The Clown Inside with Emily Goddard

In this episode Emily Goddard and Bronte Charlotte chat openly and honestly about the ups and downs of being actors, theatre makers, and generally empathetic humans. Emily talks about her life changing experience training overseas in Paris at Ecole Philippe Gaulier, discovering the joy in theatre, learning the multi-faceted Clown, creating her one woman show This Is Eden, and the impact such a strong, political, historical piece had, both on her own life and the lives of audience members. We delve into constantly being challenged and having to justify your creative path to those who don’t comprehend or understand how the arts can impact society, and an experience we had together in a poorly run workshop that is just one example of taking advantage of an actors willingness, vulnerability and openness.

During this episode we discuss:

• [03:39] Melbourne lockdown emotional recap (how can we even begin to articulate our lockdown experience?!) and theatres opening back up and leading the way into Melbourne’s  ‘COVID normal’
• [08:47] Emily’s journey into performing, discovering the pleasure of theatre, taking herself to Paris to study at Ecole Philippe Gaulier, coming out of drama school overseas to enter the Australian theatre industry, clowning, failing, fear, and laughing at yourself.
• [17:39] Training overseas, the isolation and freeing aspects of that, the absolute un-competitiveness of training with people from all over the world, and the difficulties of entering the industry after leaving Australia for a time.
• [20:53] How Bouffon influenced the making of This Is Eden, discovering the early history of female convicts in Australia, discovering and developing the play that has been successful for 5 years now.
• [28:16] The link between the transportation debate of the 1850s and our Asylum Seeker catastrophe, history repeating itself, Australian citizens’ lack of education around Australian history, and how audience responses have changed over the 5 years the show has been on.
• [36:22] How we met, inappropriate expectations for actors, separating ourselves from the job, and how fear creates stressful environments not conducive to creativity.
• [42:29] How can we feel valid in our choices as creatives when all around us people question if the arts are relevant, knowing that we are needed, making your own work 
• [50:00] Daily meditation, shaking out of lockdown energy, having space, downtime, and an ability to let go to create a sustainable practice

RESOURCES 

• Ecole Phillipe Gaulier
• This is Eden by Emily Goddard
• Cascades Female Prison
• Mess by Caroline Horton
• Susie Dee (Dir. This is Eden)
• Dione Zanotto at Performance Based Meditation - Find meditations on the arts wellbeing collective page
• Amy Carmody Yoga

Head over to the @chats.w.creatives instagram page to stay up to date with episodes and guests we have coming up!

Follow our host Bronte Charlotte @bronteandsunshine

Follow this week's guest Emily Goddard @emmyjgoddard