Angels Can Fly, a Modern Clown User Guide now available for the iPad and Kobo readers

THE book on modern clown, Angel’s Can Fly

is by Alan Clay, it is a book o for a fast changing art form.

Alan was kind enough to accept my anecdote: “I don’t Juggle, I stalk Plates” and two photos for inclusion in Chapter 20 .

Hope you have as much fun reading about my antics as I did !

This is a users guide

“has just been released as an eBook for the Apple iPad and is available through the iBooks app at iTunes. (ISBN: 9780957884489) I recommend this version as this gives you the best value product and the most versatile reading experience of any format, as it is searchable, has a detailed contents and contains links between pre-requisite and co-requisite exercises. Angels Can Fly is also available as an ebook for the Kobo reader.. “

This is Alan’s fourth book

“Angels Can Fly is now in use in the drama departments of over 100 Australian high schools and has started to make its way into US and UK universities. This is a textbook for a fast changing art form, as clown escapes from the circus to perform in theatres and streets. The traditional approach to teaching clown is routine or gag based and this sits uncomfortably both with the teaching practices in modern performing arts education and with today’s audiences.

This book includes a total of 50 practical clown exercises appropriate for workshops or performance, developed by Alan Clay through 30 years of teaching. Specific prerequisites to any exercise are detailed in each chapter.

There are warm-up and introductory exercises in the early chapters, mid-session or mid-course exercises in the middle chapters, and more performance-

oriented exercises, and relaxation exercises, in the final chapters. The exercises have all been coded for individual exploration, for work in pairs, for workshop use, or for use in a performance setting, or for some combination of these. “

“Modern clown is less character based and more interactive than traditional clown, it is less about hiding behind make-up and more about revealing our true selves, and less about routine based entertainment and more about spontaneous artistic expression. We need training and tools to facilitate these new skills in our work, and this workshop aims to give participants a way of working which supports this process.”