notAmuse Theater
Sophie Amieva /// Theater Maker
WORKSHOPS
2026 ACTOR TRAINING
Bouffons and Physical Comedy for students of all levels.
These high-intensity, play-focused sessions provide students with the tools to dig into the self, develop greater presence and availability on stage, and sharpen their impulses as performers. They combine collaborative exercises, experimentation, and emotional exchanges in order to develop keen performance instincts, body awareness, and intelligence.
WHAT IS BOUFFON? Watch the video:
WEEK INTENSIVE
BOUFFONS
📅 March
🕖 Monday to Friday, 10 AM- 4 PM
📍 Kestrels studio 188 6th Street, Brooklyn, NY
💰 $450
The Bouffons are society's outcasts who thrive on mockery. They confront our fears of death and amplify the harsh realities of oppression, refusing to believe in anything and finding humor in everything; they remain neutral and revel in strife.
Through games and improvisations, we will explore and redefine the essence of the Bouffons. What is our personal connection to power? What are the games of the bouffons? Can we embrace the challenge of mockery?
We'll refine our mask techniques (point fixe and isolation), enhance our improvisation skills, engage in chorus work, maintain a sense of urgency, surrender to our instincts, and, most importantly, make each other laugh.
Devising Bouffons
📅 TBA
🕖 10am to 3pm
📍 TBA
💰 $$$
This is a two days lab for people who already have some glam and naughty Bouffons in them and are interested in the creating process! How to write for Bouffons? To create delectable, dirty and memorial materials for the stage, to find the right questions and clarity when working on a theme? Solo or in a pack?
Together, let’s activate our “expert” eye and surrender to the Joy of making!
2 DAY WORKSHOP
TUESDAY SERIES
“Daddy, daddy, look at me daddy!“
📅 TBA
🕖 7 PM to 10 PM
📍 TBA
💰 $$$
We will play and rejoice with the incorrigible outcasts - the Bouffon. Through games and improvisations, we’ll revisit and redefine elements of the Bouffons. How do we create the stylized mask realm? How to maintain presence and tension to keep the mockery relevant? What is the game?
We will sharpen mask techniques, keep a state of urgency, explore the grotesque body and, most importantly,
make each other laugh. Let’s show Daddy that our inner fool is still here and very much alive!
All levels are welcome. Bring your silly, your joy, your fears and fearlessness...and some comfortable clothes to move in.
What's in it for you?
My physical comedy classes draw from a Lecoq pedagogy that takes students on a transformative journey where the mind and the body become accomplices. We move beyond the punch line and develop a comedic logic that creates full moments of narrative driven laughter.
Bouffons is a masked clowning style that breaks down social constructs and critiques society through the use of physical humor and the grotesque. Bouffon in French means Jester, the one who speaks truth to power; They hold a mirror up to society and show us our full humanity unfiltered or censored. In doing so, they inspire a poetic territory in which to explore freedom and search for the profound.
In all my classes, I offer my students a process of confronting their fear and unleashing their beauty and authenticity. We start from identifying who we are as human beings, then learn how to hone those qualities in performance.
Who are my classes for?
My classes are for theater makers and artists of all kinds with a desire to laugh and make others laugh.
They are for actors interested in sharpening their skills. No matter your focus - by engaging in play, finding our inner child, and exploring who we are - we find a sense of pleasure onstage that makes us better performers.
What can you expect?
As past students have said . . . “expect to get more than you bargained for”
Be ready to be challenged, to shake your own ground, and to find the freedom to let go.
What will you walk away with?
You will gain the skills and tools to handle space, physicality, and audience. You will learn how to fail with grace. In doing so, you’ll walk away with a new sense of freedom, new questions, excitement, passion, and curiosity.
Professional Training
I teach bouffons and physical comedy to students of all ages, and all stages, individually and with partners including Clown Gym, The Clown School, the Examining Clown Lab and Brooklyn Comedy Collective. In these courses, I offer high-intensity, play-focused sessions that provide students with the tools to dig into the self, develop greater presence and availability on stage, and sharpen their impulses as performers. My courses combine collaborative exercises, experimentation, and emotional exchanges in order to develop keen performance instincts, body awareness, and intelligence. I also offer one-on-one coaching sessions.
Colleges and Higher Education
I have taught physical comedy, clown, bouffon, and mask at higher education institutions including Playwrights Horizons Theater School, the Terry Knickerbocker Studio, and the Movement Theater Studio. Between 2005-2020, I was an Adjunct Professor at the Experiemental Threatre Wing, a studio at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where I taught bouffon and clowning to hundreds of undergraduate students. My higher education practice combines techniques from my own diverse practice, and presents actors and theatremakers with an expansive toolkit for performance and creation.
Young Artist Education
In 2006, I co-founded and co-directed Brooklyn Beanstalk, a French and Spanish immersion program for children that uses clowning and theater as a tool for language acquisition. For over a decade, I oversaw an arts-driven educational program offering specialized language immersion classes and creative enrichment programs through arts and performances to children aged 16 months throughout elementary grades. These classes took place in collaboration with childcare centers, playgroups, the Brooklyn Public Librairies and schools across New York, and worked to foster critical thinking of young students by creating a fun, interactive learning environment.