OSKAR - Workshops

OVERVIEW

With over 18 years of qualified experience, Tom Greder conducts regular creativity, performing, communication and team-building workshops throughout the world.

Based on 'Play' as being the fundamental expression of human creativity and the basis of meaningful interaction, communication and problem solving, the workshops promote an articulate, profound and personally relevant expression for all those who want or need it.

Toms' unique approach focuses on the relationship between the 'Person', 'Character' and 'Artist' in all of us. By understanding, exploring and challenging the often conflicting nature of these 'inner voices', participants gain a clearer awareness of their creative and personal processes.

The inspiring and challenging workshops are aimed at anyone who wishes to gain a deeper insight into their creativity, motivations & latent abilities, and develop clarity of expression and an empowered and liberated stage presence.

AUSTRALIA:
National Circus Festival 1997 to 2002
Tasmanian Circus Festival 1996 to 2003
Margaret River Circus Festival 2008
Brisbane Clowning Workshop 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2000, 1997
Sydney Clowning Workshop 2004, 2000, 1998
Melbourne Clown Workshop 2004
Hobart Clowning Workshop 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2000, 1998, 1997
Northern New South Wales Play and Creativity workshop 2006
Ulverstone Clowning & Creativity Workshop 2005
WOW Wolongong Womens Circus 2006, 2003
Adelaide Fringe Festival 2002
Woodford Folk Festival 2007, 2005, 1998, 1997

SPECIALISED WORKSHOPS:
Cambridge Technologies 2000, Amsterdam. Corporate team buildiung
Topchick Artists Management 2005, Brisbane
The Humour Foundation (Clown Doctors) 2006 Hobart & 2005 Brisbane
WOW Wooloongong Womens Circus 2006. One to one dramaturgy and direction
Riorythmics Latin Dance Academy 2005, Brisbane, performance skills
Queensland College of Art, illustration department 2000, Brisbane
“Play Right” 1993, Hong Kong. Drama teachers inservicing program
Sir Lesley Wislon Youth Detention Centre, Australia

SCHOOL & YOUTH WORKSHOPS:
La Marelle Festival, France
Slipstream Youth Circus, Tasmania, Australia
Spaghetti Youth Circus, New South Wales, Australia
Warehouse Youth Circus, Canberra, Australia
Queensland Theatre Company, Australia
Treats Refugee Arts Program, Hong Kong
Out of the Box” youth festival, Australia
Samford Valley Steiner School, Australia
King George 5th School, Hong Kong
Sommerville House Girls School, Australia
Brisbane Girls Grammer School, Australia
Bardon State School, Australia
Upper Brookfield State School, Australia
Nambour State High School, Australia
“Hands On Arts”, Australia. Schools workshop tour
“Metro Arts”, Australia. Primary school holiday program

"During my 40 years as an artist and instructor of professional clowning I discovered in the world of the new clown tribe the essential need for masters of the art. Tom Greder is one of them and an equal to the others I’ve found. His classes are an important part of the information new students must obtain to develop their own vision of the clown as an artist on stage or off. He is a permanent member on the teaching staff of the “Clown Theory Master Class” held each year at “The Performance of Actors Festival” in Cannes, France and I recommend him to both new students and professionals".

Professor Jenny Gore
Director, Centre for Professional Learning in Education
The University of Newcastle

"Toms ideas align with and extend contemporary educational thinking on what matters most in teaching and how to stimulate powerful learning for all students"

Jean-Paul Bell
Performer and founder of The Humour Foundation, Australia

"I love your style of teaching which I would describe as being a relaxed antipodean approach with strong European underpinnings"

Nadia Cook
Mullumbimby, Australia

"Your workshop opened up a whole new world for me"

"I have spent my life suspecting that there is something hidden just beneath the surface of our interactions. Something behind the selves we desperately endeavour to be in order to satisfy misunderstood expectations and misplaced dreams.

At some point in my life that suspicion became so overpowering that everything I did seemed touched with a sense of both mystery and investigation. So often we think that searching is about finding things, discovering paths and partnerships, and reaping the abundant rewards of our endeavour. Yet there is a different kind of searching as well. There are the uncoverings that help us to lose things, that support tiny ego deaths, and unravel our contorted costuming so that we can undress. The gifts of loss. The beauty of vulnerability. The pleasure of egoless complicite. The bliss of unreasonable joy. The strength that comes from solitude. The power of simplicity. The value of fear and of taking risks. The comedy of humanbeingness.

These are just some of the discoveries I encountered in a week of working intensely with Tom Greder in his Master Clown workshop.

