Coppelia Project: A Clown Ballet in 3 Acts

Heidi Stubblefield, actor/creator, is the creator and director of The Coppelia Project: a clown ballet in three acts, which was a commission by Accessible Arts. It was produced at the Kansas City Fringe Festival and had extended runs at the Off Center Theatre and Lawrence Arts Center.

She is a Kansas City, Kansas native. She received undergraduate training in Theatre at the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth, KS and went on to further study Physical Theatre and Ensemble Theatre at the Dell' Arte International School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, California. Heidi has performed with many theatre companies in the KC area, including the Kansas City Rep, Unicorn Theatre, Coterie Theatre, American Heartland Theatre, and Actor's Theatre of Kansas City. She has toured nationally with the Lawrence-based company Seem-to-Be Players. As a creator of original work she has created works for Princess Squid Productions, Byrd Productions, and the Coterie Theatre.

Heidi has also featured as an Emerging Artist by the Kansas City Star for her work with Arts in Prison, Inc., where she works with adult and juvenile inmates to write and perform original shows.

Heidi doesn't seem to have a website, but if you know of one for her, please post it here!

upcoming Helen Donnelly Workshops (Canada)

Find out more about Helen's work in a previous clownlink.

She'll be teaching a few upcoming classes in Canada.

August 10-14, Haliburton, Ontario
Clown: the discovery of your persona
Suitable for actors and non-actors alike, adults only.
This 5-day workshop is a level one approach to theatrical clown for students with limited or no clown experience. Drawing on various approaches, we uncover your clown persona through the use of the world’s smallest mask-- the clown nose. Both character and costume will be explored.

www.haliburtonschoolofthearts.ca to register

_______________________________________________
September/October:
Discover Your Clown
Suitable for actors and non-actors alike, adults only.

This 6-night workshop is a level one approach to theatrical clown for students with limited or no clown experience. Drawing on various approaches, we uncover your clown persona through the use of the world’s smallest mask-- the clown nose. Both character and costume will be explored.


6 Monday nights September 14, 21, 28, October 5, 19, 26 6-9:30pm
$255 ($204 for Equity actors)
Labspace Studio, 2A Pape Ave Toronto, Canada
Limit: 12 students
to register, email: info@helendonnelly.com

_______________________________________________
Develop Your Clown

This level 2 clown class is a continuation of the work from “Discover Your Clown”. Students will further develop their clown persona, using rhythm, movement and verbal/non-verbal communication. Duo and group work will be explored. A short presentation will give the opportunity to prepare and play in front of peers.

Prerequisite: “Discover Your Clown” or an equivalent class

6 Wednesday nights September 16, 23, 30, October 7, 14, 21 6-9:30pm
$255 ($204 for Equity actors)
Labspace Studio, 2A Pape Ave Toronto, Canada
Limit: 12 students
to register, email: info@helendonnelly.com

Another session of Commedia U (NY) June 14-26

Stanley Allen Sherman and Hovey Burgess present another in their series of intensive Commedia Dell'arte Courses .
It starts this Sunday at pier Studios in NY.

Commedia dell'Arte Summer Intensive Seminar 2 Week Workshop
June 14th - June 26, 2009
Price $795
at pierStudios in New York NY

RCCU is in its eight year of teaching Classical Commedia dell'Arte as close to its original form as we believe it was performed in the 1500's and 1600's. Master mask maker and Commedia dell'Arte expert Stanley Allan Sherman will lead this Commedia dell'Arte intensive.

These are the areas this workshop will concentrate on
…Commedia dell'Arte characters Pantalone, Arlecchino, Brighella, Dottore, Capitano, Lovers and Women --their movement, gesture and history of the characters, improvisation, lazzi, mask work, mask making, physical skills, prop manipulation, rhythm, scatology, scenario work and more; all integrated.

Much of the scenario and improvisation work will be taken from their new translation of three of Flaminio Scala scenarios believed to be from the legendary Gelosi Company 1572 to 1604.

For registration and to reserve your place or if you have any questions please feel free to call or e-mail Stanley Allan Sherman at 212-243-4039 or
via e-mail: il-dottore@commediau.com.
Registration fee to reserve your place: $75

If you can't make this one, the next workshop is in Turkey in July.

For more info, visit their website:

http://www.commediau.com/events.html

Gamarjabat at the New Victory Theatre May 9-24.

Gamarjobat is an award-winning comedy performance group comprising two Japanese comedians, Ketch! – who sports a red mohawk – and HIRO-PON – with a yellow mohawk.. The duo perform a variety of sketches, including mime and physical comedy. Their performances are wordless.

Although they are not particularly well-known in their native Japan, they have found success performing in the United Kingdom, winning awards at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

They have also appeared on television in the UK . In February 2009 the BBC broadcast a TV pilot Ketch & HIRO-PON Get It On.

They are making their U.S. flipper-flapping debut in their new show, ROCK ‘N ROLL PENGUIN at the New Victory Theatre in NY May 8-24. In support of that show, they've been doing some antics and other stuff in and around Times Square.

Find out more: New Victory Web Page

GAMARJABAT WEBSITE: (English version) http://www.gamarjobat.com/en/index.html

VIEW A VIDEO OF THEM BELOW

Golden Nose Award Winners

I attended the Third Annual New York Downtown Clown Golden Nose Awards last night.

This now annual event was a lot of fun-- not because of the awards (although it's great to see deserving people get awards) but because of the community that has been created/nurtured by founders of New York Downtown Clown Christopher Lueck and Amanda Pekoe. It's great to see all of these really funny talented people all in a room together. It's even bettter to have a drink with them before (and after the show)


This year's award ceremonies were a little different-- there were only two People's choice awards (that got voted on) and three number of honorary awards. The nose awards were designed by ProKnows

HONORARY AWARDS

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN CLOWNING
Hovey Burgess got a lifetime achievement award. Hovey, who is truly one of the instrumental early instructors of circus and clown, has been a constant presence in the NY Downtown Clown Scene. As one of the presenters noted-- not only does he go everywhere, sees every show, but everybody likes him. He's a tireless advocate for circus and clowning, and a great circus historian and archivist to boot.

Wearing a formal suit and a very large tie (not shown here) He told a very funny story about John Ringling North, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, and Lady Godiva which ended up crediting LaGuardia for the development of pasties and a G string (he was the mayor that raided Minsky's Burlesque) He also read the famous "But Dr. I am Pagliacci" joke from Watchmen in his best Rorschach voice. (It's the old famous joke--a man goes to the doctor, who checks him out and says "There's nothing wrong with you. There's a famous clown Pagliacci in town-- go see the show, and he'll make you feel better." To which the man replies in tears "But Doctor-- I am Pagliacci!")

CLOWN ORGANIZATION OF THE YEAR:
Clowns Without Borders USA received a Clown Organization of the Year award for their work bringing laughter and clowns to strife ridden places. I've featured them on this site a number of times. Deven Sissler, who had just come back from Haiti, accepted the award on behalf of the organization. For more information on the great work they do, visit http://www.clownswithoutborders.org



CLOWNS OF THE YEAR:
Dick Monday and Tiffany Riley of the NY Goofs Received the Clowns of the Year award for their dedication and enthusiasm for clown arts. They've been teaching clowning in NY for over 10 years, and though they are now based in Dallas, they are also truly integral members of the NY Downtown Clown Scene. For more information about their work, visit http://www.nygoofs.com

AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS

Audience Choice Best Clown Act
WINNER-- Musique, by Joel Jeske, Mike Richter, and Christopher Lueck
OTHER NOMINEES:
Eccentric Dance and Hat Act, by Spencer Novich
Kill Me Loudly: A Clown Noir, by FOOLS ON FIRE (Butt Kapinski, Chris Manley, ChrisRoberti and Jeff Seal, Dir. Eric Davis)
The Pajama Men, by Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez

Audience Choice Best Clown Character:
WINNER: Spencer Novich
OTHER NOMINEES:
Emily Carragher
Nina Levine
Tweedy

Tim Conway on the Carol Burnett Show

One of the great television clowns that you don't hear much about anymore, but was a genius at physical comedy, esp. with obstacles.

