About Neo-Bouffon

Due to the unique challenges of this course, enrollment is very limited: selected applicants should expect to have an interview / further inquiry into their aims with this work.

This popular workshop is inspired by Karen Hines’ brilliant and provocative approach to Bouffon.

In Paris and London and around the world, master teacher Philippe Gaulier teaches a style of performance known as “bouffon”, characterized by the use of physical affliction (humps, etc.) in combination with parody to achieve a highly theatrical effect. This performance style finds its roots in medieval Europe, though the lore stretches into timeless and universal territory.

“NEO-BOUFFON” is Karen Hines’s Canadian response to the work: firmly rooted in the lessons of Parisian master Gaulier, but focused on finding new ways to apply the essential elements of bouffon within the context of contemporary North American culture.

Through the exploration of the basic foundations of bouffon, plus in-class creation, the work encourages a comedically-oriented dissection of societal maladies and afflictions. This course aims to wring laughter from unsettling aspects of contemporary culture, in the name of timely, responsible, thoughtful approaches to parody, high performance, great entertainment and killer content.

This course is designed for writers, designers and directors as much as it is for performers: much of the course is geared toward strategies for creation and development of material. Course content and exercises are challenging, often involving the realms of religion, sex and politics, and are not for the faint of heart. The work entails an unflinching look at the darker side of the human potential.