"The Art of Fooling"

 

 

 

 

Let me fall

If I must.

The one I will become

will catch me.

- Baal Shem Tov

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The Art of Fooling" as I call it, has been developed by Franki Anderson (UK). She calls it "The Fool in the empty Space“ or "Act of Life“. It is based on the character in the first card of the Tarot: The Fool.

 

"The fool plays on the edge, with one foot on the solid ground of the known, and the other hovering over the abyss of the unknown. The fool plays solely for the sake of the pleasure of playing, utterly absorbed, with no concern for success or failure“. (quote: Franki Anderson, my facilitator for more then 20 years)

 

The Fool is the zero card, neutral, a laughing master of ceremonies, welcoming the audience and not taking any role too serious. He maintains the contact with the audience. He creates a atmosphere of intimacy and friendship and shares his play as if they all where sitting at a table in their most favorite cafe.

In the Art of Fooling, the player uses inner voices. By the use of a few rules and facilitation the player develops a conscious about these inner voices. All voices (thoughts, feelings, opinions, energies) are regarded and named as "Masks“. These Masks have their own calendar, wishes, dreams, longings, body/moving patterns, voice colors, clothes, place where they live, age, etc. Therefore they will be usable to be played as roles. Infinite possibilities to play dramas, roles or themes from different perspectives come into being by the use of this method. The Fool looks for his/her own truth in this.

 

The Art of Fooling gives the player the possibility to relate in an authentic and truthful way to the audience. By being in the moment, the Fool takes the audience with him on his journey, into the story, which will unfold itself in a natural way.

 

The audience experiences the Fool as a mirror of the human soul. In the workshop we will meet this audience in the form of other participants. Our curiosity about their stories and reflections on that what has been shown, give new insights and new perspectives for our players. And this can be used for the next show.

 

In the workshop we work on being solo on stage with nothing more than your own being with all its skills and talents and we work also on ensemble play: what it means to work in a group as an individual player.

The workshop takes place as an open intuitive proces, in a safe environment, based on more then 25 years of experience in this art of improvisation.

 

Jaap Slagman:

I am a performer/player. In more the 25 years that I use the Art of Fooling, I Iearned that there is no ending to creativity and fantasy. Everything is welcome on stage. Even so called negative feelings like doubt or fear are or failure are desired gifts for playing dramas and can shine like diamonds of human qualities.

I use the method to approach blocks in creativity, to deal with text, to write stories, to create performances of all kind, to built my decors and to learn new disciplines. Besides all this it offers is a healthy way of playing with every day drama instead being driven by them. The playfulness characteristic of the method gives a experience of being fully alive with joy!!!

 

What experiences you get?

A few rules will open the possibilities to develop your inner player and show new ways to experience your own endless creativity.