Theatre is committed to its teaching programme, which forms a significant part of

its work.

A performance that is based on play builds a direct relationship with the audience. When we

play we are full of energy, alert and spontaneous. We look for playfulness in others and listen to

creative impulses in ourselves. When playing we tend not to judge ourselves. If we are enjoying

a game we are fully involved in it. There is a total belief and honesty.

Shifting Sands, offer workshops to a wide range of education & community groups, schools and

colleges as well as workshops suitable for professional artists. Workshops can be selected as

‘stand-alone’ training opportunities for a group or can be developed as part of a residency or

devising project. Where possible, workshops can culminate in the devising and performance of

a show.

“Our education work releases creative expression via play. Our objective firstly is to enthuse

and stimulate. The next step is to focus this playfulness for each other and the audience”

3. WORKSHOPS

Workshop Duration: Workshops attached to a show are approximately 2.5 hours in length. But

we are able to run extended projects of up to three weeks long or even a residency. Please feel

free to contact us to discuss your requirements.

Target Audience: As well as being suitable for students of drama; physical theatre; clown and

dance; A’ level / GCSE theatre studies our workshops are available for interested and

committed people of any age.

The list of workshops available is not set in stone - content can be adapted and we are happy to

respond to specific requests for a bespoke workshop.

4. CLOWN & PHYSICAL COMEDY

CLOWN - The art of play The Clown negotiates the world by playing with it. Playfulness becomes a guiding principle for

the clown. The style of play adopted is varied. It can be funny, tragic or nasty. Above all else the

play is extremely personal and optimistic, even in the direst circumstances.

A performance that is based on play builds a direct relationship with the audience. When we

play we are full of energy, alert and spontaneous. We look for playfulness in others and listen to

creative impulses in ourselves. When playing we tend not to judge ourselves. If we are enjoying

a game we are fully involved in it. There is a total belief and honesty.

The clown has to be both spontaneous and full of stage presence – so full that the audience

doesn’t even notice it. The study of clown is a marvellous tool for performers of all persuasions.

It allows them to confront the fear of performing because it demands an intimate relationship

with the audience.

Consequently, clowning is one of the most challenging of performance styles, with nothing to

hide behind. The red nose highlights idiosyncrasies, fears and pleasures. Why undertake such

a rigorous challenge? Because the reward is great: the rich joy of laughter shared with those

who were once strangers.

The workshops include:

Physical training : Exercises, some influenced by the Feldenkrais Technique, which help to

develop self-awareness, co-ordination and fluidity of movement. Strengthening and

stretching work.

Improvisation: The rules of play that underpin collaborative creation.

Exercises in rhythm: These help to develop a sense of timing.

Games: Playing with each other

Presentation: Playing with the audience.

CLOWN – Playing with tragedy

Tragedy is an opportunity for the Clown to play on a grand scale when surrounded by huge

emotions and circumstances. In dire circumstances the clown finds playfulness and beauty in

tragedy.

Play is spontaneous, enjoyable and full of surprises. It leads to enjoyment and shared laughter.

In this workshop we will look at how the Clown can still play when the usual setbacks mount up

to become truly tragic. By accepting the tragic, the Clown finds truthful ways to play with great

emotions but not to undermine them.

The themes will be: play, co-operation, status, simplicity, and vulnerability. We will apply these

to a variety of situations that involve loss or rejection. The clown’s response can invoke

laughter, sympathy, tears or wonder – or all four at the same time! There will be particular focus

upon work with the red nose.

5. OTHER WORKSHOPS

BRECHT: How to devise and play epic theatre.

How to step out of and into “character” , deconstruct conventional theatre and to discover

and provoke change. Involves the incorparation of diverse performance techniques including

puppetry and animation, improvisation and ensemble work.

CHEKHOV: Tragedy and the clown - ensemble and solo play.

The comedy, beauty and tragedy of Chekhov rediscovered through the playfulness of the

Clown. We will discover how to create high drama from absolutely nothing - boredom, loss of

zest for life, inability to move on, hopeless incompetence and arrogance.

