"Holly Stoppit...has the expressive eyes of Wallace’s Gromit and the physicality of Buffy the Vampire Slayer." - The Stage, April 2010

Originally from a background in circus-theatre, Holly Stoppit has since taken further training in clowning, fooling, mime, acrobatics, physical theatre, improvisation, voice work, eccentric dance and laughter yoga.

Holly has forged an interesting and varied career as a performer / director of devised theatre / workshop facilitator.

Holly is currently faciliatating 3 different R&D projects:

• "Behind Closed Doors", funded by S.I.T.E (Space, Ideas, Time, Expertise courtesy of The Tobacco Factory and Theatre Bristol) is a site-specific one-to-one hero's journey through the Bridewell police cells. For this project, Holly is collaborating with Sarah Fielding of The Invisible Circus.
• "Explore!", funded by Arts Council Wales, is a multi sensory art instillation with live performance and music for babies and toddlers.  Holly is collaborating with Sarah Smith of Yipee Productions.
  
• "Punch" is a street theatre show using live music, physical theatre, comedy, story and an interactive morphing set. This is a Ramshacklicious production.

See below for details of past projects.

Holly’s work is process-led, responsive, challenging and fun.

Holly really enjoys teaching both adults and children and will gladly tailor-make workshops to suit each group's needs. Holly has recently being teaching on-going weekly Clown courses for adults at the Bristol Folk House and  City Of Bristol College as well as independant 2-day clown / fool workshops all around the country.

Holly is also studying part-time for an MA in Dramatherapy.

Holly's skills include:

*story-making

*clown/comedy 

*character development                                       

*improvisation techniques                                            

*physical theatre/movement techniques                         

*laughter yoga                                                         

*integrating live music into performance                    

*integrating circus / dance into narrative performance      

*making work for non-theatre spaces                         

*Instillation / walkabout performance                        

*Facilitating research and development

What the people say:

“Fun, crazy, but educational… it felt really safe and easy”

“Silly, technical, freeing, hilarious, liberating, useful, fun, BRILLIANT!!”

“It’s like 10 years therapy in two days."

“It’s all a bit of a hysterical blur”

-Recent comments on Holly's 2-day clown/play/laughter workshop

“I loved it, and it was amazing how you managed to put everyone at ease and help us all get so much out of it. It has been brilliant for me both personally and professionally. I'm much more confident using humour and energy in my job, and so much better at engaging with my audience - very important when training and teaching potentially dry subjects. I'm also managing to be more creative for myself, and roll with the punches. You made the learning so enjoyable and easy I didn't notice I was doing it”
 
-Recent Folk House Clowning Workshop Participant