Clownlympics

Eli, JD, Jess
I thought they had a great opening. The physical characters were really strong for all three of them. I could tell who these characters where just by how they walked, which was great. I thought the part where Eli threw the heavy ball and it landed only a few feet away was really funny. Also the relay race was pretty great.

Kalond, Mel
This was an interesting story line. I liked how they went with a robbery as their "sport" in this situation. The story was easy to follow along. I liked how the chemistry between the two characters created some great give and take moments.

Me, Kayla, Darcy
I really loved our story line. Our beginning could have been longer to better establish what was going on. A comment was made that I could have embraced my winning of the dog award more instead of being sad because I'm actually a human. In hindsight I agree. If I had to do the scene over I would make that change. The stunts we used: prance, skip, run, ausomble, sisson, full spin, forward roll, side roll, cartwheel, bridge, Captain Kirk fall, tuck jump, crucifix roll, bridge, and army crawl.

http://images2.sina.com/english/life/p/2010/1023/6295bbd9eba6b7d21d37cdcbc3f05d7b.jpg

By blood a king, in heart a clown.

Walking on Sunshine:
WOW! I absolutely appreciated the detail that you guys paid attention to in terms of costumes and very specific choices. You were all very well rehearsed and I was impressed with the strides you guys made in creating a smooth overall understanding of the story by simply using a few chairs and music. Your physical gestures were really specific, especially the tripping and the 'Chariots of Fire' moment where nearly everyone ate shit. Loved it! I wish we could have heard the music a bit better, but over all it was really well executed.

(A few shades lighter than) Black Swan:
I loved the premise of you piece, and although it didn't exactly fit the criteria of creating your own original clownolympic story, I really appreciated the fact that you guys took a risk in recreating a dark story, which produced a very humorous affect. You didn’t have hats, which would have provided another option for variation, but I thought the feathers were awfully cute and nice touch to tie us into your story. You guys took a lot of time in syncing with your music which was an AWESOME effect, especially when Mallory first opened the curtain and lunged forward and was caught in the bar with the crashing music in the background. That was my FAVORITE moment. I felt this performance was more similar to what our Suess finals will be in recreating a story with our own flavor, which is definitely clowning process. Bravo!

A Very Thin Line:

I’m so proud of our group. We took a little bit of each of our ideas and incorporated it into the final product, which I loved. I thought our hats served us well and we all did a nice job of incorporating the character we created with some of the initial clowning exercises. I loved that we had Commedia- like stock characters, which are so endearing. I would say I specially loved Nicole’s hat and adorable physicality across the tightrope, Jenn was awesome to work with and provided my character a sort of ‘backboard ‘to work off of as the encouraging clown, which made my job easier. Zac was my favorite character of our group as the (not so) fearless leader. His physicality really enhanced our performance and helped give us lots of structure.

Great Job Everyone!

Review, etc.

Black Swan:
While this interpretation lacked the original glide effect we saw in rehearsals, the overall effect was fanfriggintabulous. This interpretation is a good example of the parodic aspect of clowning. The overly emphasized gestures and inelegant vocal elements did well to draw metaphorical mustache Aronofsky's masterwork. All clowning has an element of parody in it, but it's generally a less-specialized form and more universal. Seeing a direct parody in performance was refreshing. As far as mechanics, the choreography being set to music was inspired. I really loved the facial expressions going on during the entire performance, how each character took the dancing so very seriously. The best thing I can say for this group: You made it look easy. It must have been very taxing to create that illusion.

Tight Rope:
I am very jealous of Zak's ability to do the Homer Simpson scream. I loved the illusion of balance and lack thereof during the scene, the use of an unstable space-prop worked incredibly well. I was very impressed how quickly each character was established with their first steps out onto the rope - Zak's false bravado, Nicole's absolute lack of fear, Christae's timidness, and Jen's nonchalance. Each one was really clear, even in the way they were breathing. I loved the ending as well, the shaky take-a-bow was incredible body work.

Breakfast of Champions (Speed Walking):
I pitched this idea to the group based on this piece I saw years ago during the Olympics about the Mexican bad-boy of speed walking who was constantly getting into trouble for jogging. I've always wanted to do something with that concept. I'm really glad it paid off as well as it did. It was rough doing rehearsals the first two weeks without all four team members there, but I think we really did something we can be proud of.

Working a clowning scene was much different than most other scene creation I've worked with. I found that while talking about a plan was useful, it worked better to talk and move at the same time. Working out the logistics of a gag became much easier, and much more fluid, when we got on, off, and around our feet. It also really helped with characterization. The brainstorming was by far the best part, just pitching ideas and trying them out made it a really exciting and fun/funny experiment.

I really feel like part of me was made for clowning. I'd forgotten just how much I'd enjoyed playing the fool as a little kid, but now that I've got a taste for it again, I'm not sure I can keep away. I think we need to pull a flash mob out of this, possibly do some pratfalls out of nowhere on the sixteenth street mall. How cool would that be?