CLOSING REMARKS, FINAL TALLY>>>

At last I get around to my final post...We come to the end of another great NY Clown Theatre Festival. I saw 14 shows and as usual, loved every minute of being there--inside and outside the theatre--meeting new faces, solidifying acquaintances into friendships, and reconnecting with friends and seeing colleagues from years past. If any performer is reading this, I want to say that I admire the courage it took to put your show out there to an audience often predominately made up of fellow clowns. Among other things, the festival is a chance to show each other the work we work hard to create, and to energize the art form we love. I know I am inspired.

During this festival, I kept a running count of recurring themes, props, instruments...and here is the final tally:

attempted suicides, 4 shows
ukuleles, 4 shows
single long-stem roses, 4 shows
musical saws, 2 shows
lost teeth, 3 shows

This list only includes shows I was able to attend. I heard there were more lost teeth and who knows what else, in shows I missed. What is evident is that ideas and themes reappear as they probably have been doing since the first performer stepped on a stage. The list represents a little something of the idea flow that runs through the current crop of clowning. It echoes the traditional past as it reflects the culture of the present, and that is as it should be. Thank you all who take the time to read this humble blog. Enormously understated huge thanks as always to Audrey Crabtree, without whom none of this would happen, and to her fearless crew who make the Festival run, to the incomparable Brick Theatre where it all unfolds, and thanks, especially, for the laughs. See ya.

BIG SHOES, SHORT TALES

BIG SHOES, SHORT TALES, Michelle Nicole Matlock, Performer, Seattle, WA
In a voiceover, Michelle narrates in third person her own story--this strikes me as brilliant, and works to full comic effect. It is a charm bracelet of tales (if you will), of her arrival in New York and subsequent struggles (and triumphs) as a starving, striving actor in the big city. Thanks to her artistic creativity and well-developed theatricality, Michelle's honest, down to earth performance is both stirring and funny. What is evident is a talented performer who knows how to connect with her audience. The ending comes too abruptly, leaving us wanting more. Something to look forward to, after this inspired start.