Philippe+Gaulier

Time period of the practitioner - Tori Influences - Vanessa Technical components, e.g light, sound costume, set props, building/theatre - Jacob Acting - Amy Directing - Amy Rehearsal - Tori The performance - Vanessa

Key Info...(sort of)

Philippe Gaulier is a French actor from Paris and he founded the Ecole Philippe Gaulier which is a theatre in Sceaux, which is near Paris. He is also a playwright. Bouffon is the style which he is notable for, which is like a invertered clown. Bouffon is the style of art which the 'ugly people' of France were 'banished to the swamp' during the French Renaissance. the "ugly people" included those with deformalities and disfiguring scars. However, during festivals they were expected to perform for the 'beautiful'. During a performance the goal of bouffon was to disgust and insult those watching as much as possible. Usually during these performances they also target the leaders in mainstream society e.g govt or Roman Catholic Church. The theory and ideal performance is when the 'beautiful' are wildly entertained, go home and realise that their lives are meaningless and commit suicide. However this was only a theory, not an anticipated outcome.

bouffon is a modern french theater from the 1960s by Jacques Lecoq and adopted by Phillipe Gaulier. its the art of mockery. it is exagerated

Peeps go on this site and click videos and wtach please: more info for us to base our performance on: []

this may help some of us: []

Brilliant example of Bouffon by Eric Davis - calls the character "Red Bastard" media type="youtube" key="aflSXWdQbAs" height="315" width="420"


 * Acting** - Bouffon is very unique, it's very physical and emphasizes the importance of joy, human nature and the pleasure of play, because of Gaulier's teaching, students/actors require courage in order to discover their 'naked' self which is also known as their own original performance.
 * Directing** - Gaulier's style of directing is quite different to a lot of other teachers and directors, instead of giving constructive criticism he calls people's work rubbish, mocks and criticizes their work. It generally helps the actors / actresses improve their performance and also hardens them up, since Bouffon requires mocking and insults. He is noted for his no-nonsense directing and teaching style and for his unique brand of sarcasm and sense of humour.

So the video Amy put up is awesome i think we should pretty much just copy it and cut it down because we only need about three minutes. -Vanessa

Performance In Bouffon the actors would insult and disgust the crowd as well as telling them how they should think: this requires lots of crowd interaction. Also the theory after a 'perfect' performance is where the crowd is highly amused, go home find their own lives meaningless and commit suicude, this is only a theory not an anticipation. In performances the Bouffon aim to disgust and horrify the crowd as much as possible they also try to attack the leaders of a normal society eg the government.