The Art & Joy of Hospital Clowning Training Program

The Art & Joy of Hospital Clowning Training Program

Your book changed the course of history for me and hospital clowning here. It gave me confidence, knowledge and ideas how to go about starting my own training program. The war changed everything but since the beginning we were daily in shelter for refugees and hospitals and applying clowning. Thank you, Jeannie, pen is stronger than the sword and thru your book, you influenced so many lives here. With warmest hugs and love from the Ukraine, Jan Tomasz Rogala The book supports the growth and professionalism of improvisation-based hospital clowning. The link to the video of Training Exercises (see page v for the QR code or use the link for the You Tube channel) illustrates many of the 32 exercises in the book. Originally published in 2005, the book sold in 23 countries. After Jeannie read Jan’s email written in 2023, she knew she had to republish the book. This book represents the first ever published comprehensive training for improvisation-based hospital clowning and supports the growth and professionalization of hospital clowning organizations and individuals worldwide. The exercises in the book highlight some of the most important aspects of hospital clowning: to empower children, ask their permission, and give them choices. This is an enormous gift for children, who are seldom given choices about their care in the hospital. This style of improvisational clowning gives them the sense of control over some aspect of their hospital world. The book includes magical moments with patients, tips on role playing the patient in the bed, ideas for clowning in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, improvisations to give birth to your clown, information about what fosters creativity, what kills creativity, how to float your judges away, and self-care, as well as modifications for clowning with children on the autism spectrum, with deaf or blind children, and with people of all ages, including babies, toddlers, teenagers, parents, and staff. The many fun improvisational theater games will inspire your creative imagination. A special section has been added called The Art of Group Leadership. It provides a trainer with many ways to introduce these exercises to a group. The book is for anyone interested in creativity: medical/hospital clowns, actors, teachers, people who work creatively with people, those in the helping professions, improvisation companies facilitators and trainers. Proceeds from the sale of this manual support Hearts & Noses Hospital Clown Troupe, Inc. (formerly Jeannie Lindheim’s Hospital Clown Troupe, Inc.) Your purchase helps us bring happiness to children . . . one clown at a time. Given Jeannie Lindheim's extensive background in theatre and drama education, it is no small surprise that this manual is chock full of exercises and insights from the likes of Viola Spolin, Michael Chekhov, and Avner the Eccentric. These elements, along with Jeannieʹs own unique contributions, provide a practical, user-friendly introduction to Jeannieʹs improvisationally-based style of hospital clowning. — David Langdon ChildLife Specialist / Therapeutic Clown This book will be truly useful and inspiring for hospital clowns. — Camilla Gryski Therapeutic Clown, Toronto, Canada We've all heard about how good it is to be a caring clown. Here is the manual on how to develop a spontaneous hospital clown group. Best of all, it comes from the heart - not the makeup and costume. All clown groups, whether you work with children or adults, singles or pairs, experienced or inexperienced, can benefit from adapting the exercises, experience, and wisdom to your programs. I recommend it highly. — Shobi Dobi, The Clown Shobhana Schwebke Publisher, The Hospital Clown Newsletter Jeannie Lindheim has taught acting, movement, improvisation, creativity, auditioning and characterization techniques for thirty years at a variety of educational institutions including The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Harvard University Law School (Theater in the Courtroom), Boston University, Boston College, Lesley University's Graduate Expressive Therapies Program and others. She ran her own theater school for thirteen years.   In 1996, she traveled to Russia with Patch Adams. Upon her return, she founded the Hearts and Noses Hospital Clown Troupe, (formerly Jeannie Lindheim's Hospital Clown Troupe) which has entertained over 50,000 children. After Hurricane Katrina, Jeannie went to Houston to support the New Orleans evacuees there. She spent a week at the George R. Brown Convention Center clowning and doing 'by the cot' visits to 1,100 people.    Jeannie conducted more than 100 regional and national workshops for primary care and specialty physician groups on Dealing with Challenging Patients and Situations, and Communicating the Patients with Life-Threatening Illnesses. She has worked with every age group and many different types of groups including teachers, theater companies, actors, sociology professors, high school principals, tee