Class Overview: After a while, many of us become very good at managing ourselves — trying to be clear, competent, expressive, together. We learn habits of tension. Habit of anticipation. Habit of adding.

Neutral Mask asks for something else.

A little more listening. A little more simplicity. A willingness not to rush toward meaning immediately. Before character, before psychology, before performance— there is the body in space, in relation, in presence. Working from the Lecoq tradition, this workshop focuses on clarity, openness, rhythm, stillness, and the ability to receive and respond without trying to force anything. The mask removes expression from the face, asking the body to speak. We begin to notice what is habitual, what is unnecessary, and what remains when those things fall away. This is not about creating something— but about clearing space so something true can appear. The work is quiet, precise, playful, and often surprising. Open to actors, performers, and anyone curious about presence and physical awareness. All levels welcome.

Instructor: John Beale is an actor, teacher and director based in Toronto, Ontario (and Nosara, Costa Rica) . He serves as the master teacher of Clown and Bouffon at Humber College’s Theatre Arts Performance Program and also teaches acting, mask, clown, improv and scene study at Seneca and Randolph Colleges, character study at George Brown College and Embodied Presence at Stratford Festival’s Birmingham Conservatory. He has led public performance workshops in clown and presence for over 20 years as well as acted in television, film and theatre for over 30 years. He earned a Merritt Award for his performance in The Crucible with Two Planks and a Passion Theatre Company. John is a graduate of Philippe Gaulier’s prestigious International Theatre School in Paris and also trained, performed and taught extensively with the acclaimed Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts.