Introduction To Fooling
(3 days)

Fooling is a form of solo improvisation where you get to meet and play with the cast of characters who normally live inside your head. In Fooling, we call these characters ‘masks.’ 

During this 3-day Introduction To Fooling workshop, you may meet the masks of your inner child, your inner critic, your inner guide, your inner anarchist, your inner artist, your inner hermit and who knows who else! Some of your masks might have something remarkable to say, others might express themselves through dance or song, some might just turn up and sit quietly. The Fool, approaching life with openness and curiosity, walks into the empty space without a script or a plan and says, "Wow, look what I found!”

This new 3-day version of the introduction to fooling course introduces participants to the fundamentals of Fooling through guided meditations, a range of embodied explorations, structured feedback and personal reflection. Although Fooling is a solo form, this workshop is very much a group journey. We’ll support each other to find our own audaciously authentic quality of play.

This workshop aims to support you to:

• Find form for the voices in your head.

• Discover ways to dialogue with your inner voices.

• Discover a structure for creating solo improvised performances.

• Discover a way to generate raw material to use as the basis for creating devised theatre.

• Develop a more sensitive, connected and alive style of performance. 

• Learn tools to safely bring your authentic feelings into your performance and connection with other humans

About Holly

Fooling has formed the foundation for most of Holly’s performing / directing work since she began her training with Franki Anderson, over 20 years ago. Over the years, Holly has woven in many strands of her professional training and experience, including mindfulness, dramatherapy, dance-movement, voice work, communication skills training, creative writing and sacred clown, to develop her own version of the form.

Holly is artistic director of a public performance company of fools called Beyond The Ridiculous. 

About You

To apply for this course, you need to have worked with Holly before. This includes people who have attended one of Holly’s Introduction to Clowning, Mindful Play, Playful Presence or Inner Voice courses, people who have participated in the Online Clown Academy courses and people who have attended any of Holly’s guest workshops, R&D workshops or anyone who has been directed by Holly.

This workshop is designed to be useful for both performance training and as personal therapy. Holly is a trained and registered dramatherapist and has the capacity to hold a deep, exploratory space. Holly’s previous Fooling participants have found themselves exploring a range of themes linked to the human condition, including: mental health, life choices, grief and joy. There is no pressure to delve deep, but please be aware that some people in the group might want to, so if you’re frightened of emotions, this may not be the workshop for you!