I was alerted to George Fuller and Adrian Danzig, and nearly died laughing when I saw it.
(as did Harvey Korman, Conway's often broken up partner)

Conway is so matter of fact, but explores the limitations of his obstacle so brilliantly that whatever he does you both don't expect, and at the same time could completely see it coming.

Well worth watching

Jessica Hentoff -Circus Harmony

Jessica Hentoff, founding member of both Big Apple Circus and Circus Flora, is still working in the biz. She is "The Circus Lady" of Circus Harmony and the artistic director of Circus Harmony, a social circus/education program that (as their mission statement says) teaches the art of life through circus education.

In addition to classes and performances in the St. Louis area, other projects have included Circus Salaam Shalom, a project that brought together Jewish and Muslim children. This developed into the Patchwork Circus troupe, which consists of Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Caucasian, Hispanic, African-American and Chinese children from urban and suburban areas. Another project was titled Far East Meets Midwest I and II. These shows combined Asian and Midwestern arts and artists. Asian artists wanted to include Middle Eastern musicians. Circus Harmony became the logical confluence of all these projects, combining diverse children and multicultural music into one expansive project.

An interview with her appeared in the St. Louis Jewish Light recently.

Excerpt below:

Q & A | JESSICA HENTOFF

A life in circus

Jessica Hentoff, artistic/executive director of Circus Harmony, talks with (left to right) Glenn Callanan, Keaton Hentoff-Killian and Max Pepose before a performance at the City Museum on Saturday afternoon. Photos: Dennis Caldwell

BY ELLEN FUTTERMAN, EDITOR

Jessica Hentoff, 53, is the artistic/executive director of Circus Harmony, St. Louis' only year-round circus school and social circus program based in the City Museum. She also co-founded the Big Apple Circus in New York in 1977 and Circus Flora in St. Louis in 1986. Recently, Hentoff sat down with the Jewish Light and discussed her obsession with the circus, its place in Jewish history and how it's never too late to join (and you don't even have to run away).

This is one of those questions I just have to ask: What's a nice Jewish girl like you doing in the circus?

I took circus classes in college (at the State University of New York at Purchase) because I thought they would be fun. That was over 30 years ago and it is still fun.

What intrigued you?

A big part was that it never occurred to me that I could do any of the things circus performers do. I grew up on the Upper West Side of New York City attending private school. I couldn't even climb a tree until I was 10-years-old.

Don't you have to grow up in the circus and be from a circus family to be any good at it?

That's a myth. I work with all ages, from 5 to an 82-year-old aerialist. I've taught children of all labels -- autistic, ADD, LDD, BDD, deaf, Down syndrome, physically handicapped. Circus arts doesn't require one skill set. Maybe you can't juggle but you can flip, or you can't flip but you have great balance and can walk the wire. We have kids with severe and obvious disabilities and they find something they can do in the circus. We had one girl who did not have any legs. She was great on the trapeze because she had phenomenal upper body strength. Another performer is missing most of her fingers on one hand. She does aerial work and contortion. The audience sees her ability rather than her disability.

What brought you to St. Louis?

My trapeze partner was from here. She convinced me it would be easier to tour logistically if we lived in the middle of the country.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

To find out more about her work, please visit her websites listed below:

http://www.circusharmony.org/

http://www.everdaycircus.net

MOVE IT- Free Physical Theatre March 19 at HERE (NYC)

MOVE IT! – a free evening of Physical and Visual Theatre

Parallel Exit, New York City’s award-winning physical theatre company, offers audiences a free opportunity to see some of New York’s most exciting physical and visual theatre artists in MOVE IT!

Featuring brand new physical theatre from Parallel Exit’s Joel Jeske, Mike Dobson, and Spencer Novich, dance-theatre from The Chase Brock Experience, clowning from Ishah Jannsen-Faith, and juggling from World Champion juggler Tony Duncan, MOVE IT! is presented at HERE Arts Center on Thursday March 19^th at 8:30pm.

