John Bolton Theatre School

John Bolton Theatre School

The John Bolton Theatre School is a full time theatre intensive based in Melbourne. Participants study with John Bolton and a team of diverse and experienced teachers of physical theatre, song, voice and movement. John’s Lecoq training and extensive background in performance, teaching and directing has inspired countless performers and theatre makers all over the world. This integrated training investigates and strengthens the practice of creating new work. It explores the Play of Mask, Bouffon, Clown and Vaudeville, as well as using these tools to find dynamic ways of working with text. Given a rigorous and secure environment participants will leave fueled with a sense of action, more confident in voice and body and in their ability to stand in front of an audience or camera.
Next Course 2019

Next Course 2019

A three week intensive with John Bolton.

Participants will use their life-story to make theatre and use theatre to illuminate their lives. We will explore the big stories of challenge and change, of success and failure, and the small stuff; the details that make us tick. We’ll recreate our nightmares and our sweet dreams and the story that needs to be told.

It’s the story we know intimately, and the story we will learn more about by doing this work. It is not psychodrama or therapy but it is therapeutic. Participants will work solo, in duos and in groups. There will be daily acting classes to provoke surprising forms and styles, to play with rhythm and space, to go between abstract and concrete, between literal and metaphoric. There will be storytelling, writing, drawing, singing and contemplation.

You are allowed to keep secrets. It is not about over sharing.

Location: Footscray, Melboune, Australia
Dates: 27th July - 14th August 2026
Times: Monday to Friday 9:30am - 3.30pm

To apply email Laurel
Fee*: $1200 OR Earlybird $1000
*Please note this includes a non refundable deposit of $150

Areas of Study

The course has several areas of in depth focus

Neutral Mask

Neutral Mask

The Neutral mask puts us in touch with our most authentic and intuitive self. It integrates mind and body, clarifies impulse, and allows the wearer to experience the power and fragility that come from living in the present, which is the basis of any other performance work.

Energy normally wasted on eccentricity and character is now directly used in coherent action, from still point to still point.

Clown

Clown

Nothing can be hidden in clowning: all of your stupidity, charm and child-like play surface and dazzle the audience, taking them to an imaginative place reserved for naivety and magic.

As well as helping to develop a circus clown who can do tricks, falls and circus routines, this section of work reveals the actor devoid of tricks and routines; the actor who can stand on stage or in front of a camera whole and secure in his or her vulnerability, completely spontaneous.

Bouffon

Bouffon

The world of these malformed and anarchic people is perfect.

Their beloved task is to make the audience die of laughter by parodying their ways and gleefully mocking their hypocrisy.

This is one of the most freeing and adventurous experiences for any actor. It requires absolute commitment of imagination and body and involves learning to follow the dark and destructive urge, with charm.

Vaudeville

Vaudeville

We will inquire into the world of Vaudeville. As well as entering into Melodrama, students will create their own unique theatre by integrating or focusing on one of the styles we have studied. From the serious to the absurd, these explorations are platforms from which participants can continue their investigations after completing the course.

Teachers

John Bolton
John Bolton
Steph Kehoe
Steph Kehoe
Penny Baron
Penny Baron
Josephine Lang
Josephine Lang

Testimonials

Testimonials from people who have worked with John Bolton

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