NY Clown Theatre Festival 2010: CLOWNS WITH GOWNS
ADAM’S TAKE:
This female duo has good energy between them, and some of the circus skills displayed (including a really delightful bouncing ball trick with a jumprope) are downright entertaining. Their opening has a fair amount of promise [although I’ve seen something similar 3 or 4 times in other shows, thankfully not at THIS festival]
Both clowns have strong understandings of their characters. The clown with the stick in her hair [GERTRUDE] has a wonderful physicality about her, and the other woman [CARMEN] plays the preener quite well. They have each wonderful moments with their makeup/hairdo (I found the mask of the face and underneath the face, the same makeup as the mask to be quite provocative.) And the stick in the hair– it’s really funny!
So overall, I enjoyed the show. There were not quite enough surprise/comedy moments in the show for me, but I was willing to go along with the ride, and I think that as the show gets older and stronger, they will fill those moments even more with the laughs.
My big note for them is that they repeat their beats again and again. No, I’m prettier and nicer and more deserving. No, I’m prettier and nicer and more deserving. Oh yeah? Oh yeah? After awhile, the stakes need to get higher and higher, and there needs to be a change both in the tempo, and in the tactics by which they get what they want.
I just didn’t quite get a clear picture of the scenario of their show, and why they were doing the show for us, and what their goals were as clowns (not as performers, but as characters) I’d like the carrot in front of the donkey to be even clearer to the audience than it is to the performers, so when the carrot goes away, or gets pulled out of site, or replaced with a rock, we are ahead of the performers, and can enjoy their predicament. I didn’t feel they were quite there yet. Nevertheless, definitely worth watching.
On a side note, they had a small cameo in the Ferdinand show that followed which was quite funny.
THE OFFICIAL INFORMATION
CLOWNS WITH GOWNS
Clowns with Gowns Productions: Adriana Chavez and Heidi Rider
Blue Lake, CA
http://clownswithgowns.weebly.com/
[Double-bill with Diz and Izzy Aster, Ferdinand the Magnificent! or Send in the Angels]
Carmen Francesca Maria Frida Ophelia de la Rosa is ridiculously vain. Gertrude is ridiculously desperate to be just as pretty! Two female clowns attempt to do an extraordinary act together, but will their competitive vying for audience adoration spin it into an outrageous flop?  Their impassioned desire to be the best, the most bewitching, the most ravishing, the most fascinatingly foxy, the most devastatingly dazzlingly divine diva drives their female rivalry to shocking extremes. This battle of beauty is fully equipped with unraveling skirts, increasingly absurd hairdos and (laughable?) female-vs-female zaniness! 25 min.
DOUBLE BILL WITH FERDINAND THE MAGNIFICENT!
Saturday, September 4th @ 5pm
Saturday, September 11th @ 10pm
Sunday, September 12th @ 5pm
DOUBLE BILL WITH DIZ AND IZZY ASTER
Tuesday, September 7th @ 7pm
DOUBLE BILL WITH SEND IN THE ANGELS
Wednesday, September 15th @ 7pm
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