Parallel Exit launched MOVE IT! in the fall of 2006 in order to support and promote the work of quality physical theatre artists and companies in New York City. This performance series appears throughout the year to invite audiences to experience the diversity and excitement of physical and visual theatre artists working in dance-theatre, mime, puppetry, clown, and circus.

MOVE IT!

Thursday March 19, 8:30pm, FREE

HERE Arts Center

145 6th Ave. (between Spring & Broome, enter on Dominick), Subway: C, E, 6 to Spring St.

For Tickets & Information: www.here.org 212-352-3101

This production is being presented through HERE’s Supported Artist Program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as technical and administrative support.

To find out more about Parallel Exit, the producer of the program, visit their website listed below:
http://www.parallelexit.net/

To find out more about some of the other artists, click on their names below:

Parallel Exit’s Joel Jeske, Mike Dobson, and Spencer Novich

The Chase Brock Experience

Ishah Jannsen-Faith

Tony Duncan

ClownLab show- Feb 13, 14 (NY)

Jef Johnson is a principal clown in the international touring company of Slava’s Snowshow. As Clown, he has also toured with Cirque du Soleil. Jef has more than 20 years of experience working in a wide range of physical styles. His approach is rooted in subjective expression, physical expression of condition through impulse and reflex. He has studied corporeal expression from disciples of Grotowski, Suzuki, Marceau, Decroux, Lecoq, Meyerhold, M. Chekhov, Vakhtangov.

He teaches a Clown Lab in NY on a fairly regular basis. The product, or clinical trial, as he prefers to call it, of one of those Clown Labs will be coming up on Feb 13 & 14.

I haven't studied with him, so can't really say what his teaching style is like. His website and (clown journal) was a bit too impenetrable for me to figure out exactly what he is all about.

With most things like this, the best way to figure out if you want to study with him is to go see some of his work. Here are the details to check it out for yourself.

Clownical Trials
In situ modulation using perception action coupling and combined object vectors.

THEATERLAB
137 West 14th Street
New York, NY
February 12-13 at 8 pm
$10.00 Reservations: 212-929-2545
Featuring: Golan, Kathie Horejsi, Julie Josephson, Michaela Lind, Andrew Valins

Jef Johnson's CLOWN LAB is dedicated to the exploration of the mechanisms underlying the nature of clown through behavior, experience and creative association. This is a clinical trial. Real humans will be used.

To find out more about Jef's work, visit his website listed below:

http://www.nyclown.com

Olympic Comedy--Paul Hunt & his Comedy Gymnastics Routines

Just happened across some amazing gymnastic comedy by Paul Hunt. He was a coach and gymnast in the 1980's and does some amazing comedy gymnastic routines in drag. In a tutu, Paul manages to perfectly parody a number of female gymnastic stunts, while at the same time doing a lot of amazing gymnastics and acrobatics himself.

I haven't been able to find out what happened to him (the videos are all from the 1980's) If somebody out there knows, please comment listed below.

There is a Hunt's Gymnastics Academy in Utah, but the webpage is currently defunct.

Enjoy these incredible videos (most of which seem to be shot at Gymnastic competitions, and at least a few of these are commented on by professional sports commentators.) It's very interesting to see the floor routine shot side by side, one in French, and one in English, and how the commentators comment on them.


COMEDY FLOOR ROUTINE IN ENGLISH


COMEDY FLOOR ROUTINE IN FRENCH


COMEDY PARALLEL BAR ROUTINE


COMEDY BALANCE BEAM ROUTINE

Kathie Horejsi's Blog: Clown Mommy

I've featured Kathie previously on the blog here But that was before she had a blog!

She's got a relatively new blog Clownmommy.com It's a personal account of her trying to do her work as a mom. So far I've read through most of it, and it definitely talks a lot about the struggles I have now (and I'm sure will have soon, as our baby is due to arrive in the next 4 weeks or so)

I didn't know about her blog until my personal news alert for my unique last name let me know that somebody had posted it somewhere (Oh my God, The Clown Signal!) Kathie was talking about a conversation that we had about female clowning about 16 years ago. And sadly, her blog conks out in the middle of the story. I'd really like to find out what I said!

And if you've got a clown blog out there where you are talking about your work as a clown, please let me know-- I don't promise to post it, but I'll give it a read at the very least!

