Clown Through Mask

Sue Morrison, Veronica Coburn

Description

Richard Pochinko (1946–89) played a pioneering role in North American clown theater through the creation of an original pedagogy synthesizing modern European and indigenous Native American techniques. In Clown Through Mask, Veronica Coburn and onetime Pochinko apprentice Sue Morrison lay out the methodology of the Pochinko style of clowning and offer a bold philosophical framework for its interpretation. Morrison is today a leading teacher of Pochinko’s Clown through Mask technique and this book extends significantly the literature on this underdocumented form of theater.

INTRODUCTION

What Is A Clown?

How Does The Red Nose Work?

Modern Performance Clown: Clown Theatre

What Pochinko Clown Has To Offer The Art Form

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

PART ONE: The Basics of Pochinko Clown

PART TWO: Building a Personal Mythology

PART THREE: Masks Two to Six

PART FOUR: Performance

PART FIVE: Joey & Auguste

PART SIX: Clown Theatre

Sujets

• Performing Arts
• Theatre
• Performance art
• General officer
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783200825
• Langue: English

Extrait

Clown Through Mask The pioneering work of Richard Pochinko as practised by Sue Morrison
Clown Through Mask The pioneering work of Richard Pochinko as practised by Sue Morrison
by Veronica Coburn and Sue Morrison
First published in the UK in 2013 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2013 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2013 Veronica Coburn and Sue Morrison
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
Production manager: Tim Mitchell
Cover designer: Holly Rose
Cover photo: Eric Davis in Absence of Magic by Eric Davis Sue Morrison.
Directed by Sue Morrison. Photo by Maike Schultz
Copy-editor: Emma Rhys
Typesetting: John Teehan
ISBN 978-1-84150-574-9
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell Bain Ltd., Glasgow
Contents
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
What Is A Clown?
How Does The Red Nose Work?
Modern Performance Clown: Clown Theatre
What Pochinko Clown Has To Offer The Art Form
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Chapter 1: Richard Pochinko
Historical Photos
Chapter 2: Sue Morrison
PART ONE: The Basics of Pochinko Clown
Chapter 3: The First Day
Daughters Of Copperwoman: Clowns
Chapter 4: Preparatory Exercises
The First Exercise
Clown Games: Jacques Dit
Clown Games: Mr. Hit!
Sensory Exercises: Walk To The Wall
Sensory Exercises: Walk To The Energy Wall
Sensory Exercises: Run To The Energy Wall
Synopsis
Chapter 5: First Foundation Exercise For Clown
First Foundation Exercise For Clown: Present Yourself
Synopsis
Chapter 6: First Foundation Exercise For Mask
First Foundation Exercise For Mask: Masterpiece/Creator
Synopsis
Chapter 7: Second Foundation Exercise For Clown
Second Foundation Exercise For Clown: Fantastic Spaces
Synopsis
Chapter 8: Second Foundation Exercise For Mask
Second Foundation Exercise For Mask: Exploration Of Colour
Ritual: The Entry, Commitment Exploration
Experience: Independent Visualization
Public Shame
Synopsis
PART TWO: Building a Personal Mythology
Chapter 9: Making One North
Building A Personal Mythology
Making One North
Ritual
Workshop Photos
Public Shame
Synopsis
Workshop Photos
Chapter 10: Experience Innocence
Saying Goodbye To Someone You Love
Return To Childhood
Synopsis
Chapter 11: Painting One North
Ritual
Public Shame
Synopsis
Chapter 12: Wearing One North
Experience
Ritual
Workshop Photos
Experience: The Mantel Of Myth
Workshop Photos
Public Shame
Workshop Photos
Innocence
Ritual
Experience
Public Shame
Mask as Tool
Public Performance: The Red Nose Turn
Synopsis
Chapter 13: Checking In
Chapter 14: The First Turn
The Turn Of One North: Survival
Daily Practice
Impulse Exercise
The First Turns
Workshop Photos
Synopsis
PART THREE: Masks Two to Six
Chapter 15: Making Wearing Mask Two South
Mask Photos
Synopsis
Chapter 16: Making Wearing Mask Three East - Time To Check In
Synopsis
Chapter 17: Making Wearing Mask Four West
Mask Photos
Synopsis
Chapter 18: Making Wearing Mask Five Below Below
Synopsis
Chapter 19: Making Wearing Mask Six Above Above
Synopsis
PART FOUR: Performance
Chapter 20: The Turn For Two South
All Things To Do With Script
Example Two South
Synopsis
Chapter 21: The Turn For Three East
All Things To Do With Truth
A Truthful Body
Maintaining Truth
Synopsis
Chapter 22: The Turn For Four West
All Things To Do With Connection
Synopsis
Chapter 23: The Turn For Five Below Below
Momentum
Synopsis
Chapter 24: The Turn For Six Above Above
The Game
Synopsis
Chapter 25: The Soir e
Synopsis
PART FIVE: Joey Auguste
Chapter 26: The Basics
Synopsis
Chapter 27: Performance Exercises
The First Performance Exercise - Working In Pairs
First Words: The Introduction of Speech
Performance Exercises: MORE, MORE, MORE EXTREME
The Soir e
Synopsis
PART SIX: Clown Theatre
Chapter 28: Red Nose Theatre
Definition: Red Nose Theatre
Chapter 29: Developing Original Clown Material - Sue Morrison Style
The Process
Devising
Distillation/ Development Of Script
Rehearsal/Performance
Production Photos
Chapter 30: The Future Of The Form - Clowns For Our Time
AFTERWORD
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PREFACE
