I was lucky enough to enroll in the two-day workshop conducted by Giovanni Fusetti. You can see his bio on the Festival website, so you know he has credentials.
What is not evident from his portfolio, is that Giovanni is a gentle, insightful, articulate teacher. He has a deep understanding of the theatrical world of clown, grotesque and bouffon.
The workshop was presented as a working session. Each participant brought a developed or developing act to use in the working sessions. We each had three sessions with Giovanni focussing on us exclusively. He gave clear coaching for character development and writing structures. It was amazing to see the work develop and grow from one showing to the next.
No matter what state the piece began in, Giovanni worked the essential elements. One gem I gleaned was the clear distinction among some of the choices for character (using a cop as an example):
A character who is a cop
A clown whose essential nature necessitates his dressing as a cop
A clown who is playing at being a cop
A bouffon who is dressing as a cop to ridicule policemen
I believe the clown lives most happily in the third choice. I saw several shows in the Festival that were weak because they had not made a clear choice.
If you get a chance to study with Giovanni, grab it.
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