Community
The NOA Community are the people whom you will meet when you come to one of your Eternal Great Beginnings.
On a deeper level, everyone who is on a quest to find their Fool is part of the NOA Community. It is definitely a place where you can have a blissful time being around your Fool a bit closer. You will feel it as soon as you actively join this circle of people.
Masterfool
Jonathan Kay
Jonathan Kay is a 21st century Fool and the founder of the NOA. Jonathan is recognized as a leading performer in the ‘Theatre of Immediacy’ of Fooling, and is a highly respected practitioner and teacher of Fooling workshops. His work with audiences is internationally known. Jonathan is founder of the largest street theatre festival in the UK, The Hat Fair. He has performed and taught in Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Finland, Sweden, South Korea, Scotland, Barcelona, Bosnia, Ireland, Jordan USA and extensively throughout the UK. He is part of the family at Glastonbury Festival, since over 25 years and has performed at countless festivals across Europe including Rudolstadt, Sweden’s ‘No Mind’ festival, Shambala, Secret Garden, Wilderness and the Sunday Papers Live in London.
Foolcilitators
The NOA Annual Training Groups also Work with...
Klick “more about” below each picture.
Here we introduce you to the people who have also held workshops as part of the NOA. The order is based on a chronology. Those who have been active recently can be found above.
Here is a bit about the history of these kinds of workshops: When the NOA started in 2018, in addition to Jonathan Kay, a group of wonderful people worked with the new continuous working participants of the NOA aka “Beginners”. These people participated in the first Nomadic Academy For Fools and have since embarked on their own artistic paths. Since 2020 there have been the Eternal Great Beginnings (EGB) four times a year. These gatherings around the equinoxes and solstices are meant to celebrate and explore the Foolish spirit. Since then, the circle of so-called “Foolcilitators” has continued to expand. Since the EGB’s, anyone who is currently involved in Fooling in the sense of the NOA can offer a workshop at an EGB. Which workshop will actually take place will be decided on the first day of the meeting by all participants of the EGB. It is about finding out what is my offer, what from my inner workshop can I share with other people and what is the response to it? In this way, the EGB can be an igniting spark for everyone to find out what cooperation grows between you and your Fool on and for this earth.
Here I am, eating pizza with two lovely new friends (out of the picture) that I met by taking an offer to walk from London to Glasgow last year; a pilgrimage initiated by another fool of our community – one example of how we encourage each other and grow in presence as inner and outer worlds collude.
I was so fortunate to have gathered people with me to explore
capitulation into the inner world.
It is a shift in the feeling, in sensing? Your thinking becomes
secondary, you enter a new realm of reality and leave the ordinary way
of seeing things.
We approached capitulation through dance and music. Beginning in
movement and slowing down the thinking, so that something new may show
its presence. And we can begin to play with that.
I dance since I am a teen, Writing, Martial Arts and Painting, Nature
and Animals such as my beloved RIP cat are shaping my view and living.
Michael Stubblefield (aka Stubby) is a an actor, teacher and writer based in Madrid Spain. Son of a preacher man and surrealist painter, he has had a variety of careers including hammock salesman, sandwich maker and circus clown. He is a co-founder of the Madrid-based association, Vértico, which is dedicated to providing ongoing training for professional actors and dancers in Spain. He’s currently trying to become an Original Anarchist, creating and living life through the Six Viewpoints of Space, Shape, Time, Emotion, Movement and Story. He’s been a member of the Nomadic Academy of Fools since 2018.
Part fox, part human, part potato. I am so glad to be part of the Nomadic Academy for Fools. Years ago in a journal I wrote a line something to the effect “I must surrender and accept that I have to be a fool in my life”. This was ever before I had heard about Jonathan Kay or knew that Fooling was even a thing. My interest in this way of life had something to do with liberation; of myself and others. To free myself up to the eternal life force that is there. If I can let go and embrace my inner world, then this can encourage others to throw off the shackles and free themselves too. The journey continues. I hope to play with you sometime.
Born in the woods of Thuringia. Found theatre a magic place when my teacher took me there in November 1989, waving Tricolour flags from the stage after a play about the french revolution. Studied theatre at the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna. Since my encounter with the Fool discovering life without my conditioner, er conditioning
15 years of professional experience working in theatre as a writer, performer*, dramaturg** and director***. Specialising in new writing and hip hop theatre. Maxwell had often used the learnings from Jonathan Kay’s structure within his work, which has toured extensively both nationally and internationally. In addition he had delivered workshops to all ages and is proficient in music composition and production. *As writer/ performer: Bouncing Cats & Boom Boom Pups (Southbank Centre), CountryBoy’s Struggle (Contact Theatre), Abandoman (Pleasance Theatre), East London West Sydney (British Council / Sydney Festival), Riz MC’s MICroscope (Sadler’s Wells / Fabric), Markus The Sadist (Jonzi D Productions), Everything Must Go (Soho Theatre), Essence (Birmingham Rep), Ganges to Nile (The Drum), Mirrorage (Birmingham Rep), Embryonica (Decibel). As writer: Fagin’s Twist (The Place), Street Life (Paddington Arts), Guvnas (Far From The Norm). **As dramaturg: The Den (Faith Drama / Barbican), Avant Garde Dance’s Romeo & Juliet (National Theatre). ***As director: Bouncing Cats & Boom Boom Pups (Southbank Centre), Possession: Afillia’s Return (Remarkable Productions), The Future Is Unwritten (Greenwich Dance), From The Front To The Back (Greenwich Dance), The Sun & The Moon (Southbank Centre), Takeover (Southbank Centre), Coventry – In The Mix (Warwick Arts Centre) & Stormy: The Life of Lena Horne (Copasetic/Lone Wolves).
Loves to… inhabit the place of ‘secret, sacred, scared and scarred’… flip from one emotion to another… create characters from what is waiting to be expressed from inside… move physically and spontaneously… from a natural place beyond thinking… express the ‘twins’… enjoy conflict without trying to resolve it….make a tableau or ‘blob’ which bursts out into choreographed movement, dance and song… be in a rock band… be adored… let the imagination fly and feel full- filled!!! Also loves dragons and baking cakes.
“Once, while out walking, I saw 3 foxcubs. They were aware of me, knowing I was no threat & their trust gave me the exquisite privilege of witnessing their play. It is this that I would offer: a passionate commitment to creating & holding a space where nature, in its human form, can remember the essential wisdom of play (“fooling “).” Rosamund Hoskins trained with Jonathan Kay in Theatre of Now 2002/3. She continues to meet with two friends from that time (Amanda and Sophia) exploring the healing and supportive aspects of the work. Structure of the “second week” with Rosamund Each participant will be guided through a process of making a mask to “hold” an inner aspect of him/herself. The mask-making comes from a combination of the work of “BodySoul” and theatre work. Once the basic mask is made there are exercises throughout the week to cultivate a relationship with this “other” and the mask can be shaped and decorated to align with this. Alongside the more extravert work of performance there will be an emphasis on creating a sense of safety and freedom in which to explore the inner world. Rosamund is a piano teacher. She also teachers the Alexander Technique and there may be opportunities to experience this work where appropriate and useful.
has been making solo shows for the past 6 years. Touring in USA, Uk and Europe. She makes her shows about taboos taking audiences into the unknown with lightness and depth in equal measure. She works with the taboo’s of Sex and death and alongside her work as a fool and an artist she is training to be a doula of Death and Birth. She runs an off shoot Fool’s company with her husband Christopher Murray called FoolSize Theatre which incorporates Street Theatre. Additionally she paints for pleasure and pupeteers for payment ( and pleasure). She has received Arts Council funding on to occassions to support her work. Her current research explores how the twin relationship found in the structure corresponds with the twin relationship of a lucid dreamer and how these may help in the preparation for and the process of death. She also worked with Jonathan Kay and others on Richard II during a 3 year process
Curator and artistic director for Frome’s Day of The Fool. Trained and performed with Theatre of Now (Jonathan Kay’s Company formed for Romeo and Juliet touring project, pre-Nomadic Academy for Fools) and the Festival of Fools Theatre Company born out of a work with Jonathan Kay on Shakespeares “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Tempest”. Established own theatre practice under the name TheatreSpace, to perform in solo and collaborative projects up to present Day. Won The Guardian National ‘Silent Shakespeare’ prize.
The body of the actor leads the way…
physical exercises and practice, to see how a performer can use movement and voice to transit through the structure. The body as vessel for the imaginative narrator to traverse from 1 to 4 and back again. Body-led. Teasing control away from conscious knowing, in order to inhabit the dream… (while letting Mind support in the right way).
The ensemble as Body…
Chorus practice, moving and speaking together (often in inner conflict but still as one body) from different places in the structure. Shoaling and shape shifting. Landscapes and elements.
Where do I end and I begin?
The dynamic of individual and group, stepping in and stepping out of the Whole body to interact with it (letting the audience identify with the individual). Again, tangible theatre exercises and games to practice that movement. Led by physicality and emotion.
Also … seeing the audience as an extension of the Body of the Play (the audience aspect).
