The clown and the king: undergraduate actor training and wellbeing

Abstract

This paper explores the use of clown-state as a strategy for increasing wellbeing within the rehearsal process of King Lear with final year (undergraduate) acting students. In this context, actors-in-training experience the body’s capacity for resilience through experimentation with the grotesque and ambivalence in order to create Shakespearean characters. It is posited that the navigation of these experiences constitutes ‘rehearsing for resilience’ to increase individual and group wellbeing.

Keywords:

• wellbeing in actor-training
• clown-state
• critical dramaturgy
• grotesque realism
• Stanislavski