GREENFIELD — Residents are encouraged to dig deep and get silly during an upcoming class on clowning at The LAVA Center.
On Mondays starting Oct. 6, local theater artists Moo Butler and Hannah Harvester will offer a 10-week series, “The Joy of Red Nose Clown,” from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
“It’s a good way to connect with parts of yourself that you might be afraid of accessing, but you have fun doing that,” Butler said in a statement.
Participants will begin the process of discovering their own unique clown persona through theater exercises and games. As a bonus, students will also have the option to stay for an additional hour and watch the advanced clowns, who completed a 15-week course with Butler and Harvester earlier this year. The advanced clowns will work from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. after the intro class has concluded.
“We’re excited about the mixed-level class because connection with the audience is key
in this style of clowning,” Harvester said in a statement. “So the advanced clowns will have an audience to play for and the beginning clowns can see what lies ahead for them.”
Butler and Harvester teach a form of theatrical clowning developed by Giovanni Fusetti
of Padua, Italy, which they originally learned from Nettie Lu Lane of Brattleboro, Vermont, who studied with Fusetti. They have both trained directly with Fusetti as well. The particular style they teach is grounded in each person’s unique physicality.
“In this type of clowning, the clown persona comes from the actor’s own body and experiences. … It’s not a character that you think up in your brain. It emerges from you in direct relationship to the audience,” Harvester explained in a statement. “They are a person with a lot in common with some part of yourself. This is why it can be a healing practice. It’s also why an audience often really identifies with certain clowns and can laugh with them.”
“I love this form of clown because it’s a way to get in touch with yourself and also not
take yourself too seriously,” Butler added.
Harvester, a Conway resident, is a visual artist and teacher who has been studying the art of clowning since 2019.
Butler said for them, clowning has been a lifelong endeavor. Butler’s father was a professional clown who taught them that “being silly is a serious act.” When Butler met clown teacher Nettie Lu Lane at age 18, they immediately “dreamed of being able to do what Nettie did.”
The intro class at The LAVA Center begins with work and games designed to help students get in touch with their own physicality and authentic impulses. By the end of the 10-week course, students will have a physical form and movement style unique to their own clown. A follow-up course will be offered for those wishing to continue.
Butler and Harvester said that once a new clown has fully emerged, with their physical form, voice, name and clothing, they are then ready to play with other clowns.
“The beginner clown class pushed me to be present and connected to myself and my
classmates,” student Eva Rocheleau of Northampton, whose clown is named Strawberry Pudding, said in a statement. “Going to class was always the highlight of my week; for two hours I could just play and get out of my head.”
The class is open to everyone. No prior experience is necessary to join.
“All that is required is the willingness to at least try to be vulnerable,” Harvester said in a statement. “We don’t do tricks or slapstick.”
The workshop is offered on a sliding scale of $250 to $400 for the 10-week series. For more information, email rednoseclownwesternmass@gmail.com.
