Melodrama meets Bouffon. Playing with extremes and satire. Part 1
For me the bouffon is the underbelly of society and of ourselves. It’s our shadow, our demon, the Hyde to our Jeckyll. Taking my fascination and love of horror, I will be guiding us through physical explorations via the lens of melodrama to discover our own inner bouffon/demon.
This week’s workshop is $17. Pre-registration suggested to guarantee spot.
ABOUT STEPHANIE CARPANINI
Stephanie is delighted to be co-teaching with the wonderfully dynamic artist/performer/musician: Janice Jo Lee for Play Play’s Creation Lab! She’s a performer who loves to explore the darkness of humanity through Clown work and the irreverence of Bouffon as these mediums provide her with great catharsis and joy. Grateful for having the opportunity to have trained with clown master Philippe Gaulier, it has influenced her pedagogical style as well as ignited a freedom and rebellion in her work
Creator of DONNA CARNIVORA’S KILLER PARTY which premiered to rave reviews at The 2022 Edmonton Fringe Festival. Stephanie will be reimagining KILLER PARTY and bringing it to The Edinburgh 2024 Fringe Festival next August. Furthermore if you’d like a Donna Carnivora teaser, she will be opening for Sam Chaulk’s INFLUENCED on Friday The 13th (October) at Sweet Action Theatre!
“Stephanie Carpanini does an amazing job as Donna Carnivora, stepping back and forth between pleasant interactions and outrageous outbursts. She’s creepy, yet oozes enough charisma to keep the audience from running out the doors.” -The Edmonton Journal
Inspired by her love of BOUFFON and campy horror films, KILLER PARTY is an apocalyptic comedy of female neurosis. In the spirit of John Waters and David Lynch, her interactive show features the unraveling of a housewife gone wild who’s ready to party and kill until curtain call. Think Marilyn Monroe meets American Psycho!
Play Play is a workshop series started in September 2022 by Janice Jo Lee and Oliver Georgiou with a vision to offer a variety of performance training based in clown and improvisation. We brought in guest teachers and covered an array of topics such as: physical theatre, Viewpoints, voice, contact improv, melodrama, artist statements, and more.
We encourage people of all abilities and backgrounds to join Play Play. Folks who are 2SLGBTQI+, racialized, or have different physical abilities are especially encouraged to attend. Contact Janice if you have any questions at janjolee@gmail.com.
Our workshops are held Monday nights 8-10pm at Sweet Action Theatre, in the Artscape Youngplace building, 180 Shaw Street, Unit 106.
HEALTH, SAFETY AND ACCESSIBILITY
Sweet Action Theatre has 3 HEPA filters and air conditioning. Performers may choose to wear a mask for the entire duration. Performers are asked to self-screen and stay home if feeling ill.
Sweet Action is a wheelchair accessible venue. Performers with access needs are invited to participate and contact Janice in advance (janjolee@gmail.com)
TESTIMONIALS
“The lab pushed me hard and kept me engaged throughout. Intense warm-ups and challenging ensemble exercises created a culture of hard work, risk-taking, and deep openness. It provided the opportunity to collaborate with new people, and gain new perspectives on the work. It allowed me to see my ideas and experiments in the context of other works, and to be influenced by them. The process of seeing the whole emerge from the pieces was transformational as a performer, and provided insights into developing a director's eye. I had truly succeeded in finding joy on stage--the very cornerstone of clown-based performance. Janice is welcoming, encouraging, and enthusiastic. She has created a safe space for people to be vulnerable, to take risks, and to grow. She is very receptive to new ideas and feedback, adaptable, and deeply respectful. She is amazing to work with.”-Creation Lab Participant, Spring 2023
“Janice creates magic through having genuine relationships with the artists that revolve around mutual respect, consent and honesty at every step of the way.” -Creation Lab Participant, Spring 2023
“Janice’s style of creation and discovery just works. She set up a space that was safe but also allowed us to possibly dig into some very uncomfortable territory as we explored our various “pain pieces”. A tricky task, but it worked. She knew when to interject with a different idea or approach, or to scrap something altogether when our ensemble was experimenting with different pieces. She also just sat back at times, and let us discover some things on our own; beautiful or funny or tragic things that we could weave into the show. I never felt silly (in a self-conscious way) or left out or ignored, and I’m sure that the rest of the cast felt the same way. She made sure we felt safe sharing ideas, and gave us ample opportunity to express ourselves in so many ways.” -Creation Lab Participant, Spring 2023
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR, JANICE JO LEE
“Lee has a mischievous twinkle in her eye and a marvellous spontaneity”–Now Toronto
“An iron fist in a slowly-removed velvet glove.”–Mooney on Theatre
Janice Jo Lee (she/they) is an award-winning queer multidisciplinary artist based in Tkaronto, Ontario. She is a second generation Canadian settler and twenty-seventh generation Korean. She is a folk-soul-jazz singer, songwriter, composer, sound designer, spoken word poet, actor, clown, satirist, and educator. She has facilitated Play Play since fall of 2022 at Sweet Action Theatre.
Janice is a hard femme, queer, radical, comedian, truth-teller and satirist. She is interested in using art to build flourishing communities based in justice and joy. Her work explores gender justice, antiracism, friendship, community, ancestry and the Earth. She has created theatre with MT Space, Green Light Arts, Theatre Passe Muraille, fu-GEN, lemonTree Creations, Randolph Kids, Le Project N’we Jinan, Theatre MADA and Cosmic Fishing Theatre. Recently she completed the Musical Stage Company’s Noteworthy Program for Composers and Lyricists.
Janice composed the book and music for her critically-acclaimed one-woman musical titled Will You Be My Friend (Dir. Matt White, Green Light Arts) a searing satire on cultural assimilation in Canada. She composed original music and sound for: This Is How We Got Here (Green Light Arts 2022), Shaded by Nada Abousaleh (Cosmic Fishing Theatre 2021), I Don’t Know (Theatre MADA/MT Space 2021) Dora-nominated Suitcase (Theatre MADA/Theatre Passe Muraille 2020), both by Ahmad Meree. Lee has released three albums of original music.
Janice has spoken word training with d’bi young anitafrika, Lillian Allen, bouffon/clown training with Adam Lazarus, Nathaniel Justiniano, and Deanna Fleysher, and physical theatre training with MT Space, and Fadhel Jaibi. Janice has worked as an educator for 12 years facilitating arts, anti-oppression and leadership workshops across Canada. She has facilitated anti-oppression workshops for University of Waterloo, Laurier Student Public Interest Research, Laurier Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto Faculty of Social Work, Folk Alliance International and Vancouver Poetry House. Janice has directed theatre creation programs for racialized youth with MT Space, Le Project N’we Jinan, and Randolph Kids.
In Waterloo Region, Janice Jo Lee was voted Best Performance Artist five years running from 2016 to 2020 (The Community Edition Newspaper.) Currently she is working on a new musical satire titled Man Baby and the Earth.