This week I accepted the challenge to post short daily videos capturing field notes from Fools School.

To protect my students vulnerability, Fools School is normally a confidential space. This week my students generously gave me permission to share little snippets of their experience, anonymously.

Day 1: The Lift shaft

I'm in the windy Easter Garden in Clifton, Bristol. 

In the closing circle, one of my students said how weird it was to spend a day expressing without words. I explained this is my methodology, we start in the body. We notice feelings and sensations and we experiment with communicating what we find, nonverbally. 

Words come later, when we've given the body a chance to speak!

Another student said letting go of the words felt like going down a lift shaft, dropping down into a deeper realm of experiencing.

Day 2: The Birth

Today at Fools School, the Fools each took the stage for their first 5 minute Fool.

Armed only with some ways of accessing and embodying their parts, they took it in turns to step onto the stage with no script, no plan and no clue about what was going to happen. 

It was like watching 8 births!

At the end of the day, the Fools wrote a collective poem, which I read out on this video.

Day Two at Fools School
I'm wrapped in a yellow mellow fog.
There was so many silly sausages.
F**k the effort, show me real!
Chucking chairs is good.
Hell yeah!
And a sneeze.
Pleasant exhaustion.
The sweatiest I've been in ages.
I fold, I unfold,
And it's joyful.
Let the shamelessness begin!
It turns out I'm not an alien.
Even watching is so many emotions,
It's exhausting!
Tada!
Jazz hands!

Day 3: Internal Renovations

Today we went to the very deep depths of the psyche and the soul! 

Fooling is a community experience. While each person explores their inner world on stage, the audience also experiences their own parallel material from their seat. 

One of the participants described the day as like undergoing major internal renovations - like having walls taken out of your house and all the chaos that brings.

Another participant talked about a need for structured sedimentation. This phrase came from another workshop they'd attended, where built into the programme were moments to let the sediment of the rushing river settle down to the river bed.

With that the Fools flopped back on the carpet, one by one and laying on their backs, they began to hum in harmony together.

Day 4: The Cast

In todays Fools Field Notes, I share some of the parts that have appeared on our stage over the last four days...

We have seen critics, kids, planners,
dancers, teenagers, parents, adventurers.
We've seen a corpse.
We've seen a coach.
We've seen a theatre director.
There's been shame.
There's been blame.
There's been anger.
There's been contempt.
There's also been joy and bliss and kindness and compassion.
There's been awkwardness.
There's been grief.
And there's been goblins.
Quite a lot of goblins.
There's been Shakespeare.
There's been standup.
There's been storytelling.
There's been dancing.
And there's been being.
People just literally sat on the stage and did nothing.
Doing nothing, being themselves.
We've seen people folding blankets, throwing cushions, kicking chairs, and shouting out of windows.
Only one complaint from the neighbours.
And my favourite moment, maybe,
I mean there's so many favourite moments,
But my favourite moment today,
Was the person who discovered;
“I’m allowed to like myself,”
And everybody cried.

Day 5: The Playground

On the final day of Fools School, one of the participants told us about a reoccurring dream they have of an out of bounds playground. This week they dreamed there was a chink in the railings and a possibility of squeezing through...

Massive thanks to my students for giving me permission to share some of their experiences.

Much gratitude to Livvy Little who was my workshop assistant and chief film maker this week. 

You can find me on Instagram here.

To find out more about my 5-day Fools School, check out this page.