Press

"Giving a small physical theater troupe a name like “500 Clown” is sort of like describing a car engine in terms of its horsepower."

Devon Glenn, LA Times

  full article (PDF)

"They are a cross between 'Waiting for Godot's' eternally, existentially embroiled Estragon and Vladimir, the entire cast of Christopher Guest's community theater send-up 'Waiting for Guffman' and a vintage vaudeville team."

Catey Sullivan, Pioneer Press

  full article (PDF)

<back

500 Clown rapidly moves between planned elements and improvisation, leaving its audiences excitedly uncertain as to what is and what is not planned. In each show, an innovatively designed set piece (with hi- and low-tech mechanics) propels the clowns into extreme physical behavior and rough-style acrobatics. The resulting long-form clown-theater delivers compelling narrative arcs, structured out of the disruptive force of spontaneous play. 500 Clown's work is raw, bold, and always generous with audiences in accessibility and spirit.

<back

Individual Artist Biographies

Molly Brennan (Clown)

BRENNAN has been acting in Chicago since 1994. Credits include Go, Dog. Go! with Chicago Children's Theatre, Fatty Arbuckle's Spectacular Musical Review with Second City Theatricals, Tina Landau's Theatrical Essays at Steppenwolf Garage, and That's Weird, Grandma with Barrel of Monkeys. Also a company member of the House Theatre, she appeared in Curse of the Crying Heart, for which she received a Joseph Jefferson Award, and The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz, assistant directed The Sparrow, and is directing The Magnificents opening in Fall 2007. Molly is a Clown with Big Apple Clown Care at the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital.

Adrian Danzig (Clown / Producing Artistic Director)

DANZIG has been in shows at The Goodman, The Second City, Steppenwolf Studio, Berkeley Rep, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and The Public Theater, and with Shakespeare & Company and Lookingglass. He has worked with Mary Zimmerman, Les Waters, Joanne Akalaitis and Anne Bogart, and has performed his solo works at The Kitchen, P.S. 122, The Ontological Hysteric Theater, Soho Rep. He was an early Neo-futurist and a founding member of Redmoon Theater, Hubinspoke Theater and 500 Clown. Education: NYC's High School of Performing Arts, BA Oberlin College, MFA School of The Art Institute of Chicago. He has studied clown with Ctibor Turba, Philippe Gaulier, Ronlin Foreman, Els Comediants, David Shiner, Avner the Eccentric and is a Clown with Big Apple Circus Clown Care. Formerly theater professor / head of movement at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts, and recently in Go, Dog. Go! with Chicago's Children's Theatre.

Leslie Buxbaum Danzig (Director)

BUXBAUM DANZIG co-directed The Ox-Herder's Tale with puppeteer Blair Thomas at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, UMD. With DOG, Leslie conceived and directed Interference and Windows Server 2003 / Active Directory Infrastructure at PAC / edge 2003-04. Leslie co-directed Redmoon Theater's Hunchback at Steppenwolf Studio and the Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater at the Public Theater in NYC and will direct a remount in Fall 2007. With NYC's Elevator Repair Service, Leslie has performed in works at P.S. 122 and toured nationally and internationally. She was assistant director to Julie Taymor on The Green Bird with Theater for a New Audience, and dramaturg with choreographer Molly Shanahan. Leslie trained in physical theater at Ecole Jacques Lecoq and in clown with Philippe Gaulier and Ronlin Foreman; BA from Brown University; and PhD in 2007 in Performance Studies at Northwestern University.

Paul Kalina (Clown)

KALINA is a clown, actor, fight choreographer and mask maker. He has worked as an actor and fight choreographer for The Goodman Theater, CT20 productions, Steppenwolf Theater and the Court Theater. He co-founded the physical theater duo Le Pamplemousse and toured Canada and the United States until 1999. He supervised Big Apple Circus Clown Care at the University of Chicago's Children's Hospital and the Vaudeville Caravan, an outreach program where performers visit senior centers. He is a founding member of 500 Clown and the critically acclaimed acrobatic and slapstick clown duo, The Bumblinni Brothers. Training: B.S. in theatre arts from Illinois State University, International School of Physical Theatre Dell'Arte in Blue Lake, and MFA at University of Idaho.

<back

Educational Offerings

Clown Theater Workshops

1. Who Are You In Clown Theater?

2. Clown Partnering

3. Clown Improvisation: Proposals and Partner Negotiation

4. Physical and Emotional Risk-Taking

Lecture / Demonstration

500 Clown Performance of "History of Clown" usually followed by discussion and / or workshop.

<back