Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1986 - 9

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tradition, dishing out a patter remlOlscent of the carnival
barker. Political satire and irony set the tone in his performance. He creates a "theatre of debris" by animating "trash,"
artfully selected for symbolic qualities; the props of American culture off 14th Street. "Congress," for instance, becomes a huge table of cigars that talk to each other. By the
end of the performance he is knee deep in symbolic effluvia.
He counteracts this visually busy mare's nest with a costume
that is simple and mad-professor in inspiration-lab coat,
glasses and maniacal expression.
Stanley Allen Sherman is another clown of a political
persuasion with a wild-eyed anarchist appearance. His look
is closer to fancy-dress derelict than clown, yet his humor is
very visual, very physical, and very prop oriented-a variation on the theatre of debris.
Tom Casciero is a delightful, childlike imp who includes
the audience in playtime with "DUff durrs"-old cardboard
tubes that you put to your lips and turn into trumpets, megaphones, cigars, etc. The performance is playful, and the
simplicity of his costume-a sky blue coverall-is refreshingly unselfconscious in its clown attitude.
The Sigfrido Aguilar Troupe, James Donlon, and Michael
Moschen are all seeking to combine clowning, dance, and
mime in their performances and their costumes reflect these
antecedents. These hybrid forms of clown theatre retranslate
our image of clowns.
This article is not meant to imply that good old banana
peel humor is not still evident; nor has the baggy-pants clown
image been banished forever. The roots of the vaudevillians
strongly hark back to circus techniques, mime, dance, and
actor training. Penn and Teller pay homage to the side show
and self-made freaks. Nion, Cheryl Cushman, and Richard
Pochenko's clowns in Canada pay homage to Le Coq training. The showmanship and skills of Jim Jenkins and Tom
Murphy clearly point to circus skills traditions. John Towsen, Max Baer and Jim Calder all pay homage to Com media
traditions. What is evident in the work of these people,
however, is that they wish to develop the art of clowning
beyond the circus image, and challenge the audience's preconceptions of the clown as overly simple, unsophisticated;
to move away from a Disney-hokey attitude toward material. They challenge t he "clown" design image and retranslate it on their own terms. Some, like Tom Murphy,
Jim Jenkins, and Kenny Roschen soften and sophisticate the
image for the comparatively small performance spaces in
which they work, and try to make a more distinct character
statement. Some simply rebel against the lack of subtlety

Jim Jenkins

Tom Murphy, Bob Berky, and Jim Jenkins have costumes that are more
traditional in their clown elements (baggy pants, stripe motifs, bright
colors, trampish overtones) and yet their makeup and costumes are simpler,
more personal, and more individual than most circus clown costumes,
allowing the audience to know these performers as individuals. The simple,
small ball nose replaces the exaggerated makeup, the baggy pants remain
but the huge plaid is rare. These performers prefer to use their own hair
rather than the traditionally colored joke wigs. Because these people are
strong performers they transform a look that could seem commonplace
into costumes that are perfectly suited to them.
USITT / Wimer 1986/Theatre Design & Technology

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1986