The Shows Begin …
December 13, 2007Some of us never met before Tuesday’s grand convergence at Newark Airport, and today we performed three shows together. It has been a fast coming together, a working and re-working of ideas, and now today the first show, and then another, and then another. The show begins with a mixed-up clown greeting, an overlapping of French, Haitian Creole (kreyol ayisyen) - Moshe and I have found a bit of announcer and translator - and the international language of physical comic relationship. I find comedy in simply being able to greet the crown in creole - it’s something Haitians don’t expect white people to necessarily be able to do. When I finally get out a proud “Bon swa, tout moun!” (good afternoon, everyone!) I get a laugh.
Brendon and Elisa keep the intensity high with a slapstick acrobatic routine. They then resolve their conflict and come together in play, collaborating on a magic trick. Lots of magic tricks … lots of play … Moshe flips cigar boxes, accompanied by our trombone, drum and slide whistle band. A stilt chase. A dance.
A lot of play … and a lot of people ready and eager to play. While there is great need for so many things everywhere we look, and people do ask us for money and for our props and costumes, they are so often able to turn around and laugh at a trick, participate in the show, or join us in dancing and singing. Three times in the past two days we have found ourselves sharing music and comic dance with a group of laughing people - drums appear, people clap hands, and our informal walk-around entertaining turns into a spontaneous party. A lot of play.
Sarah Liane Foster
Torbeck, Ayiti, 12/12/07
