What is Fooling?
Fooling is a unique technique that introduces you to the architecture of your own personal inner stage, upon which you are able to perform on or in any space, and at any time, using just improvisation and your own imagination. This work stretches past ego, allowing you to feel at ease in any situation and comfortable talking intimately with anyone in the audience, be them a beggar, king or queen.
As a performer you slowly learn to play within this architecture, which Jonathan Kay calls “the Structure”. As you also learn about the atmosphere available in each part of the stage, you allow yourself to be influenced, and in doing so you as the performer surrenders to that experience to create whatever kind of ‘stage’ you are performing in, be it the street, in a church, theatre or in a living-room.
The Structure is developed through the workshops. It is a way of moving through the stage area and meeting the unknown with a relaxed attitude. Knowing this, the performer is always carrying their ‘inner stage’ with them, wherever they go.
The Director, Stage Manager, PR, Administrator and Fool are all in you. Over time you will develop the skills and ability to manage yourself, asking the questions that matter to you. We suggest that you make this journey with a sense of wonder, curiosity and openness.
“Come turn your forgotten Fool, slumbering in your inner worlds, with no present recognition. Connect to your source, your sauce, your truth, your author, your playful twin! It is discovered in theatre straddling from Shakespeare’s love to a banana skin… Be a Fool. Be at ease. Improvise. Stand fearless. Begin truth. Make worlds connect! Begin and triumph over the mediocre. Create worlds only you can imagine! Give action to them in the Fools theatre worlds. You’re a Fool. Know it, deep down, you’ve been rumbled. Now come out to play and enjoy yourself. Turn the world you know to a new world where your real world is infected with your Fool. Be true to yourself. Connect to those other actors on the worlds stage come and begin.”
(Jonathan Kay)
Workshops
To join our workshops, you don’t have to have to be part of our annual Training groups, nor do you need to have performer experience or aspirations. This work suits everyone with an interest to explore themselves and the world of the Fool within a performance space. The NOA is a place where you can be a Fool, a true and ultimate Beginner on stage. No performance experience is needed for this. You just need to feel that its time to really connect with yourself and others.
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Full Annual Training
Create or be created!
Every year – which begins after the summer holidays for us – the NOA opens up for a new group of about 8 people that join the full cycle of the NOA as a continuously working group. To apply for this you have to contact us and come to the next NOA Audition. You should join at least one of the NOA workshops or a solo workshop with Jonathan Kay before you apply for this. This group is called the Beginners.
Beginners will come together 6 times a year for a two week period in 6 different cities throughout Europe. The first week will be taught by Jonathan Kay, and the second week will be taught by a performer that has already trained extensively with Jonathan. Each training period of two weeks will be concluded by a performance at a local venue, which could be a school or a university, or a political or a contemporary space – or also perhaps a theatre. The performance will be organized with our support and promoted by the students themselves.
Apart from being fully engaged with NOA by practicing and performing, NOA students will contribute ‘in kind’ by organizing and promoting workshops & performances. Each student will be responsible for one location. In this way the students not only explore their artistic and intuitive selves, but also their organizational skills, which is the other side of the coin. When you are moving forward in your inner and outer life you have to deal with both sides.