- Title: GERMANY: STUDENTS TRAIN IN CLOWN AND CIRCUS ROUTINES AT MAINZ'S CLOWN SCHOOL
- Date: 20th December 2000
- Summary: VARIOUS, STUDENT PUTTING ON STILTS.
- Embargoed: 4th January 2001 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MAINZ, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Entertainment,General
- Reuters ID: LVAE5P0SKWLPKG9FNE0PG2I4JSMA
- Story Text: It's a school of a different kind. No classrooms, no marks, no maths...and lots of laughter. It's the school for clowns in the German city of Mainz, where students go to learn the art of entertainment.
In 1994, two German clowns, decided to open a clown school in a disused US army barracks to teach aspiring students how to become clowns.
With classes in acting, voice training, acrobatics, juggling and circus technique, the school has attracted students from around the world onto its two-year course.
Michael Stuhlmiller, one of the clown co-founders says "Most clowns are interested in the stage training, that means most of them dream of small theatre stages. There are some that say explicitly "I want to go to a circus"; these are the core of the students. Others decide to go in the teaching direction as clown doctors, or in the case of teaching and training, the core end up on the stage".
"We asked other artists, what do you think about creating a school for clowns? Because we realised there is no school; everybody who wants to become a clown must search his teachers everywhere. So we have done it like this; our teachers have been in Italy, our teachers have been in France, in Germany as well. So we said ok, we'll create an institution where somebody who wants to become a clown can join in and develop his possibilities".
Although the idea was unusual, the school receives funding from the local government. It offers a two year professional qualification specialising in improvisation, music, voice training, acrobatics, juggling, and dance.
And whoever wants to take it further and learn fire breathing, uni-cycle riding and stilt walking, they can also do that here.
"Most clowns are interested in the stage training, that means most of them dream of small theatre stages. There are some that say explicitly "I want to go to a circus"; these are the core of the students. Others decide to go in the teaching direction as clown doctors, or in the case of teaching and training, the core end up on the stage", says Stuhlmiller.
And the students love the chance to learn their chosen trade properly:
"To some extent we are certainly a mixture of both (actors and clowns), and we place particular emphasis on the art of acting. But, unlike the actor who interprets a given part, we are the always the authors of our own plays and we always enchant the character that we portray with an element of what we ourselves are. And this I think is where the difference lies". - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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