Halifax Herald Article "DON'T BE BORING"
"The Nose is the smallest mask in the world. It doesn't hide you it reveals you."
Don’t be boring
Actor Beale teaches The Joy of Failure in Red Nose Clown workshops
By ANDREA NEMETZ Entertainment Reporter
Everyone has an inner clown, says Halifax actor John Beale. "As adults, it gets covered up with pretense, with masks, with the defense mechanisms that everyone uses to hide themselves. "In The Joy of Failure, a series of workshops in Red Nose Clown, Beale will work at taking those layers away. "When we find laughter, we get closer to the clown. You’ve stepped out from yourself, shown yourself. That’s what we’re going for. "You have to learn how not to be boring, how not to push too much, how to be comfortable in your own skin. It’s about being comfortable and happy being in the spotlight. It could be acting or public speaking. It’s great study for anyone. "Beale, who graduated from Dalhousie University theatre school and was a founding member of Shakespeare by the Sea Theatre company in Halifax, learned about clowning while studying with master clown Philippe Gaulier in Paris six years ago. "There are a lot of misconceptions about clown," he says, looking relaxed this Christmas break after a busy fall that included roles in Neptune Theatre’s productions of The Devil’s Disciple and Frost/Nixon, as well as Luna/Sea Theatre’s brilliant comedy The Girl in the Goldfish Bowl. "Everyone thinks about a clown as having big shoes, red hair and a painted face. It’s not that. "Instead, it’s learning how to play, to take pleasure in being onstage and being in the spotlight, to be complicit with the audience and to show yourself without shying away. In fact, the first classes Beale took during the year he spent studying with Gaulier in 2002-2003 were entitled Le Jeu (the games). They were followed by studies in mask, character, Greek Tragedy, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Melodrama, Bouffant Clown and Monster Clown as well as writing and directing.
When Beale returned, he created The Peggy Show! the unauthorized
autobiography of Peggy from the Cove, a popular and irreverent one-man
show about how the tourist hotspot got its name. Beale grew up in Peggy's Cove and his family operates the Jo Beale
Gallery and Beale’s Bailiwick, a high quality gift store/cappuccino bar.
John Beale’s one-man comic production took place in the Old Red
Schoolhouse with its view of the famous granite rocks and lighthouse
over the last five summers. Now he’s heading back to Paris for a three-month master clown
workshop where he’ll put together a new show with the assistance of
Gaulier, who teaches in broken English to a class where students speak
a dozen languages. "He tries his best to explain in English, but his explanations are
so baffling it puts everyone in great place for clown, " says Beale
with admiration. The expressive actor expects to debut the show, which he says will
have the same playful quality and clown elements as Peggy in August.
But before he leaves in April, he’s teaching two workshops in Red Nose Clown, based on Gaulier’s pedagogy and philosophy of accessing people’s sense of play. A Level I weekend for people who have never done it before is slated for Jan 24 and 25, while a Level II workshop for students he’s taught over the last year will be held Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. Both workshops will be held at Halifax Ballet Theatre, 2540 Agricola St. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. Classes are limited to 25 students and are already half to three-quarters full. Beale also hopes to schedule in a few more workshops before he leaves for Paris with his wife, Danielle, a massage therapist. The workshops are not only for actors. Last year, he also taught filmmakers, artists, teachers and even a dentist and deemed some of the non-actors ""brilliant. ""Workshops begin with games. We start with very simple exercises. It’s not required to be clever, you don’t need a million ideas. It’s more about what happens when you’re out of ideas and you’re in the thick of it and you just have to be there and see if you’re open to the audience. People say it’s terrifying and exhilarating. ""At the end of the first day, students get assigned a character and must build a costume overnight. ""They have to build it as quickly as they can, as simply as they can, beg, borrow or steal. If something doesn’t fit, that’s fine. It helps people find their clown, bring out their own ridiculous quality, "" says Beale, noting when Gaulier says ridiculous, he means beautiful. ""It’s an extension of the (red) nose. The nose is the smallest mask in the world. It doesn’t hide you, it reveals you. The costume is meant to reveal more of your human qualities, to make you vulnerable. ""Beale says he had a great response to the classes he offered last year both weekend workshops and a series of eight weekly classes. He opened up the last hour of class in the weekly sessions to friends and family of participants eager to show off what they learned and it was so successful, he is planning to do an evening performance at the end of the Level II weekend.
The cost for each workshop is $100.
To register, contact Beale at 223-0991 or john@johnbeale.net.