RIP, Larry Harmon

Thanks to Pat Cashin's Clownalley.net for the heads up.

Larry Harmon, the licensor of Bozo the Clown died Thursday due to congestive heart failure.

Say what you will about Bozo, but Larry Harmon was personally responsible for entertaining millions of children.he entertained MILLIONS of children over the years. And that makes him a giant in my book.

RIP, Bozo!





Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.

His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.

Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos.

"You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview.

"Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us," Harmon said.

Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney's Goofy, originated Bozo the Clown when Capitol Records introduced a series of children's records in 1946. Harmon would later meet his alter ego while answering a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote the records.

He got that job and eventually bought the rights to Bozo. Along the way, he embellished Bozo's distinctive look: the orange-tufted hair, the bulbous nose, the outlandish red, white and blue costume.


"I felt if I could plant my size 83AAA shoes on this planet, (people) would never be able to forget those footprints," he said.

Read the rest of the article on the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/04/arts/television/04bozo.html

Laura Herts

Laura Herts is a France based American performer, whose training began years ago at the The Baltimore School for the Arts where she studied Dance and Visual Arts. Upon graduating, she began a world tour, which has now been extended into a lifetime experience.

Through her travels she rediscovered a childhood passion; mime. From that moment on, she performed wherever possible, beginning with street performing and teaching mime in Israel in 1985. As her passion for the art of mime, improvisation, and comedy performance grew, she decided to continue her quest for experience and knowledge by travelling to and throughout Europe; participating in Theatre festivals and attending workshops and Schools based on the Physical Theater.

Laura, studied under Lassaad Saidi, Jacques Lecoq, Philippe Gaulier, Daniel Stein, Stanislav Borgeofski, and Zigmund Mollic, while continuing to earn a living performing. Slowly and surely, Laura developed her original style of theater creating a world of clown, comedy, and social satire. She has created a number of one woman shows, including "The Last Tangle In Paradise," "Electric Lazy Land," and "Won Woman Show," as well as various cabaret numbers. Performing interactively with her audiences, she has played in theatres, cabarets, circuses, and many festivals throughout Europe, Japan, Brazil, Russia, Israel, and Madagascar, as well as teaching workshops in mime and clowning.

To find out more about Laura's work, please visit her website listed below:
www.lauraherts.com

The Sprockets Circus

Great article on NPR's website about the Sprockets, a family circus of three that tours the world in a 1962 Bristol double decker bus with a top speed of 33 miles per hour.

The show features Scott Harrison, his wife Issabelle Feraud, and their 11 year old son Theo, who have been touring continuously since 1997. They ship their bus between continents, and have performed in 48 countries, and 6 continents. They are currently in the states, and are starting the process of writing a book about their journey.

Their shows are full of magic, juggling, acrobatics, daredevil unicycling and lots of slapstick humor. Scott was a juggling entrepreneur for a while in England, and then became a performer.

Find out more about the Sprockets on the websites listed below:

SPROCKETS WEBSITE: http://www.thesprockets.com

NPR Article/story: Circus Family Is Ready for a Safety Net

SPROCKETS FLICKR site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thesprockets/

Helen Donnelly

Helen Donnelly is an actor, instructor and theatrical, therapeutic and circus clown. In the past, she was a professional performance storyteller and appeared in over 300 schools and libraries, and as an actor toured various children’s shows in Ontario. She has been teaching clown and movement workshops in the US and Canada for over 6 years at high schools, colleges and art institutions.

Helen is a graduate from the University of Toronto with an Honours B.A., Specialist in Drama. Helen has studied clown with David Shiner (Cirque du Soleil, Fool Moon), Roch Jutras (Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Eloize), John Turner and Mike Kennard (of Mump and Smoot fame), Grindl Kuchirka and Theatre Smith-Gilmour. She continues her study of the art form.

She has worked with circus groups such as Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Sublime, Cirque Eos, Zero Gravity Circus and continues her work with Circus Orange. Aside from her work in the theatrical clown realm, she is a professional therapeutic clown offering friendship and therapeutic play at Bloorview Kids Rehab and worked at The Hospital for Sick Children for 2 years. She is a member of The Canadian Association of Therapeutic Clowns.

