“Ah, faces of angels…” These were the words that our director Sam often greeted us with after a hospital visit.
We would drop our red noses to reveal soft faces and sparkly eyes. Sometimes wide eyes from what we had witnessed, the games we had played, the beauty we had created, the pain we had felt… or sometimes all of those things. This has been a remarkable project on which I have felt and learnt so much, especially about the beauty and magic of the clown…
After a four-day rehearsal period in a forested art colony on the coast of Lithuania, the tour began. The team consisted of Sam (director), Jools (British clown), Lies (British clown doctor), Vilte (Lithuanian project manager), Juste, Algirdhas, Kristina and Joana (Lithuanian clown doctors). Oh and myself of course, representing Clowns Without Borders South Africa. The project was a sharing between those with experience creating and performing clown shows, and those with experience being clown doctors. The two skillsets fed into each other.
After a four-day rehearsal period in a forested art colony on the coast of Lithuania, the tour began. The team consisted of Sam (director), Jools (British clown), Lies (British clown doctor), Vilte (Lithuanian project manager), Juste, Algirdhas, Kristina and Joana (Lithuanian clown doctors). Oh and myself of course, representing Clowns Without Borders South Africa. The project was a sharing between those with experience creating and performing clown shows, and those with experience being clown doctors. The two skillsets fed into each other.
The team toured for two weeks, visiting 8 different cities, towns and villages throughout Lithuania. In that time, we interacted with 750 children and adults in hospitals, clinics, orphanages, elderly homes, refugee centres and Romani gypsy camps. In every place we visited, we were astounded by the warmth and generosity of the Lithuanian people. We visited places that nobody visits; rehabilitation centres in the middle of the forest, old Soviet-style hospitals and an elderly home where life and death hung tangibly in the air. Some days we did our show, originally entitled “Klounai Show”, other days we did hospital visits as clown doctors and a few days we did both.
The show was a delightful collection of turns about clowns and instruments. The Lithuanian artists rose to the challenge and, with gentle mentoring from those with more performance experience, grew in confidence and clown performance skill over the three weeks. Initially they struggled with the structure of a show and the size of the audiences, compared to the improvisation and intimacy of a hospital visit. It took time to find our rhythm together as a group, with all our different cultures and back-stories. But by the end, we found it and created sweet music together…
The show was a delightful collection of turns about clowns and instruments. The Lithuanian artists rose to the challenge and, with gentle mentoring from those with more performance experience, grew in confidence and clown performance skill over the three weeks. Initially they struggled with the structure of a show and the size of the audiences, compared to the improvisation and intimacy of a hospital visit. It took time to find our rhythm together as a group, with all our different cultures and back-stories. But by the end, we found it and created sweet music together…
On the other hand, the Lithuanian artists and Lies (the experienced clown doctors), led us beautifully by the hand into the hospitals to visit children with cancer, tuberculosis, heart disease and other illnesses. There are a lot of rules around clown doctoring, with good reason. Such as rules about hygiene, always going together in teams of two or three clowns, and giving the child all the power. The clown doctor takes all his or her cues from the child; from permission to enter the room, to the name of the balloon animal. In essence, the child leads the play. This is very important in a hospital environment where many children are trapped in beds or small rooms, isolated from other children and sometimes without parents. The sensitivity of the clown doctor cannot be underestimated. Clown doctoring requires deep listening and playfulness in a delicate balance… oh and bubbles.
During one particular hospital visit, my partner and I turned a corner to see two clowns looking at us through a glass pane. For a split second I thought it was a mirror. In that moment, I saw the clown afresh and experienced the magic and wonder of the clown through the eyes of an innocent child.
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