HOW TO BE A STUPID

An in-depth, intensive ten days of serious and enjoyable exploration into the unlimited power of the State of Clown and its impact on the work of performers, clowns and any creative disciplines. 18+

Led by A de Castro

Monday 4^th to Friday 15^th January 2027 | 9am to 6pm |

(Days off: Saturday 9th & Sunday 10^th January 2027)

£920 (£820 limited early bird discounts available)

 

Book with How To Be Even More Of A Stupid for the discounted price of £1,450 (early bird price is £1,340)

Places: 12

“I would recommend it without hesitation.”

(Winter Clown School 2026 participant)

Who’s it for: Suitable for experienced and new clowns, actors, performers of all kinds, those needing a refresh, anyone who stands in front of the public as part of their work, and those seeking ways to be in the moment with authenticity and joy. 18+

What to expect: HTBAS is a tried and tested methodology. de Castro is a highly experienced performer and teacher who guides participants through the carefully crafted discipline of exercises and play, deep into the exploration and maintenance of the State of Clown and Clown Intelligence. The workshop gives you confidence to apply the unlimited power of the imagination in any creative or performance context through the art of clowning.

HTBAS creates space for investigation and is extremely helpful for those who are already clowns or experienced performers, and any creative minds. It is a carefully curated space for discovery and refreshing, building a safe physical and emotional world which the group inhabits during these two intense weeks. Through guided exercises, games, improvisations and explorations, de Castro expertly and safely steers participants through an individual and collective process. Each participant’s journey of development is supported and celebrated.

This is a transformatory course; by embracing the methodology, you will deepen your ability to enter and stay in the State of Clown in whatever context you work. Transformation only comes with some effort, and the course is a process that will stretch you, but one based in support, kindness, and a great deal of fun, laughter and play along the way. It invites you to try things and make mistakes, within a supportive environment. Come prepared for challenges and change.

By the end of this workshop, you will have:

• explored key clown techniques, including the pleasure of being present, charisma, confidence and risk-taking, the freedom to fail and how to use the audience as your partner
• a strong understanding of the relationship with your own clown persona, that is completely unique and individual to you
• a toolbox of well-defined techniques to refine your performance skills on your own and in groups
• knowledge of how to use clowning in acting, or in any creative work within other disciplines.

Things to note: This is a full-time, full-on course which requires courage, discipline and perseverance. This workshop will stretch you and can bring unexpected challenges. Please be aware that it is a cumulative process and therefore requires commitment to attend all sessions (9am to 6pm, Mondays to Fridays). At times, it asks for sustained concentration. If you are unsure about the commitment required, please get in touch. We are always very happy to talk confidentially with you before you book.

What participants say:

“I loved de Castro’s humanity as well as her skill and talent. She took care of us all. She is a very great teacher, in my opinion.”

“The workshop didn’t just meet my expectations; it surpassed them!”

“I would recommend it without hesitation.”

“It hugely helped me in my life. I was feeling stuck and unhappy and realised that I had stopped truly living in the moment. This workshop helped me re-find that feeling again.”

“I had a wonderful personal experience, made many lifelong friends by taking this course. I was supported immensely throughout the workshops.”

“This course made me feel open to the possibilities of the world and my possibilities in it in a way no other training has done.”

“All the best universities, theatre and circus groups, arts centres, festivals from every continent around the world continue to request A de Castro’s workshop because it really delivers. Don’t lose the chance of getting a place on her course. For me, it was brilliant. If I was you, I would call now!”

(Guiherme Miranda, composer, musician, actor, clown, Brasil)

“The Why Not Institute is a dream for those who are passionate and curious about the work of the elusive Clown. It is truly a magical space… Anyone who is serious about theatre performance must take a class with de Castro.”