I n 1993 I formed a theatre company, Barabbas, in Ireland with Mikel Murfi and Raymond Keane. Barabbas mission statement was to be influenced by the traditionally European disciplines of Clown, Bouffon and Commedia dell Arte . We launched our company with a festival of work featuring three diverse shows - Come Down From The Mountain John Clown, John Clown ; a highly physical, bouffonesque version of Shakespeare s Macbeth ; and Half Eight Mass Of A Tuesday which told a gentle tale of village prayer with rod puppets and miniatures. Barabbas went on to achieve great success. The company toured nationally, and internationally to England, Wales, Scotland, France, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand and America, with a number of works, most notably, a dynamic version of an old Irish play - The Whiteheaded Boy by Lennox Robinson which was programmed in BAM s Next Wave Festival in 1999. Barabbas mission statement was refined, within the first few years, to focus on clown as the company s core discipline. The company continued to maintain a dedication to a broad theatrical landscape, the company did not always perform in red nose, not every show was a clown show, but the spirit of clown underpinned everything. It was our guiding light.
Mikel moved on from the company in the millennial year. I departed in 2007. At that time the company had produced seven full length clown shows, the company s work had inspired the Dublin International Theatre Festival to programme its first focus on clown theatre in 1994, and I had written my first play, a red nose version of Herman Melville s Moby Dick set in the Irish midlands. Barabbas had also won the Entertainment Award at the Pan Celtic Film Television Festival for a series of 87 clown sketches that were broadcast under the name Barabbas. My final piece of work with the company was an evening of Oirishness with a hundred-strong choir and four clowns in Ireland s National Concert Hall for St. Patrick s Festival 2007. The highlight of that show was a rousing rendition of the popular classic, Amos The Leperman , taught to generations of Irish children in preparation for their First Holy Communion. And then, in 2007, having moved on from Barabbas into what I thought were post clown years, I encountered the work of Richard Pochinko, Clown Through Mask, in a week long workshop led by Jonathan Young of Shams Theatre under the auspices of The London Mime Festival . It was to be a significant encounter.
For Barabbas I had taught clown along European methodological lines. Mikel had attended cole Jacques Lecoq and Barabbas way of teaching was based on our practice which was strongly influenced by Lecoq s principles. I remember always feeling a level of frustration teaching clown. It is a notoriously difficult discipline and it seemed to me that the European approach didn t equip students very well. Students succeeded or failed, when they did succeed it was via failure, but there was nothing to support them in their efforts. The red nose is a mask and it reveals who we are. To work in red nose necessitates a degree of knowledge of self. In the European tradition, that knowledge is divined by the teacher. The student learns about him/herself through the teacher s eyes; made explicit in the teacher s reaction to his/her work. The student is reliant on the teacher s greater knowledge. The student is not equipped or empowered to gain or utilize knowledge for his or her self. Then, in January 2007, in a room above a nightclub in Brixton I discovered Clown Through Mask, a pedagogy developed in the 1970s and 1980s by Canadian Richard Pochinko, that reversed that balance of power by providing a system of work that facilitated the acquisition of required knowledge for students. Clown Through Mask also provided a structure for that knowledge to be utilized in performance.
Richard Pochinko died in 1989. The premier teacher of Clown Through Mask today is Toronto-based Sue Morrison. Sue Morrison apprenticed with Richard Pochinko from 1985 to 1989 and she teaches a comprehensive Clown Through Mask module over five weeks in her home city every January/February. Having tasted the work with Jonathan in London, I decided to go to the source and signed up for Morrison s Clown Through Mask workshop the following year. It was an intense and transformational journey and my expectations were exceeded. I had found in Morrison a teacher of rare ability and I had found in the work, in Pochinko s pedagogy, a way to teach clown that dispensed with all my previous dissatisfactions. Encountering Clown Through Mask was a homecoming for me. What I loved about clown was honoured. How I practised clown was validated. And I had found the answer to the question that had troubled me for many years - how best to teach the art of red nose.
Having completed Clown Through Mask with Sue, I suggested that we work on a book together, a book to notate Richard Pochinko s original pedagogy, a book to highlight Sue Morrison s teaching of it, a book for theatre practitioners to facilitate an understanding of modern theatre clown. This book, for me, is the culmination of years of practice. It is a labour of love. In Sue Morrison I found my perfect collaborator. She has knowledge and wisdom that challenges my own. And she is the keeper of this most extraordinary system of work.
The process for writing this book evo