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Send in A ClownShow
From left, Cianna Williams ’29, Allison Dewberry ’27, Claire Rheinecker ’29 and Lillian Jordan ’28 rehearse clowning in The Playhouse theater in preparation for “A ClownShow,” directed by Furman alumnus Doug Berky ’95. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.
Clowning is hard work. Maybe not building skyscrapers hard, but it’s not all big red shoes and water-spraying boutonnieres, either.
Doug Berky ’95, left, directs Furman students as they rehearse clowning in The Playhouse theater for “A ClownShow.” Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.
As a group of Furman University students found out this semester, theatrical clowning means dialing into oneself, being expressive and in the moment, free of distractions. Not that moment, this one. Then this one. The students spent three weeks learning clown techniques from Doug Berky ’95, a renowned clown and mask maker who lives near Table Rock, South Carolina.
Using their new skills, the students created a one-hour family-friendly production, “A ClownShow,” that runs Sept. 24-27 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 28 at 2 p.m., on Furman’s campus in The Playhouse.
Clowns are innocent, and they “reveal to us the things that we try not to be, but we really are,” said Berky, who is directing “A ClownShow.” We can relate to the guy who slips on the banana peel, or, like Dick Van Dyke, an ottoman. Sometimes their TV shows get canceled.
The Theatre Arts Department regularly brings in playwrights or guest artists, like Berky, to work on student-driven or student-written shows, said Maegan Azar, chair of the department.
“A ClownShow” is a departure from theater that begins with a script and stage directions. Theatrical clowning is storytelling that unfolds from characters’ reactions.
“Clown logic is child logic. They’re very curious to explore things. What can a beach ball be? What can a puppet do? What kind of relationships can be investigated by boiling theater down to one really specific choice and exploring that?,” Azar said.
The change gets the students flexing different theatrical muscles.
Allison Dewberry ’27, a theatre arts major from Greer, South Carolina, grew up doing children’s theater. At Furman she’s played serious roles, but ClownShow is pushing her “boundaries of outlandish. It’s freeing to come into a space and be willing to play with the other actors. It’s very joyful. It doesn’t have to make sense, and that’s ok.”
Clown work transcends the theater, Azar said, with valuable lessons that apply throughout life.
“This kind of work teaches students to live in the space, to be in community with other people, to make eye contact and share ideas, and throw things away if they’re not working and not take that personally,” Azar said.
The lesson Berky hopes to impart is for students to be authentic. “Even in the art of clowning it’s a different style of theater, it’s bigger movement-wise, but it’s still very real,” he said. The hardest thing for many clown students to learn is feeling comfortable being expressive. “When you do theater, you’re revealing a big part of your heart because we’re (portraying) different emotions and things. We want actors to be present and be in each moment.”
Not that moment. This one.
The cast of “A ClownShow” are: Noah Bridgers ’27 from Columbia, South Carolina; Allison Dewberry ’97, from Greenville, South Carolina; Harper Jacobs ’29 from Nashville, Tennessee; Lillian Jordan ’29 from Chapin, South Carolina; Sloane Kennedy ’29 from Georgetown, Texas; Claire Rheinecker ’29 from Kannapolis, North Carolina; Victoria Schenone ’27 from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Cianna Williams ’29 from Bedford, Ohio.