(Melissa Mahoney, actor, creator, musician, teacher, clown, New York, HTBAS participant)

 

 

HOW TO BE EVEN MORE OF A STUPID

Advanced exercises and improvisations to sharpen your skills and audience responsiveness. 18+

NEW 6-DAY FORMAT! Monday 18^th to Saturday 23rd January 2027 I 9am to 6pm

£600 (£520 early bird)

Book with How To Be A Stupid for the discounted price of £1,450 (early bird price is £1,340)

Places: 12

“I liked how technical it was. This was challenging but I feel more than other workshops there’s a lot that I can really take with me.”

Six days of advanced exercises and improvisations to sharpen your skills and audience responsiveness, suitable for those who want to improve their technical skills and performance craft. This workshop gives you techniques to try out immediately in structured improvisation scenarios, so you can experience how they work. Working together, the group acts like a diverse audience, providing support and feedback as you practice these techniques.

You can take the opportunity during the week to share and receive feedback on aspects of your own act in development. In addition, all participants will be part of an end-of-workshop showing developed from the collective workshop process.

Who’s it for? This workshop is an excellent next step for performers who have completed How To Be A Stupid and for those with performing experience, whether as clowns, actors or other sorts of performers. The workshop assumes a level of knowledge and confidence in performance craft, and the willingness to engage with improvisation and more advanced techniques that stretch the performing muscles. This workshop embodies the view that techniques practised and developed with confidence serve to free the imagination and the ability to stay present in performance.

What to expect:  Performing is like a muscle that needs to be exercised; the more practice and training a performer has, the stronger the results. Through advanced techniques and exercises, clowns, performers and actors who use clowning in their work, can stretch themselves to improve their ‘performance-fitness’ and make themselves better prepared to deal with even more challenging performing scenarios. Working alongside other performers, participants work on advanced improvisations and techniques. It is a challenging, enjoyable and rewarding week for those who put their all into being seriously foolish.

de Castro’s structured approach focuses techniques on areas that are often most challenging for the performer. By engaging with the discipline of practise, techniques become organic to the performer, support their creativity, and free their imagination, playfulness and pleasure of being present. Every section of the workshop has real practical lessons to apply to your performance. You will cover techniques about:

• hierarchy
• states of tension
• focus
• comedy timing
• physicality
• fixed point
• improvisation skills (how to hear, see and propose games to other partners).

With new improvisations and a daily opportunity to share an aspect of your act, this newly expanded 6-day advanced workshop will stretch performers to improve their stage craft and presence. On Day 6, the group will present a showing to an invited audience of Why Notters and friends as a glorious conclusion to a fast-paced and funny week.

Things to note: This workshop is technical and delivered with pace, best suited to established performers looking for training to improve their technical performance and comedy skills. There will be time at the end of each day for participants to share, if they wish, an aspect of their act with peers as a practice for integrating what they are learning into their own work. All participants will contribute to the performance of a short showing for an invited audience on the Saturday afternoon.

What participants say:

“I think de Castro does a really good job of tracking people’s different goals throughout the workshop and that both feels affirming and is helpful.”

“I actually liked everything; it’s very well structured and covers a variety of topics.”

“I was very impressed by the thought put into the format.  I was also very excited by the amount of exercises, games and techniques de Castro introduced us to and guided us through.”

“A teacher, a Master Clown, who is very delicate – who respects the performer in front of her and takes care to take you on the best path, so you do not expose yourself unnecessarily… A director who helps performers build and deliver their scenes with confidence.”

Michelle Silveira (clown & editor ‘Women Clowns’ magazine)

 

 

All You Need Is Laugh

A gentle, easy workshop suitable for everyone, performers and non-performers alike. Friendly, fun and warm-hearted, this workshop will release stress and leave you feeling great! 18+

Saturday 9^th January 2027 I 10.30am to 11.30am I £20

Book with The Pleasure of Playing for the reduced fee of £65

 

“I think most people, especially non-performers would benefit.”