In 2005, Helen formed her own theatrical clown company, Foo Productions. This company seeks to produce quality theatrical clown shows which entertain through parodying existing art forms. Its other mandate is to expose clown to a more multicultural audience as the language used presents no barrier. Posey’s Wig is a theatrical clown musical, performed entirely in gibberish (an invented language) with original music. The Foo Talk Show,created primarily for the corporate world, parodies the talk show formula as Foo the host interviews in gibberish with the guests responding in English. The format showcases Foo’s unique interview style and a musical sidekick (James Fisher), with original music.

Helen also teaches a number of workshops, including "Discover Your Clown" for beginners and "Flexing Your Clown Muscle" for intermediate students. These are offered a few times a year. Her website has a downloadable list of upcoming workshops.

To find out more about Helen's work, visit her website listed below:
www.helendonnelly.com

HawHaw James-- Self-portraits and visual inventiveness

HawHawJames isn't a professional clown-- he's a painter, artist, and (according to his bio) a drag queen and born again Christian. All that's unimportant, though, because I think his latest project is delightful.

He's been doing some amazing trompe l'oeil's, using his face as a canvas, and then photographing the results. These self-portraits are witty, clever, and very well done.

I've posted a few of them below-- but you should check out his whole collection on Flickr. These are portraits of his own face, and he's got a whole bunch of other interesting ones.

In clown work, we talk a lot about visual inventiveness- here it is in spades!

FLICKR: HawHawJames Self Portraits

Clowns Talk about Clowning- YouTube Videos

Jim Moore, the variety arts photographer who has probably photographed more clowns than anybody in the history of photography, has been doing something new-- he's been videotaping clowns.

If you check out his YouTube videos (URL below), he's putting up interviews with performers as they talk about their work, how they create their work, and even why they create their work.

Jim's got tons of archival stuff, so who knows what else he's got in his archives.

Recently he posted an interview with Keith Nelson of the Bindlestiff's, and he's also got David Engel and Hilary Chaplain talking about creating a new act for David's character El Magnifico.


HILARY CHAPLAIN & DAVID ENGEL VIDEO
I suggest subscribing to his YouTube feed on the page, or checking in there pretty often to see what rare and interesting material he surfaces. He'll also be interviewing somebody from the NY Downtown Clown Revue every month, where he remains the official staff photographer)

(And speaking of subscribing, thanks to the ever more efficient Pat Cashin of Clownalley.net for the link to Keith's interview. I knew Jim was putting these videos together, but didn't think to mention them until I saw Pat's post. He beats me to the punch a lot in posting stuff.) If you are not RSS'ing Clownalley.net, you should be!

Jim's Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=jm5star&p=r

Pat Cashin's Clown Alley: www.clownalley.net

FRINGE REVIEW: Gardi Hutter's JOAN OF ARPpO

(PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL PHOTOGRAPHS IN THIS REVIEW ARE COPYRIGHT © 2007 BY PHOTOGRAPHER JIM MOORE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION.)


I saw Gardi Hutter's show yesterday, and can highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. The show is original, creative, playful, physical, and downright wonderful. You should definitely see it if you have the opportunity.

Gardi starts with a simple concept-- a set of washing machines on stage, and a large pile of clothes. Enter Gardi as an old washerwoman lady-- clown nose and stuffed body. She notices us and is slightly surprised by us, but then goes about her business. She reads a little from her book JOAN OF ARC & OTHER HEROINES, and starts to let her imagination go. By the end of the show she's fought in a war, caused the destruction of innocents, created and destroyed a golem made of clothes and a washerwoman's tub, and entertained the entire audience. In between she's explored a number of different comedy ideas, including getting stuck in her washer-tub, getting stuck in the washing machine, walking a tightrope/clothesline, and infinite hilarious variations on clothing and laundry gags.

Part of what makes Gardi's clowning so wonderful is her inventiveness and her openness. She takes simple ideas and makes them understandable, but does it in a way that continually surprises and delights. At the end of the show I was sitting there feeling inspired, and trying to figure out how I can make my show more like her show. And that is one of the best compliments that I can pay to this show-- it gives you license to let your imagination run wild.

