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CLOWN Workshop with Toph Enany
March 14 @ 10:30 am - 12:00 pm
CLOWN Workshop with Toph Enany
You hear the word clown, and a specific image or idea probably pops into your mind. Chances are that is not what this workshop is about. Le Jeu is French for “play.” You are on stage to play. And the clown plays with great openness.
In this workshop, we will use this play and openness to explore letting the audience help you find what’s funny, saving the flop (getting a laugh when your “brilliant idea” doesn’t work), and feeling free to do (almost) anything on stage. This work leads to better listening and sensitivity on stage, and this can lead to finding shockingly funny moments while improvising and better construction when building a rehearsed show. Or it simply can lead to more playfulness with your niece or son or sibling or friend or passing stranger on the sidewalk.
Toph Enany is an international performer and director originally from Connellsville, PA. He has performed across the US and Europe, including iO Chicago, Humor Over Oslo Festival, and the Malta Festival (Poland). He has co-created the clown shows Biph Train with Brian Hevron-Smith and Pancho y Papaya: A Clown Tragedy. And in 2022, he directed Darius Emadi’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, Hot Ticket!. He has also coached LA-based actors for tv and film auditions.
Toph trained for two years with clown master Philippe Gaulier. He has an MFA in Advanced Devising Practices from arthaus.berlin and has also trained in Suzuki and Viewpoints with SITI Company and clowning with Philip Burgers (Dr. Brown), Lucy Hopkins, and Paola Coletto.
Quotes from performers Toph has worked with:
"Toph has a very easy and compassionate way of working with you. I felt like I trusted him, that he was pushing me in the exact direction I needed to go, but that I couldn’t see for myself." -Darius
"Toph has a piercingly keen eye for finding the heart of a number, the thing you know exists somewhere but can rarely find by yourself." – Jasper