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Ottawa
Fringe's clowning glory
by Sonia Verma
The Charlatan - Carleton's Independent Student Newspaper
June 22, 2000
Shannan
Calcutt takes her job very seriously. After all, making grownups
laugh isn't easy. Calcutt, who has won awards for her tragic comic
portrayal of Izzy the clown, performs at Ottawa's Fringe Festival,
June 22-23. A heart-wrenching charmer in a wedding dress - or
a life preserver as the case may be - Izzy has moved audience
to tears, and not always of laughter.
Calcutt's previous Fringe performance, Burnt Tongue, had Izzy
being stood up by a man she'd met over the Internet. This year,
in her show, It's me, Only Better!, frustrated by romance, or
the lack thereof, she applies to join a convent. The only trouble
is, Izzy's not exactly nun material...
Calcutt is quick to point out distinctions between circus clown
acts and what she does. Her performance - billed as being "not
suitable for children" - is what she calls "Pochinko clowning."
Named after Richard Pochinko, a pioneer in this style of theatre,
it is based on native American mythology.
"You
have to look at yourself form (every available) direction, and
share every emotions with the audience...it's all out there,"
say Calcutt, adding, "Izzy's story is more a celebration of
humanity and it's ridiculousness (than anything else)."
Izzy is a Chaplinesque clown who get into all manner of unhappy
situations, making audience both empathize with the clown's
troubles an smile at the ridiculousness of the predicament.
"Izzy
plays form a place of vulnerability, she speaks from the heart,"
says Calcutt, who studied theatre at the University of Victoria
and was especially fascinated by the physical comedy involved
in clowning. Calcutt also graduated from the Dell'Arte International
School of Physical Theatre. In Its me, Only Better!, she bring
out the physical as well as the emotional comedy involved in
being less than perfect in an equally flawed world. "We're all
ridiculous in some way," says Calcutt, "We all say ridiculous
things, so seriously. Izzy does that, and so (the audience)
falls in love with her."
Although she works from a script, written in collaboration with
her director, Sue Morrison, Calcutt says she mostly improvises
during her performances to draw the audience into the act. "Every
audience at every location is different, and that just makes
it more challenging....everything is spontaneous, following
an impulse. You try to keep it a new experience, and don't try
to repeat anything," she explains.
Besides her remaining performances at the Fringe Festival, Calcutt
will be conducting a workshop called Celebrate
your Ridiculousness, June 24 at the Arts Court on Nicholas
and Daly in downtown Ottawa.
Following the Fringe, she is scheduled to hit the road again,
performing in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Vancouver and later this
year, New York.
And after that? Calcutt is not quite sure what she would like
to do, perhaps like Izzy she will just have to be "totally prepared
to be spontaneous."
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