Here is a mini workshop for you to do at home. It's an excerpt from The Online Clown Academy's 4th Zoom Clown drop-in session, exploring the theme of connection.

The Wardrobe Theatre presents Beyond The Ridiculous in a live, improvised, online celebration of the human condition!

Saturday 10th October 2020

“Both incredibly funny and incredibly moving.” -The Huffington Post

Hello! I've edited an excerpt from The Online Clown Academy's first of four drop-in Zoom Clown sessions so you can try it out at home. In this session, we'll be exploring the theme of acceptance through meditation and playful exploration:

What's a clown to do when they can't play in a room with other clowns? They play online, of course!

Hoorah! Hooray! The idiots came out to play! 

We miss you all so much, we miss being in a room with you and witnessing all the magic that happens in our workshops. So, in collaboration with Robyn from Clown Workouts, we've decided to throw a socially distant idiots picnic + games afternoon for the clowns and fools of Bristol. We hope you can join us.

It's my last day of writing retreat in the beautiful seaside town of Ilfracombe. I rode three trains and a bus in a mask to get some time alone with my book. 

Truth be told, we had a bit of a tiff back in February and we hadn't spoken since. Before that we'd been on a 6 month break, after living in each other's pockets for most of last summer. It's not been the easiest of relationships, but for the last six years, no matter how far away we run, we periodically gravitate back to each other.

Do you remember midsummer's night, June 2020? Lockdown was beginning to ease and the fools of Beyond The Ridiculous took a moment to reflect on their journeys through the strangest spring they'd ever encountered, in their first ever online show, 'Voices of Lockdown, Live and Unleashed'.

Bee Golding, our poet in residence, took Orla's live transcription of the show and her own embodied memories from being audience, and created a collection of poems to capture the night.

On 20th June, Beyond The Ridiculous performed our first ever online Fooling (solo improvisation) performance on Zoom. We were supported by The Wardrobe Theatre in Bristol to explore how our work might translate to a digital platform. It was a massive experiment for an ensemble of solo improvisers who usually perform live on stage.This blog charts the process of developing and performing the show and includes a newly commissioned poem from poet in residence, Bee Golding.

For the last 3 ½ months, I've been offering one-to-one online Creative Consultancy for theatre practitioners, facilitators, therapists and academics. Together we've celebrated triumphs, grieved losses, delved into shadows, tapped into dream-spaces, planned projects and asked “Why ever not?” 

The one-to-one consultancy spawned a solo show peer-support group and a group creative dreaming day. This blog is a chance for me to reflect back on these projects and let you know what I've been up to, dear reader.