Clown House is the third show produced by Beyond the Line Theatre Co. and was created by artistic director Jordan Reynosa.
When asked about the creative process and the inspiration behind making a clowning show, Reynosa said, “I wanted to do something extremely different from the past two shows we created. They were both very serious, very abstract, had large sequences of movement, and had a large focus on script. I wanted to push myself to do something new… I have zero experience in clowning, so I knew I would either fail miserably or at least do a decent job and make a fun show. I wanted to take that challenge for myself.” Well Jordan, I think trying something new absolutely paid off. Beyond the Line did a great job at making a fun show that has everyone smiling on their way home.
This clowning show blurs the lines between physical comedy, devised theatre, and surrealism. In the spirit of clowning, the actors are completely mute for the entire performance. It got me thinking about the muteness of ballet and contemporary dance. Generally speaking, mainstream ballet, contemporary dance, as well as clowning all portray ideas or narratives without using voiced dialogue. In ballet, there is a language of pantomime that is mostly understood by students, teachers, and avid lovers of ballet. So for people like me, who attend ballet much more casually, ballet pantomime doesn’t look like it’s conveying anything specific. It sometimes doesn’t help the narrative at all. This had put me off of the muteness of dance from an early age, however Clown House made me rethink my previous skepticism of pantomime. I was not only intrigued but impressed. Clown House made their intentions very clear despite using no real universal language other than the honesty of their character’s experiences.
The rehearsal process of Clown House spent a lot of time exploring this challenge. They found that character building was vital in order to develop an intuitive way to communicate the narrative. Reynosa elaborated on this: “I'd ask all of my actors to do some writing about their clown while they were ‘in nose’, asking them how their clown thinks and acts in descriptive words, how they are emotionally, how they think of and react to other clowns or regular people, etc… Clowns have a very specific, almost indescribable way that they function. A group of clowns will naturally find a leader, a thinker, a comic, we just had to find that while doing it in the moment.” They referred to this as their “clown logic”.
The narrative is fairly simple: They are clowns who are locked in a room. As they go on this journey of repetitive daily tasks they slowly unfold into a frenzy where they must get out, while also being unsure of what might happen after they do. The clowns in relationship to each other seem like a family. They pull jokes on each other, they irritate each other, they comfort each other, and they play so so much. It’s very warming to watch and they invite you, the audience, to play too.
When asked to describe his favorite part of this show, Reynosa said, “A few months ago, people were asking me, ‘What are you doing for Fringe? What is it? What is it about?’ And all I could say was “I don't know, but I know it's about three clowns and they're all stuck in a room. Oh and it's called 'Clown House'." It's so beautiful to me that this simple thought I had, just based on what I wanted to do, how I wanted to challenge myself and others, has developed into a really beautiful, chaotic, wild and fun show.”
Clown House performs again Thursday Aug. 4th, Saturday Aug. 6th, and Sunday Aug. 7th for the closing weekend of the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival.
#CHAMPION is a queer and disabled journey to self love, created by Amuse Bouche Productions from Denver, CO.
For one night only, #CHAMPION visits the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival to share with us a “one person, one skeleton show” on self love. This show is one of the most complete narratives I’ve seen in a dance show in a long time. It takes you along the hero’s journey to a place of joy, of triumph, and of closure. When asked to describe their show, Amuse Bouche said “ This show is a queer and disabled take on a certain kind of personal and collective disintegration, the transformations that are demanded of us, what it sometimes takes to get there, and the jokes we stumble into along the way.”
Amuse Bouche Productions is Sheila Klein (they/them) and Masha Mikulinsky (them/them). “We make interdisciplinary visual and performance work in spaces where pop culture and critical inquiry collide, at times more literally than figuratively. We are a queer and disabled performance team making work at the intersections of post-modern dance, experimental theater, physical comedy, and puppetry.”
#CHAMPION rides the line between maximalism and minimalism, which is on brand for Amuse Bouche. They have minimal production with lights, costumes, and general environment, however their energy, their props, and their sound score made up entirely of Queen music is so over the top you can’t help but smile. The movement in this roughly 40 minute show passes through various genres. Sheila Klein’s contemporary dance history is easily identifiable as they move through the space with athleticism and whispers of contemporary dance technique come through their dancing. However they turn that around and explore other movements too, such as the exaggerated performance of fitness dance, reminding me of the famous dance break in Footloose. In stark contrast to this is the task based stationary bicycle. Klein rides this through an entire section and despite there being little else happening onstage, this takes you on an emotional trip through tension and doubt and you come out of it feeling like there is only up from here. They use various props from an IV stand to mobility aids to bikes, to illustrate the relationship their disability has on their dance and vice versa.
Throughout the entire show, Masha Mikulinsky is leading a miniature skeleton with one arm around the space. They affectionately refer to the skeleton as “Skel”. Masha leads Skel around the stage, sometimes biking around, sometimes stretching, sometimes lip syncing to the music. This slow presence of Skel doesn’t interact with Sheila’s performance very directly, and it’s easy to forget they’re there until they slowly creep into the corner of your eye, making you grin because in spite of yourself, you did forget them. What have they been up to while you were focused on other things? And you try to do better at checking in with them, and then Sheila pulls you away again. It’s an interesting pull and push that left me wondering more about Skel. If this show had a prequel show about Skel, I’d definitely check that out.
#CHAMPION as described by Amuse Bouche, “is deliberately designed to be a collaboration with the audience, so the emotional and movement qualities really are shaped by the experiences of audience members. This piece really has a life of its own. If you saw the piece two nights in a row, you could easily have a very different experience with it each time.”
They have one performance at the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival before packing up and hitting the road. You can see them at The Box theatre at the Gateway Mall on Aug. 4th at 6:00pm.
Arin Lynn is the editor of loveDANCEmore. They also perform in the queer experimental dance community, and explore combining film and zine mediums.