Winter School 2026 participant

 

Places: 25+

 

Who’s it for: A gentle, easy workshop suitable for everyone, performers and non-performers alike. 18+

 

What to expect: Do you need some joy in your life?! Friendly, fun and warm-hearted, this workshop uses proven techniques of breathing exercises and laughter to offer immediate mental and physical benefits, releasing stress and leaving you feeling great. The exercises release endorphins, giving an immediate lift to the spirits. The only yoga required is breathing! The workshop is safe, fun, easy to do, and stress free, regardless of age, fitness levels or ability.

The Pleasure Of Playing

Simple, non-competitive, joyous games to liberate the imagination and release a new burst of energy, focus and awareness. Suitable for performers and non-performers alike. 18+

Saturday 9^th January 2027 I 1pm to 5pm I £50

Book with All You Need Is Laugh for the reduced fee of £65

 

 

“I wanted to get back into being playful, and it did that.”

Winter School 2026 participants

 

Places: 25+

 

Who’s it for: A fun, lively workshop suitable for everyone, performers and non-performers alike.

 

What to expect: The Pleasure of Playing uses simple, structured, non-competitive games to liberate the imagination and release a new burst of energy, focus and awareness. The Pleasure of Playing is not a clown workshop. However, play is at the heart of clowning, and it is important to keep the state of playfulness fresh and alive, to feed the soul and keep it light, exercising mind, body and spirit. Some games are physically active but don’t require a particular level of fitness and can be adapted for disabled participants and those with health conditions.

 

Led by Angela de Castro
Monday 27th – Tuesday 28th January 2025 / 9am- 5.30pm / £220
To request an application form, email: whynotinstitute@aol.com

 

To hear about future dates please sign up to our newsletter here.

When we allow the clown to think, it is amazing what they come up with!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For silent and speaking clowns looking to develop their practise, this workshop focuses on maintaining the state of clown by training the mechanism of the clown’s thoughts.
Through games and exercises, this workshop gives you techniques to maintain the clown’s inner monologue, giving the clown space to think.

Audiences love to follow clowns’ thoughts; to see clowns thinking and finding amazing solutions and answers to everyday life. But how often do our own thoughts come faster than the clown’s? Our thoughts intrude and interrupt the clown’s voice.
Workshop participants will be challenged not to let their own thoughts interrupt or come before the clown’s thoughts. In a series of games and exercises participants will deconstruct the mechanism of thoughts, create space for their clown to think, and fill their mind with the clown’s loud voice, leaving no space for other thoughts.

Often harder than anticipated, maintaining the clown’s inner monologue allows us to develop a true clown’s intelligence!

This workshop isolates the mechanism of the clown’s thoughts:
A training in how to maintain the state of clown
It is harder than we think
Participants need to be clowns
Our own intelligence to problem solving is faster that the clown’s own intelligence. Very difficult not to let our own thought to come first that the clown’s thoughts.
How useful this kind of workshop can be for those who wants to explore silent clowning as well as for those who perform with text.
How beautiful is to allow your clown to think
Audiences like to follow clown thoughts, to see clowns thinking and find solutions
The text of silent clown shows is the line of thoughts. That allows you not to ‘drop’ from the clown state.

Mon 29th January to Saturday 3rd February 2024 / 9am- 6pm / £600

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To register your interest and/or request an application form, email whynotinstitute@aol.com

So, you’ve done some clowning!  You’ve learnt to play with an audience, stay optimistic and look for games…. but how do you make a show?

In this week long intensive workshop we will playfully explore the principles of devising with clown and comedy in a safe but challenging environment. Whether a solo show, double act or larger cast, this workshop will give any performer or director, the tools to make a very stupid piece of theatre.

Through exercises and games, theatre maker and director, Stephen Sobal, will reinforce the foundations of clowning whilst working with each participant to create something from nothing.

The best way to see if something works it to put it in front of an audience. Therefore the workshop will conclude with a sharing with an invited audience.

de Castro will be collaborating alongside Stephen Sobal in directing, editing and refining material for the end of week presentation.