Click on one of the dates listed below to purchase tickets online.

JOAN OF ARPpO
Gardi Hutter
Writer: Gardi Hutter - Ferruccio Cainero
Director: Ferruccio Cainero
Sloppy laundry woman dreams of becoming a heroine like Jeanne d'Arc, but lacking worthy enemies, she transforms her washhouse into a grotesque battlefield. A tragicomic parable of the today world with a tousled, fury, nasty, touching and poetic female clown.
1h 10m Lugano Switzerland Clown/Mask Solo Show
VENUE #2: The Cherry Lane Theatre
www.gardihutter.com
Sat 11 @ 9:30
Wed 15 @ 5
Thu 16 @ 9:30
Thu 23 @ 2:30
Sat 25 @ 12

Gardi Hutter

Gardi Hutter is one of the most well-known female clowns in the world. Based in Switzerland, she has been performing her shows since 1981 on stages across the world. At Carnevale, people dress as her- and her washerwoman character has cleaned the floors of the Swiss Parliament. She's won at least five international prizes for her work, and has written three best-selling children's books. She teaches clowning at two prestigious clown schools in Switzerland & Germany. Despite all this, she is little known in the United States.

Here's what the Philadelphia Inquirer had to say about her show (performed a number of years ago)

With a rat's nest for hair and dressed in dirty long-johns and a raggedy dress, Hutter walks into a grungy laundry room and promptly plops herself down on a heap of rags to read a book titled "Joan of Arc and Other Heroines."

It soon becomes apparent, however, that this laundress doesn't need books to enter adventure-land. She does quite well on her own. Every object around her - a clothesline, a wash basin, a washing machine, a bowl of spaghetti - becomes a vehicle for heroic deeds.

Hutter's character loves getting out of fixes, but she loves getting into them even more. So having finnally figured out how to get out of the washing machine, she joyfully dives back in again. She not only believes in her own catastrophic fantasies, she loves them. So when a paper doll falls to the floor she screams bloody murder, as if it were a real body. Yet so much does she enjoy screaming, she sends another doll to its death.

Gardi will be performing her show Jeanne D'ArpPo at the NY Fringe Festival Make sure to catch it if you can!

Click the date below to purchase tickets....
($15 each at Venue #2, the Cherry Lane Theatre)

Sat Aug 11 @ 9:30 pm

Wed Aug 15 @ 5:00 pm

Thu Aug 16 @ 9:30 pm

Thu Aug 23 @ 2:30 pm

Sat Aug 25 @ 12 pm


To find out more about Gardi's work, visit her website listed below:

http://www.gardihutter.com/

John Hadfield- "Crash The Clown"

John Hadfield is an actor, clown, and musician based in Wilmington Delaware. John attended the University of Delaware, getting a degree in Russian language, and while there discovered the art of clowning and circus skills.

After college John enlisted in the army, and during basic training was procured by the White House Communications Agency, and worked with President Carter in the White House, and played an important role at the Bonn Summit, the Tokyo Summit and the Begin-Sadat peace talks at Camp David.

In 1982 John graduated Ringling Clown College, then toured for two years with the Royal Lichtenstein Circus. He partnered with clown Chris Shelton to form the Crash Brothers, with John playing the role of Crash the Clown, and Chris playing Officer Offbeat The Clown. John also toured solo shows as Crash. As Crash, John has performed at a number of places, including the White House (twice), Disneyland, and Magic Land in Bangkok Thailand.

John spends his free time competing in dog agility with his (Akita) dog Kenny, is a black belt in aikido, and ski races with the Wilmington Ski Club. Besides Crash the Clown and The Crash Brothers, John performs a science show, as a stiltwalker, his newest program is a set of kid's songs and comedy entitled John Hadfield in Concert. John's music CD's Monkeys In The House and Robot Monkey Head are available online. You can purchase them from Amazon.com by clicking on the album covers below.



To find out more about John's work, please visit his website listed below:
http://www.johnhadfield.net/