on this page you'll find out about our mission, our approach to Shakespeare, the basic physical theatre techniques we teach,
and "the sign of the four!"
Our mission is to bring a bunch of young actors together at Craftsbury Common, in the nearly-mythical Northeast Kingdom of the gorgeous Green Mountain State. We train them for just two weeks, creating an intentional-community-of-the-arts in the process, and then we put on a production that we would be proud to show to anyone in the world.
How we do it: We get physical! With great warm-ups, and theatre techniques passed on to us by amazing teachers, like Jacques LeCoq, Tony Montanaro, Sigfrido Aguilar, Avner the Eccentric, and of course, Gould & Stearns.
Why we do it: We think that the Funnery theatre training is so positive, it is the antidote to everything negative, cynical, or commercial that could possibly colonize young bodies and brains.
We call our camp “Two Weeks to a More Powerful You!”
How we do it: We get physical! With great warm-ups, and theatre techniques passed on to us by amazing teachers, like Jacques LeCoq, Tony Montanaro, Sigfrido Aguilar, Avner the Eccentric, and of course, Gould & Stearns.
Why we do it: We think that the Funnery theatre training is so positive, it is the antidote to everything negative, cynical, or commercial that could possibly colonize young bodies and brains.
We call our camp “Two Weeks to a More Powerful You!”
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Peter Gould has trained with physical teachers Tony Montanaro, Sigfrido Aguilar, and Avner the Eccentric. Other staff members come from other schools and traditions. We agree on some major techniques/concepts that inform our work. They are: premise, eccentric/concentric, breath, focus, discovery, timing, escalation, expectation & deflection, wait-for-it, atmosphere, framing, vectors—contact us and we'll send you a handout defining these terms.
the sign of the four
There is a gesture that all veterans of the Funnery know. The sign of the four. It's a quadrant, a diagram in space, of the four elements of our daily teaching: HEART, MIND, BODY, VOICE. Travel the country, see anyone wearing a "Get Thee to the Funnery" T-shirt. Instantly assume the sign of the four; it'll come right back to you. HEART: we work every day on empathy: for each other, for the material, for our audience, for Shakespeare himself. MIND: We help each other to understand every motivation, character, context, every joke, every part of the text that any of us speak. We study meditation, too. BODY: We aim to physicalize as much of the text as we can—not to subtract any words, but to clarify them for our audience. We train our bodies daily with yoga, stretching, salsa, capoeira, eclectic movement. VOICE: We study various vocal techniques, do deep breathing, learn about resonance and articulation; we care enough about our audience that we want everyone to hear and understand!
our style
At the Funnery, we think that the best learning happens collaboratively. Our exercises, voice drills, and scene work happen in a big sprawling happy ensemble. And then we cast the play! We have no stars; we share roles. In 2005, six different people played King Lear, and five of them were girls. No one in the audience minded; the portrayals were all righteous, truthful, passionate, believable. Sometimes our urge to multiply or divide a role brings unexpected dividends, as when we discovered that Trinculo in the Tempest could be a bad ventriloquist! Thus two people could share his lines at the same time, and Ariel, tricksy spirit, could tease both the man and his dummy. We perform outside in a lovely formal garden, with the hills and mountains of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom as our backdrop. Our few costume elements are recycled from year to year, and we may use a prop or two at most. We all are on stage all of the time, watching the action, adding voices, taking responsibility for the whole play, not just the several
scenes we're in.
Our campers come back for more every summer, so they'll have a chance to play young, old, male, female, comic, tragic, noble and lowly, by the time they're just too old to do camp any more. And then, if they're lucky, and we're lucky, too, they may join the staff!
scenes we're in.
Our campers come back for more every summer, so they'll have a chance to play young, old, male, female, comic, tragic, noble and lowly, by the time they're just too old to do camp any more. And then, if they're lucky, and we're lucky, too, they may join the staff!