Led by Jack Stark

 

                                                 

Saturday 18^th January 2025 | 10am to 5pm | £ 120

To request an application form, email whynotinstitute@aol.com

BEAUTY OF MISTAKES

How do you respond when something goes wrong? How do you deal with performing in environments you are uncomfortable in? How can you cope with unexpected situations that arise mid performance? How do you ensure you engage the crowd when you are “not feeling it today”?

This workshop will look at how can you turn a mistake or unplanned event into something magical for the audience. It covers a series of tried and tested clown exercises that have transferable skills for all performance disciplines, while tapping into your inner clown and it will leave you with a collection of tools and exercises that you can practice on your own long after the workshop has finished.

The concepts covered will assist those who often find themselves in challenging performance situations – as all artists do – and empower them to turn unexpected and unplanned events into beautiful pieces of entertainment.
Clowning is a powerful tool. With the clown’s mindset, you can approach situations that you may normally find uncomfortable with joy and enthusiasm. Students of clowning often find themselves saying “I had no idea I could do that” and it is this phenomena that this workshop taps into.

It’s also going to be a lot of fun, and teaching through a series of games means you will leave with a collection of tools and exercises that you can practice on your own long after the workshop has finished.

Jack Stark is a full time cabaret, burlesque and theatre clown. For the last 19 years he has travelled extensively, performing at variety, burlesque and cabaret shows in the UK and Europe as well as working in theatrical projects and touring with circus both as clown and ringmaster.

Away from performing, Jack spent 4 years elected to the Variety and Circus Entertainers Committee at the union Equity, and he currently sits on the board of inclusive performing arts organisation We Are Epic. He became a core member of The Why Not Institute team in 2012. He will be a familiar face to many ‘Why Notters’ as he has frequently assisted on the How To Be A Stupid and How To Be Even More of a Stupid courses, as well as delivering his own workshops and working behind the scenes across the Why Not Institute’s activities.

Full description of this workshop on:
For an application form, please email: whynotinstitute@aol.com

The Art of Accidents

 

Monday 2^nd June & Tuesday 3^rd June 2025 | 10am – 5pm | £200
with Kevin Brooking

Book all 3 Short Bites for the discount price of £500

“A voyage into the world of the unexpected.”

Places: 15

Who’s it for: Clowns and those with experience of performing in whatever discipline. 18+

What to expect: This workshop is a voyage into the universal human world of the unexpected. The workshop will also draw on the old masters of physical mishaps (Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, George Carroll) to practice how to make an intentional ‘accident’ look unintentional and how to perform this with honesty and realness. Incorporating slapstick, trips & slips, and how to fall (safely!), this workshop will enable you to work with intentional and unintentional ‘mishaps’ with confidence, enjoying the problems they present.

Kevin is a master in performing and teaching about the world of accidents in clowning. This workshop will use exercises and improvisations to explore this classic art and demonstrate how to build the rhythm of accident sequences. A practical and highly enjoyable workshop which will give you tools for your own performance and greater confidence to use them.

Things to note: This is a practical workshop which requires some capacity and confidence to work with the physicality of performance.

Humanitarian Clowning

 

Wednesday 4^th & Thursday 5^th June 2025 | 10am – 5pm | £200
With Kevin Brooking

Book all 3 Short Bites for the discount price of £500

“Clowns disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.”

Nalle, Clowns Without Borders, Sweden

Places: 15

Who’s it for: Experienced clowns, street performers, hospital or social clowns, those who take performance into non-theatre situations. 18+

What to expect: Drawing on years of experience travelling the world with Clowns Without Borders, Kevin offers this special introduction into the purpose and practice of clowning in challenging global contexts across cultural divides. Clowns Without Borders draws on openness of spirit, generosity, complicity and the partnership of clowns with their audiences, using listening, improvisation and imagination to celebrate differences and overcome difficulties through humour. Kevin is co-founder member of CWB in Belgium and believes communities around the world are hungry for creative expression and exchange, and clowning offers a way to connect with simplicity and humanity.

