
16th January 2025 In Emerson Stories, News By Adeline Garman
A brief interview with clowns Vivian Gladwell and Ali Stockford: The transformative magic of clowning workshops
Ali: I think people on a clowning workshop feel the permission to tap into a side that is always there but is not actually something they experience in daily life, which is this aspect of playfulness, of having actually time to deepen into something, a connection with someone, a joke, a kind of playful interaction.
And I think that’s what is in abundance in clowning workshops. And, I mean, to laugh is very, very, therapeutic.
Vivian: But essentially, I think you can’t lie. Whatever you do, even when you lie, you reveal yourself. So, I suppose that is the metaphor of the red nose, which is a mask, but then as a mask, normally it hides the person underneath. In this case, it doesn’t. The red nose is a ridiculously small mask and cannot hide you in a way, so it reveals you.
Ali: You’re just, for the clown, the clown is there, the clown is living their life. And so, you’re going to just bring yourself to the clown. And really, it’s an exploration of all of the parts of you, everything that makes you human. Including these darker places, and the very joyful and the light places, maybe places you haven’t been to in a long time.
Vivian: Once you play those games, you reveal parts of yourself that maybe you didn’t know you had. What does it mean to work with that? To work with those important parts of ourselves that we tend to deny, or to play with them in a safe way, in a way that we can express them.
Ali: We’re really interested in the process you’re going through, so that’s a really, really important element of what Clowning is. We’re not just teaching performance skills or techniques. There is a very strong theatrical element to the work we do, but there’s also this extra element, which is person centred, which means that we acknowledge that you did that but then ask, “how was that for you?” Always the feedback is within the context of the clown, but we really believe that we’re setting up a situation for people to become their own teacher.
Vivian: How do you keep it light, for example? How can you communicate effectively and be, you know, playful and not, I don’t know, stuck, let’s say. You’re standing there in front of people, and you just have to be whatever, whatever you are at the moment. And that’s what it is. And you celebrate that. And whatever reasons you have for not doing it, like being too frightened, those are perfect. And we clowns, perfect clown fears, let’s say. And so, bring your fear, bring your seriousness, bring everything, and we play with those things.
Interested in clowning at Emerson? We have a range of workshops running throughout the year, visit this page for details.