What’s on for 2008/2009 includes: Workshops in Exeter, London, Glasgow, Cardiff, Berlin and New York Research into the state of clowning through fellowships in 3 academic organisations 2-week courses and taster days Laughter Yoga sessions Please go to www.thewhynotinstitute.com for full details of all our courses. WORKSHOPS Workshops for 2008 include a 2-week course in Exeter in November and some taster days in Cardiff in December. Workshops for 2009 include a 2-week course in January and a summer school in Glasgow. Please see the www.thewhynotinstitute.com page for more details OUR PROGRAMME 'How to Be A Stupid©' or ‘Acting Can be Fun’, or ‘The Clown’s Intelligence’ or ‘The Art of Creative Intelligence’ - intensive clown performance craft and workshop 'The Land of Why Not©' Project 'HaHarmonics©' - the Clown Choir 'The Play Sessions©' - games workshop ‘Laughing Matters© ’ - Laughter Yoga sessions The Surgery - clown, performance craft and mentoring consultancy 'Artist in Residence' - development of shows in house with students or having students following he creative process. The Clown's Competence© - working with teachers and head teachers from primary and secondary schools. Why Not Enterprises© - coaching and trainning for businesses people HOW TO BE A STUPID ‘How To Be A Stupid ’or ‘The Clown’s Intelligence’ is a full-time full-on course into the state of clowning - intense and challenging but profoundly transformatory as well. For beginners and those more experienced who need refreshing, refocusing or a burst of energy, this course will take you on a profoundly challenging journey, with laughs and play along the way. For Angela de Castro, clowning is not a technique but a state, a state of imagination. ‘How To Be A Stupid ‘ or ‘The Clown’s Intelligence’ will take you on a journey to find and maintain that state. Through exercises and games, this practical course takes participants through a process that helps them find their clown persona and experience this persona in the state of clowning. For those of you who are already clowns, this process will help you find truthfulness and depth in your clowning, encompassing the tragic as much as the comic. For actors and other performers, this process will help make your performing more real, more individual, more joyful. For beginners and those who just want an experience of personal development, the course will take you on a transformatory journey of discovery. There are usually 12 places available on each workshop. Participants must be aged 18 or over. You need to be available for the whole length of the workshop because it follows a process that the whole group needs to go through together. It is not possible for participants to take time off for other commitments or to arrive late/leave early. Angela de Castro’s methodology has been well recognised in the UK and abroad, awarding her a Nesta Dreamtime Fellowship, a Arts Foundation Fellowship and an International Fellowship by Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama for her contribution on research, teaching, performing and promotion of the art of clowning. “I expected it to be very difficult. The truth was that the clown state was difficult for everyone, actors included. The emotions they convey are yours and they’re about you, no one else. Revealing them implies the removal of all the protective layers that have grown over your child state since you found the world wasn’t all benign and fun. You have to be brave to do that. The clown state is also incredibly fragile: you come out of it very easily. And the harder you try to create it, the more elusive it is. De Castro explained that she had discovered a few years ago that teaching was as much part of her mission as being a clown. We never once doubted how serious she was about this. She was very modest about her own abilities. She only showed a technique to help us understand, never as an opportunity to show off. But boy is she talented! Her demonstrations were dazzling. So simple and so clever. I don’t think I have the ability to turn the clown state into a performance per se. Who knows… meanwhile I can see that the single most important factor behind my sweetest moments so far is flashes of courage. Let’s have more!” Advertising executive and participant on How To Be A Stupid, June 2002 PLAY SESSIONS In the beginning was play… and play is everything To keep the creative spirit of play alive, a structured play session will invigorate, inspire and focus everyone, in all workplaces, and performance and community contexts. Play is at the heart of clowning but play sessions are not specifically clown workshops and so are welcoming for everyone who wants to release the joy of play within, to reconnect with their creative inner self, their physical energy and simple fun! For those wanting to explore clowning or their performance techniques, play sessions are a wonderful compliment to the challenging search for deeper clowning. Based on collective non-competative games, these structured and surprisingly thought-provoking sessions exercise body, soul and intellect. RESEARCH Over the years, The Why Not Institute has grown into an in-depth, serious investigation into the ‘state of clowning’, which we call ‘The Clown’s Intelligence’. At the heart of what we do is serious research into the process and effect of the state of clowning on creativity and effectiveness for people in theatre, the arts, business, education and many other walks of life. Angela de Castro’s work as a thinker and researcher into the state of clowning has led to profoundly transformative work within theatre, business and education. The diversity of clowning is a complicated matter that offers to the performer, to the actor and to the theatre practitioner a complete new spectrum of possibilities that can’t be found in any other art form. Clowning is not a technique but a state, a state of imagination, a state of freedom. This state allows performers not to fear exposing their ridiculous side, their weaknesses, naivety, fragility and failures. Through their failures they can reveal their profoundly human nature, which moves the audience and makes the audience laugh or cry, or both at the same time. This work has been recognised and supported by Nesta (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), the Arts Foundation, The Arts Council England and on-going relationships with a number of academic institutions. For the last five years, Angela de Castro has been a teaching fellow at three academic institutions in Germany, working in-depth with acting students at the Ernst Busch School in Berlin, the College for Actors in Bochum and the Folkwang University in Essen. In addition to her work in Germany, Angela de Castro is currently an international fellow at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, working with Professor Maggie Kinloch. She has also begun research into the clown in tragedy with Professor Lou Peacock at Hull University. LAUGHTER YOGA Angela de Castro is a trained teacher in Laughter Yoga and runs sessions for many groups of people. Laughter Yoga is a new concept that was started in India in 1995 by a family doctor called Dr. Madan Kataria. Dr. Kataria developed a technique that combines laughter exercises and gentle breathing to enhance health, happiness and healing. Everyone can laugh, without jokes or humour, or needing to have a reason. The body produces endorphins as a result of the laughter exercises and people feel better from the experience. A laughter yoga session has been proven to give participants: freedom from stress reductions in anxiety and depression relief from pain stronger Immune system, circulatory system and lymphatic system more self confidence, creativity, compassion and serenity better communication skills a positive attitude.