This workshop will introduce you to the play of archetypes that can support people to overcome difficulties and transform fear through the positive energy of humour. Through exercises, discussion, creativity and plenty of anecdotes from his vast experience, Kevin will introduce the concepts of being culturally neutral and culturally specific in performance and inspire you to go further in your connections to humans in difficult situations through the universal joy of laughter.

A very special workshop, not to be missed.

Things to note: This workshop is a taster, offering you an opportunity to learn about this sort of clowning, not full training in professional clown work in globally challenging and sensitive situations. The workshop is best suited to those with experience of clowning who want to explore how humanitarian clowning works, clowns who wish to travel with more freedom, and social clowns who want to expand the cultural context of their work. It is open to performers of all sorts who wish to learn more about the philosophy and practice of humanitarian clowning.

“Whether it’s in a hospital or refugee camp, orphanage, or through games that engage the audience in the present moment, clowns are activators that can transform fear into hope through the power of play.”
Clowns Without Borders

 

Get Your ACT Together

 

Friday 6^th & Saturday 7^th June 2025 | 10 am – 6pm | £200
with A de Castro

Book all 3 Short Bites for the discount price of £500

“A teacher, a Master Clown, who is very delicate – who respects the performer in front of her and takes care to take you on the best path, so you do not expose yourself unnecessarily…A director who helps performers build and deliver their scenes with confidence.”

Places: 5 (individuals, duos or small company groups)

Who’s it for: Clowns/performers who have an act or a show scene, or part of an act/scene, that could do with an ‘outside eye’. Open to solo performers, duos or small company groups (up to a max of 4 performers per group). Groups count as 1 space. 18+

What to expect: Perhaps you feel struck with a part of your act, how to enter/leave, how to shift the pace or move, or introduce a different element. Perhaps something doesn’t work and you’re not sure why or what to do about it or you’d just like an ‘outside eye’ to give you feedback. This new workshop offers a focused space in which solo or small groups of performers can work on an act/scene (or part of one) which needs some coaching.

Lead by de Castro, bringing their deep knowledge of clowning and theatre making/stagecraft from over 50 years in the business, Get Your ACT Together offers professional support to artists’ creative process. Such a process can be quite lonely. How many times do we need an outside eye to have a look at our work? Or an opinion on the text or act we are creating? And particularly for clowns, it can be hard to find someone to give us this feedback, who also understands the clown universe. A de Castro has sharp eyes and can bring clarity to the material or difficulty you present, helping you really connect with what you want to achieve.

Over an intensive two days, the group acts as a supportive audience, offering you the chance to perform your act, get feedback, work on it, try things out and find creative ways to address the difficulty you brought, leading to work that is stronger, more confident and unique to you.

Things to note: This is a workshop for participants who already have an act in some stage of development. Preference will be given to those who have completed How To Be A Stupid with de Castro already, as this offers a shared language about the state of clown.

“I had a chance to participate in ’The Outside Eye’ with de Castro… She helped me in the moment I really needed it as a clown and as an artist.”

To hear about future dates please sign up to our newsletter here.

The Why Not Cafe is a free get-together that takes place over Zoom, first we have some fun, and then we have some time to chat.        It’s open to WhyNotters, old and new, and anyone interested in joining in on the fun!
Each time we have a different offering, from The Why Not Bingo, The Why Not Quiz, A Zoom Clown Gameshow or sometimes premieres of our videos such our production HUGS and the opportunity to share what we’ve all been up to and videos we’ve made.

 

The Why Not Café is excited to present it’s new series, In Conversations With… where Angela de Castro – Founder and Director of The Why Not Institute will be talking with artists, clowns and friends
Our inaugural chat in June 2021, de Castro  talked with Holly Stoppit and Franki Anderson.
The event was Live streamed via The Why Not Institute Facebook page.

Thr full chat can be  found on The Why Not Institute You Tube Page –