Press

"...scattershot, ribald and exhilarating...."
Andy Webster, The New York Times
>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

Company & Individual Artist Biographies

500 Clown Macbeth premiered in Chicago in 2000, and became a company in 2001 founded by Adrian Danzig, Paul Kalina, Molly Brennan and Leslie Bauxbaum Danzig. Since then 500 Clown has journeyed on, driven by a deep passion for developing our highly physical and immediate theater, which had garnered ongoing enthusiasm from audiences, critics, students and supporters of all kinds. To date 500 Clown has created 4 full-length performances: 500 Clown Macbeth, 500 Clown Frankenstein, 500 Clown Christmas, and 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal. Between 2000 and the present, 500 Clown has performed its show in over a dozen Chicago venues including Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, city-run and independent theaters, and universities. Nationally, 500 clown has brought it’s shows to over twenty venues throughout the US including Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts, MD (also commissioner); College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University, MN, PS 122, NYC; Edison Theatre, MO; Capitol Theatre, WA; Creative Alliance, MD; and Orange County Performing Arts Center, CA; with one tour to England as cultural ambassador with the Chicago Sister Cities Program. In 2008, 500 Clown received a grant from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters ensemble Theatre Collaborations Grant Program, a component of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which recognized 500 Clown as a leader of ensemble work in the US.

500 Clown has a large presence as educators in and outside of Chicago. Workshops emphasize taking physical and emotional risk and partnering. Students include high school and university students, theater and non-theater professional, athletes, business school students, and various community groups.

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

Repertory

500 Clown Trapped

Experience 500 Clown's signature mix of high physicality, raw emotion, and powerful storytelling with content accessible to an all-ages audience. In 500 CLOWN TRAPPED, three clown-musicians are unexpectedly ensnared. Their response to this surprising turn of events ineffectively spirals out of control. Slapstick mishaps, vaudevillian turns, and untiring resilience are put into play as the clowns try to escape the trap they've made. Along the way, they collide with the questions: What does it mean to be trapped? To be set free? Who sets the traps? 500 CLOWN TRAPPED was commissioned by The College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University and has received funding from The Boeing Company. Conceived by and featuring 500 Clown's Adrian Danzig with Timothy Heck and Leah Urzendowksi. Directed by Paola Coletto. 500 CLOWN TRAPPED premieres in Chicago in a co-production with Adventure Stage Chicago May 6 - May 21, 2011.

<back