Clown work is incomparable with any other perfomance training because it pretends to be easy, and yet for me it is the most challenging and fulfilling work I have ever done. Tom has the sensitivity and insight to create a safe enough environment for his students to take risks, venture into unknown territory, and discover the pleasure of "not knowing". This may seem simple enough, but as performers we have such heavy bags of tricks and ornate masks which we rely on, that it can be a terrifying and exhilerating journey to let go, and uncover the power and beauty of our own ordinariness.

My experience of working with Tom was nothing less than transformative. I am cautious of diluting the experience by using grand language, but the reality is that my work with Tom was intrinsicly related to the life changing choices I made after that week. The experience of standing unveiled in front of an audience and inspiring joy and laughter gave me a deeper belief in the place of truth and play in my work.

He helped me to unravel innocence and interest from the chaos that had overtaken my creativity. I remember spending months after the workshop feeling as if I had been born to a new planet. I became intrigued by everything. I wanted to experience life directly and I was no longer prepared to compromise for the sake of acceptance or applause. My sense of play deepened and I became committed to making courageous choices as a performer even if it meant failure. And my relationship to failure changed. In fact failing became such a hilarious and enriching experience that, as a clown, it no longer really existed.

Today I am living, performing, and teaching in New York. I continue to believe that everything is possible and every time I experience that delicious feeling of happiness for no particular reason I think of Tom and smile"

"Dear Tom,

Please treat this a my personnal recommendation for your workshops. There are many aspects of your workshops which I would like to recommend and which has my greatest priority is difficult to decide but I have to start somewhere and really what I respected most was the safe environment you created right from the outset. You also managed somehow to keep this safe and creative space open for the entire workshop period, I was amazed. I have attended many workshops in various areas of theatre:- Mask, movement and acting training so I am not a new comer to theatre however, my own participation in the workshop can vary tremendously depending not on the subject but on the quality of the teaching.

I think there are two aspects to teaching. That knowledge is passed on and that a safe environment is created so that participants can feel within their boundaries and still feel free to express themselves to the greatest extent of their creativity. I have no idea how you did this but you certainly managed both - a rare occurrance as far as I am concerned.

Perhaps the benevolance of the naive clown and his world and the energy level needed to operate within this world create an atmosphere very conductive to creative expression. More power to the clown if you ask me. Still I think it was your devotion to the workshop process your confidence and experience with that process which caused them to run so smoothly. I was afterall a complete beginner when it came to clowning but felt confident to participate fully in all your workshop activities and since have developed projects of my own in clowning (including an application to the Australia Council) feeling confident to carry them out and your workshops only finished a few weeks ago.

While I say you created a safe environment I would hate anyone to think you were soft on us. I don't remember ever being so challenged in my life and the confidence gained by being so challenged has turned my professional life around as well as my personal life. Congratulations.

The result of all this I think great art and good entertainment. Tom your workshop not only gave us skills to be entertaining but also a deeper understanding of the human condition and where clowns live within the realm of commenting on what we humans experience. I feel just that step closer to achieving the goal I mentioned on day 1 of your workshop:- paradise to me meant being more light hearted. So while the workshops dealt with the practicalities of clowning they also had sufficient intellectual content and quality to be whole in their training.

Anyway I can only wish and hope the best for you and your wonderful workshops and hope that more performers can experience them. Thank you and I hope you can have this positive influence on performers where ever you travel in the world and where ever you teach for you are a true teacher".

Yours sincerely
Laurie McLeod

Lauren Flannery
Hobart, Australia

"The workshops really opened up a new understanding of performance, something I think was already there but suddenly became clear".

Sarah Fotheringham
Cardiff, Wales

"Tom Greder is a performer and teacher working with a potent mixture of intuition, skill and perception rooted in experience exploring the world of the clown. His biography lists his considerable performance and personal training however this will not tell you of his abilities as teacher and guide. Having participated on a number of workshops I feel that Tom Greder’s method and style in teasing out, revealing and supporting the shyest to the most competent of ‘clowns’ in all of us deserves a wider audience. He is a teacher who enthuses the uninitiated with passion and challenges with humility. You will not feel short changed from this week of many changes!

Since Tom’s workshop I have trained with Didier Danthios and Angela de Castro in London and Jonathan Kay in Scotland. I rate Tom Greder’s work up with the best of them"

Wayne van Wijk
Clown Doctor
Brisbane, Australia

"Tom gives great insight into the nature of the clown. His training reminds me to slow down, keep it simple, and most importantly, build an honest relationship with the audience. In addition to this I have been armed with several "tricks" to throw myself out of the controlled mindset of the performer and into the chaotic and wonderful mystery of the clown"