Date: Monday 24th Aug- Friday 28th Aug
Cost: Workshop with standard double-occupancy room with early bird discount: $1,125
The early bird discount (10%) expires on April 2 then the registration fee is $1,250.
Workshop with single-occupancy room: $1,800
There is no early bird discount for single-occupancy rooms.
Note: A $400 deposit is required when you register for a double occupancy room. A $900 deposit is required for a single occupancy room. The remainder of your balance will be due prior to your arrival at Celebration Barn.
Led by: Aitor Basauri & Toby Park, Spymonkey Co-Artistic Director
Open your creative toolbox with a cohort of fellow clowns.
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This workshop equips you with the tools to take your material from early conception through to production. Along the way, you will learn how to:
The workshop investigates the fundamentals—such as the use of costumes, props, lighting, and sound—and explores more advanced concepts, such as writing tools, devising games, group dynamics, dramatic structure, physicality, and music.
This workshop attracts a wide range of artists—actors, directors, clowns, comedians, aerialists, and more. Regardless of your professional practice, you can apply the skills learned in this workshop to any kind of performance space, from purpose-built theaters and cabarets to variety stages, circus tents, and street corners.
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This schedule is subject to change, but it gives you a sense of what each day is like.
10:00 AM–1:00 PM
Warm-up, games, and exercises
1:00 PM–2:30 PM
Lunch break
2:30 PM–6:00 PM
Games and exercises
6:00 PM–8:00 PM
Dinner break
8:00 PM–10:00 PM
Present and workshop clown material
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For more information about our bursaries, please click here.
Founder, co-creator and performer of all Spymonkey shows to date. Performed in The Servant of Two Masters at Sheffield Crucible (1996), Axomate at the Seville Expo (1992), Eulenspiegel (1991) and in Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau’s Grand Paradis and Stau in Zurich (1997 and 1998). Director of Little Prince for Donkey Productions (1997), Un Vento Impetuoso for La Canoppia (1996) and Meci Y Me Fui for Pez Enraya ( 1997). In 1999 he appeared in Circus Knie, the Swiss State Circus, and in 2000 formed his own company Punto Fijo, based in Bilbao. Appeared in Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network. Appeared in Bertold Brecht’s Senor Carrera’s Rifles at the Young Vic, directed by Paul Hunter (2007).
Directing credits include: ‘Lily & Marlene’ for La Dinamica (Spain 2015); ’Looking for Duende’ for Teatro Entre Escombros (Spain 2015); ’Hondycops’ for Squadra Sua (Czech Republic 2015); ’Ferucchio Peru is Extraordinaire’ for Leebo Luby (UK 2015); Manifest Destiny (New York 2015); Fabulous Bäckström Brothers (Finland 2014); Entre Escobros ‘600 Teatro’ (Spain 2014); ‘Gloriator’ for Skipstick Productions (London 2013); ‘NMIIDP’ Simone Riccio, (London 2013); ‘Herr Ist Immer Der Natur’ for Die Drei Auf Den Baum (Berlin 2012); ‘Discombobulated’ for Publick Transport (Bristol & UK tour, 2011); ‘Ramshackadelicious’ (Bristol 2011); ‘Shake’ for The Last Baguette (Switzerland 2010). Director of physical comedy for Chichester Festival Theatre’s ‘Mack & Mabel’ (2015) starring Michael Ball. Co-director of Orpheus in the Underworld at Vienna Volksoper operahouse which opens in 2023.
Aitor is an acclaimed teacher of clown, regularly leading Spymonkey training in London, New York, Maine, Los Angeles and around the world, and for the Clown Doctors organisation in Germany, Austria and France.
Studied Drama at Hull University, and trained at Fool Time Circus School, Bristol, and with Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneaux in Paris.
Toby co-created all Spymonkey shows to date. He performed in Stiff (1998-2011), Cooped (2001-2019), Zumanity with Cirque du Soleil (2003-2005), Bless (2007), Moby Dick (2009), Love In (2010), Oedipussy (2012), Mrs Hudson’s Christmas Corker (2014), Every Last Trick (2014), The Complete Deaths (2016), Christmas Carol (2018), The Frogs (2024).
From 1994-97 he was co-musical director and actor with Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau in Zurich; member of the Improbable Theatre Lifegame company (1998-2000) including an off-Broadway run.
Musical director and composer for: all Spymonkey shows to date; Guy Dartnell’s Would Say Something (1998); acro-dance-theatre Mimbre’s Sprung (2001), Trip-Tic (2003) and The Bridge (2007); site-specific pieces with Graeme Gilmour at Kielder Water Northumberland (2006) and Forth & Clyde Canal Glasgow (2007), and with Phil Supple/The Electric Estate for the National Trust at Cragside Northumberland.
Appeared in Sandi Toksvig’s Christmas Cracker starring Ronnie Corbett at the Royal Festival Hall (2009). TV appearances include Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network and BBC2 Hyperdrive.
Director of Fabulous Bäckström Brothers, a clown opera in Helsinki (2014), and Big Bang Siegfried for Orchestra Hagen Germany (2016), Enter The Dragons for A&E Comedy (2017); co-director of The Flop for Hijinx Theatre Cardiff; Director of physical comedy for Chichester Festival Theatre’s Mack & Mabel (2015); RSC’s Merry Wives of Windsor (2018); Tartuffe (2019) and Jack Absolute Flies Again (2022) for National Theatre; Hello Dolly! (2024) for Michael Harrington Productions.
Co-director of Orpheus in the Underworld (2023, 2024, 2025) for Volksoper Vienna and Spymonkey’s Hairy (2023).
