NEW WORKSHOP
with Adam Paolozza
Being Funny:
Clown and Physical Comedy Intensive
December 13, 14, 15th, 2023
"The clown doesn't exist aside from the actor performing him. We are all clowns, we all think we are beautiful, clever, strong, whereas we all have weaknesses, our ridiculous side, which can make people laugh when we allow it to express itself. "
-Jacques Lecoq
Why do we laugh? What makes us? How does it happen?
During this unique three day workshop we'll play around with these difficult questions, cultivating a spirit of spontaneity & play while developing a sense of confidence and pleasure in pursuit of our own unique sense of what’s funny.
Using games, exercises and improvisations we’ll explore:
-Play (le jeu)
-Physical Comedy
-Character Development
-Clown
This is a unique opportunity for artists of all disciplines and skill levels interested in discovering underlying principles of comedy and how the body can be utilized to make us laugh.
This workshop is led by award-winning performer, director and creator Adam Paolozza. Adam trained at the Lecoq school in Paris and studied mask with the Sartori family in Italy. With his company Bad New Days he’s developed a uniquely physical approach to creating theatre in Canada, with such works as Spent, The Double, Flashing Lights, Paolozzapedia, Italian Mime Suicide and The Cave.
When: December 13, 14, 15th, 2023
9:30-4pm daily
Where: The Railpath Arts Centre 35 Golden Ave. Toronto, ON
Fee: $250 plus HST
**20% Discount available for all Union members, former students, those in financial need and if you sign up on/before 5th.
*Some partially subsidized spots available.
*If financial accessibility is a problem, reach out and maybe we can figure something out
To sign up or ask a question write to Adam at: badnewdaysperformance@gmail.com
Italian Mime Suicide wins FIVE DORA AWARDS!!!!
We're very honoured to announce that our play Italian Mime Suicide, which played at The Theatre Centre in April, has won five Dora Mavor Moore Awards:
Outstanding Production - Italian Mime Suicide
Outstanding New Play - The Company
Outstanding Direction - Kari Pederson and Adam Paolozza
Outstanding Lighting Design - Andre Du Toit
Outstanding Costume Design - Allie Marshall and Evgenia Mikhaylova
Thank you to the whole team, our beloved audience, Tapa for organizing the Dora awards and to all the Dora sponsors. We'd also like to thank The Canada Council for the Arts, for the funding that makes this all possible.
NEWS: APRIL/MAY 2022
Bad New Days brings ITALIAN MIME SUICIDE to The Theatre Centre after a critically acclaimed, smash-hit run in Montreal at Théâtre Aux Écuries, earning a “Top Ten Shows of 2021” by the Montreal Gazette.
With an imagistic aesthetic reminiscent of the kitsch iconography of clowns, mimes and world-weary circus acrobats, ITALIAN MIME SUICIDE sensitively explores the levity within tragedy, creating a funny, poetic meditation on melancholy, the acceptance of failure and the usefulness of art in troubled times.
ITALIAN MIME SUICIDE marks Bad New Days’ return to Toronto stages to ask why do we make art, why is it important, and why now?
“Italian Mime Suicide features four marvellous mimes accompanied by a turntable musician who fuses jazz, electro and traditional polyphonic singing. Through different vignettes, always funny, sad and touching at the same time, the characters depict what could have caused the despair of this mime and pushed him to end his life. […] isn’t that precisely the magic of mime? To offer only poetry and beauty, even if it is a question of interpreting the greatest tragedies…?” –Sophie Jama, pieuvre.ca
COMING SOON to The Theatre Centre
@thetheatrecentre
April 21st - May 1st
All Tickets are on a Pay What You Can Afford sliding scale, available at:
https://theatrecentre.org/event/italian-mime-suicide/
For More Info:
poster photo by Omar David Rivero
background photo by Najim Chaoui
teaser by Sandrick Mathurin
NEWS: FALL/WINTER 2021
Quebecois Premier of Italian Mime Suicide
Makes Montreal Gazette's Top 10 of 2021 List
Based loosely on the true story of an Italian mime who jumped off a building claiming no one appreciated his art, Italian Mime Suicide is a (mostly) silent play about Mime.
Using a lyrical, physical, comedic style - imagine Robert Wilson meets Cirque du Soleil - and a visual aesthetic indebted to Picasso’s paintings and the kitsch iconography of world-weary mimes, clowns, and acrobats, Italian Mime Suicide is a poetic, philosophical meditation on themes of mental health, dignity in failure, and the usefulness of art in troubled times.
Italian Mime Suicide returns to Toronto this April at The Theatre Centre, stay tuned for more information!
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