Meet Clown! with Peter Sweet | 18 July - 9 August 2026

A journey from your clown's first steps to their first steps onto the stage.

• Fully Develop Your Clown: with their individual movement, voice & costume.

• Create a Clown Number: From spontaneous improvisation to a rock-solid number.

• Perform a Clown Variety Show: Learn to repeat your successes & perform for a live audience.

Overview:

In this 3-week intensive you will learn the fundamentals of theatrical clowning and explore what it is about you that moves people to laughter. You will practice sharing your honest, spontaneous reactions with the audience through the theatrical form of your individual clown. From this state of play you will create clown numbers both solo and with your fellow clowns and weave them together into a show to present at the end of the workshop.

What to Expect:

• 19 working days over a 23 day period. 

• 150 hours of training in physical theater, clowning, creation, dramaturgy and performance.

• A beautiful facility in the heart of Berlin with a large bright studio for classes, a kitchen, outdoor and indoor spaces for breaks and a circus tent for your final performance.

• Perform a Clown Variety show in the circus tent.

Skills Covered:

Week 1: Discovering Your Clown

   • Play! Entering the present moment of action and reaction.

   • Discovering your clown

   • Entering and exiting the “clown state”

   • Playing with theatrical space

   • Making actions clear through articulation

   • Techniques for sharing your clown’s experience with the audience

   • Finding your clown’s voice

   • Developing your clown’s costume

Week 2: Clown Improvisations

• Duos, trios and scenes with other clowns

• Creating comedy with objects

• Numbers based on glorious failure (aka “the bid”)

• Clown numbers using a skill: playing a musical instrument, dance, pantomime, circus/juggling skills, odd skills and eccentric abilities

• Status: the red clown, the white clown and the ringmaster.

Week 3: The Clown Cabaret Show

• Roles in a variety show: the clown as host, stagehand, assistant to the diva etc

   • Dramaturgy of clowning: how to identify and develop themes, create suspense, build climax etc.

   • Comedy writing for clowns: How to make what’s not funny funny and what’s already funny much much funnier!

   • Dramaturgy of a variety show: How to structure the numbers to create the dramatic arch of the show, running gags, story lines and the red thread that keeps it all together.

   • Going pro: How to repeat your successes beyond the workshop.

Peter Sweet's Pedagogy

A somatic approach to clown:

Week 1: Finding your clown

Each of us has an individual way of moving that expresses something essential about who we are. By observing the body moving in space, we learn to recognise our individual movement patterns and amplify them with the help of what Jacques Lecoq called “the smallest mask in the world”: the red nose. This process reveals the unique clown of each person, a universal comic form with its own physicality, rhythm, voice, costume, and comic timing. Through your clown you access the comedy that comes not just from what you do or say, but from a core part of who you are. This is a brave act of comic poetry. It opens the door to true presence on stage and the freedom to play with everything that happens to you.

Week 2: Creating Clown Acts Through Play

In the second week we will improvise together, immersing ourselves in the hilarious poetry that arises from the clowns’ spontaneous play. We will discover many sides of each clown as they interact with each other, play with space and objects and perform technical skills like music, circus or eccentric abilities. We will look in detail at what makes an improvisation funny and begin to develop numbers based on the unique comedy of each clown.

Week 3: The Clown Cabaret Show

During the third week we will choose material from the first two weeks of the workshop to re-work, rehearse and present in a clown variety show at the end of the workshop. The clowns will host the show, introducing the numbers and operating as the stage hands and clean up crew, to create the “red thread” through the show. Peter Sweet will support the creation process as the director. Finally you will perform! An audience offers fresh energy to the clowns, enlivening their play as they take this first step into the world of live performance.

About the teacher: 

Peter Sweet’s approach to clown combines the madness of play with the rigor of technique. He teaches the most effective tools that he has used in his 20+ years of performing and directing clown, physical theatre, and circus. Peter first discovered clown in a workshop with Avner "The Eccentric" Eisenberg in 2003 and has developed his practice of clowning and clown pedagogy through his long mentorship with Giovanni Fusetti, founding director of the Helikos International School of Theater Creation. His unique approach has been further enriched by his experience as a teacher of the Alexander Technique, Wutao breath-work, and a wide range of somatic and martial arts.

Professionally, Peter has worked as a performer, teacher and director of physical theater and contemporary circus since 2000. His solo and duo shows: Meet Pete Sweet (Clown developed with Avner "The Eccentric" Eisenberg), Swinging High (directed by Giovanni Fusetti), and BOOM! (directed by Matteo Destro) have toured in over 20 countries. Peter served as the director of performance in the circus department at Die Etage Berlin for 4 years. He is a thesis advisor and coach at Fonty’s Netherlands masters program in choreography and has been a guest teacher at the Stockholm University of Dance and Circus, Zurich University of the Arts and the Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding in Munich.

Peter studied physical theatre at the Helikos International School of Theatre Creation in Florence, contemporary and classical dance at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in Salzburg and circus at Ecole du Cirque Zofy in Sion (CH). He is a certified teacher of both the Alexander Technique and Wutao, a French movement art based on breath and undulation.

Peter is currently based in Berlin, where he directs professional companies, teaches workshops and throws his heart into every project that he dives into. In his free time he reads fantasy, plays the drums, and flies kites on the Tempelhofer Feld.

Workshop Logistics

Language: English

he workshop will be taught in English. A basic understanding of English is required to participate. The teacher also speaks German, French, and Indonesian, and can provide translation when needed.

Maximum Number of Participants: 12

Once 12 students are confirmed, the workshop is full. Additional applicants will be placed on a waiting list.

Attendance: Full-time attendance is required every day.

The pedagogy is progressive, with each day building on the work of the previous days.

Workshop Schedule:

Dates: 18 July – 9 August, 2026

Time: 10:00 – 18:00 daily

Rest Days:

24–25 July (Friday–Saturday)

1–2 August (Saturday–Sunday)

Special Schedule Days*

7 August – Tech Day

8 August – Show Day + Party

*On both special days, the workshop will continue into the evening. Please do not plan other activities.

Location: Circus Schatzinsel

Large bright studio for classes, plus kitchen, indoor/outdoor chill spaces, and circus tent for the final show.

Sliding Scale Tuition

We want this workshop to be accessible to people with a range of economic means, so we offer a sliding scale.


Choose your fee between €1,150 – €2,200.

Apply Here: https://forms.gle/d1aRdtHjteWhQbv66

Once your application has been reviewed by Peter, he will contact you to confirm if there is an open spot.

Payment

Once you are accepted into the workshop, a €460 deposit is due within 5 days to confirm your participation and reserve your spot. Please note that this deposit is non-refundable (except in the case of workshop cancellation due to force majeure).

The remainder of your tuition is due by June 1st.

Please note, tuition does not include food or lodging. Participants are responsible for arranging their own travel and accommodations in Berlin.

Questions?

Wondering if this workshop is right for you, or have questions about participating?


Questions about registration, payment, or logistics?

Would you like to connect with Peter directly or set up a call?

Feel free to reach out via email: info@petersweet.com



See you in Berlin!