The tone and themes of Chekhov’s plays are ambiguous - bittersweet, tragicomic, sad and

joyful, adultery versus sterile faithfulness – allowing the actor to be open and make discoveries.

How to bring Chekhov’s text "alive" on stage. How to avoid parody, cliché and discover the

comedic road to the beauty of tragedy. Expressive movement, playfulness and fun, voice work

and ensemble play will be central.

For performers, writers, and directors.

For some projects participants will be expected to arrive having learnt pieces of text.

SHAKESPEARE

Scene work on the history plays, tragedies and comedies. We will investigate a variety of ways

that will help the actor to gain insight, understanding and pleasure in the text to release its

beauty and magic. We will avoid a psychological approach

PLAY & PERFORMANCE

An introduction to the foundations of theatrical performance: physical and spatial awareness;

timing; the creation and exchange of focus; play with objects; physical self-awareness; the uses

of rhythm to link action, intention, play and emotion. Linking these elements is a concentration

upon finding and taking pleasure in one’s own performance and sharing this with an audience.

DEVISING THEATRE

These are workshops designed to enable the student to initiate and develop group and

individual performances. Devising will be presented as a process involving play, masks,

visualisation exercises, improvisation and the development of rhythm and relationships. Central

to this work is finding ways to play and co-operate.

PLAYING WITH TEXT. The performer is the means through which the audience hears the text. What will enable the

performer to communicate the text? We will explore various ways of loosening and liberating the

text so that both the performer and the audience are connected through it. Games and the

playfulness they generate will be the means by which the relationship between performer,

audience and text will be explored.

THEATRE OF STORIES The objective of this workshop is to discover how to bring the words of a story alive on stage,

transforming them using movement, action and simple props. We will turn Stories into Theatre.

We will begin with exercises that will make words playful and physical. Games, sheets, wigs,

bits of anything and everything will be brought together to help us to play with the words of the

stories and to bring them, and the characters that speak them, alive.

Throughout the emphasis will be on developing ways to devise theatre as a group. We will do

this by developing a positive sense of play and co-operation.

STREET THEATRE

Spontaneous play, interaction and storytelling form the focus for these workshops.

We will develop an ensemble/group approach to street theatre that is playful and rich in

surprise. Clear, simple clown characters will be developed from individual and group

improvisations.

MASK

Masks constrain the performer by reducing some of his or her expressiveness – facial

expression most obviously – but by this process they also liberate by requiring the release of

deeper, creative resources. Masks transform and change, allowing the performer to discover

new rhythmic relationships with the audience. The student will be introduced to neutral, full and

half masks.

COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE

An invitation to explore the improvised, half-mask theatre that originated in Italy. This is the

world of Arlechino, Pantalone, Dottore, Capitano, Columbina and the Zanni who attempt to

survive in a comical world full of greed, revenge and love. The Commedia provided the

foundation for much of today’s comedy and clowning. We will concentrate upon character work,

improvisation, rhythm and the development of scenarios.

BOUFFONS : Theatre of grotesque play Play is spontaneous, enjoyable and full of surprises. It is usually associated with enjoyment and

laughter. This workshop will explore the darker side of play. We will uncover a grotesque world

inhabited by the Bouffons.

The Bouffon originates in the Medieval Period and is the dark reflection of the Clown. Bouffons

live on the edge of society. They have been rejected because they are considered deformed,

mad, ugly, morally corrupt and evil. Their mere existence challenges the morals and authority of

everyone.

The Bouffons relish any opportunity to play with the unacceptable, with whatever is taboo. They

seek revenge against those who have oppressed them and their play reveals the hypocrisy they

see all around them. Their tools are parody, satire and relentless mocking of the “beautiful

people.” At times the laughter they produce may be challenging and uncomfortable, at other

times refreshing and releasing.

Comments from participants:

"Rigorous, playful, challenging."

"Incisive, inclusive, soothing - but without bullshit."

"Brilliant teacher - fascinating subject."

"Teaches simplicity."

"Well thought out progression from the very subtle, building up to some very touching

and surprising improvisations. Very inclusive. I felt comfortable and confident."