Laughing Club is a wellness practice created by Christopher Bayes, renowned teacher and Head of Physical Acting for the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. The workshop is for actors, performers, and anyone with a desire to explore the health benefits of laughter. Christopher Bayes is Professor in the Practice of Acting and Head of Physical Acting at David Geffen School of Drama, Director of the Pandemonium Studio, and Artistic Advisor for Studio Playground. Laughing Club was featured on NY1/New Yorker of the Week.

Take a class with a celebrated and highly influencial clown teacher!

Studio Playground fosters individual growth for children in our community by using the performing arts. We believe all children deserve opportunities for creative enrichment. It is imperative that children access programs which build confidence and social awareness. Laughter and performing arts entail benefits which transcend socioeconomic status and cultural differences. Studio Playground supports students in their individual growth and inspires audiences to engage in meaningful discourse by enacting our core values: inclusivity, empowerment & social change.

Christopher Bayes began his theater career with the internationally acclaimed Theatre de la Jeune Lune where he worked for five years as an actor, director, composer, designer, and artistic associate. In 1989 he joined the acting company of the Guthrie Theater where he appeared in over twenty productions. His roles included Caliban in The Tempest, Edgar in King Lear, The Herald in Marat/Sade and Harlequin in Triumph of Love. In 1993, commissioned by the Guthrie Theater, he produced his one-man show This Ridiculous Dreaming based on Heinrich Boll’s novel The Clown. In New York, he has directed Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni at Theater for a New Audience, Red Noses by Peter Barnes, Fourby Feydeau, The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Moliere One Acts, and The Love of Three Oranges by Carlo Gozzi at the Juilliard School; The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere, The New Place by Carlo Goldoni, We Won’t Pay… by Dario Fo, and his new adaptation of Moliere’s The Reluctant Doctor of Love for New York University’s Graduate Acting Program; The Raven by Carlo Gozzi at NYU’s Experimental Theater Wing; Ubu Roi at both NYU’s Experimental Theater Wing and Fordham University; and Timeslips at HERE. Additionally, he has staged several original works including Wreckage at P.S. 122, The Big Day (a clown show) and The Fiasco Bro. Circus at the Juilliard School, Zibaldoné at HERE and the Present Company Theatorium, The Fools/Los Locos Del Pueblo at Touchstone Theater, Necromance, A Night of Conjuration at Dixon Place, Clowns at the New York International Clown Festival and The Public Theater, Even Maybe Tammy at The Flea, and for the honey, you gotta say when at NYTW. Outside of New York, his directing credits include Servant of Two Masters (Yale Rep, The Shakespeare Theater, The Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Arts-Emerson) Doctor In Spite of Himself by Moliere (Intiman Theater, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep) Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo (Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep), a co-production of Scapin at the Intiman Theater in Seattle and Court Theater in Chicago, Comedy of Errors at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Len Jenkin’s new adaptation of The Birds at Yale Repertory Theatre, Endgame at Court Theater, The Moliere Impromptu at Trinity Repertory Theater. He was part of the creative team for the Broadway and Touring productions of THE 39 STEPS for which he created movement/physical comedy and served as Movement director. On Broadway his work as comedy consultant has been seen in South Pacific, Moulin Rouge and Clydes. He has received numerous awards and grants including a Jerome Foundation Travel/Study Grant, a General Mills Foundation Artist Assistance Grant, and both a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship Grant and a Career Opportunity Grant. He is a 1999/2000 Fox Fellow. He has taught classes and workshops at Cirque Du Soleil, The Dome Studio in Beijing China, Williamstown Theatre Festival,The Big Apple Circus, Interlochen Arts Center, Vassar College, Stella Adler Conservatory, Bard College, Fordham University, University of Texas Graduate Acting and Directing Programs, National Shakespeare Conservatory, University of Minnesota Graduate Acting Program, the Guthrie Theater, Iowa State University and Theater de la Jeune Lune. He has served on the faculty of the Juilliard Drama School, the Actor’s Center (founding faculty & master teacher of physical comedy/clown), David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, the Public Theater’s Shakespeare Lab, the Academy of Classical Acting at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington D.C., New York University’s Graduate Acting Program and Tisch School of the Arts. Clinical Professor of Theater, Speech and Dance at Brown University and Director of Movement and Physical Theater at the Brown/Trinity Consortium in Providence, RI. He is currently a Professor In The Practice of Acting and Head of Physical Acting at the David Geffen School of Drama (2006-present). Christopher has also led many corporate training workshops in Play and Connection for CEO’s from all over China through The Yale Center in Beijing and The Yale School of Management as well as workshops for The Huffington Post and Spotify.