Tonight I went up to Theatre Row Studios to work with Mark Lonergan and Joel Jeske who work in a traditional status based vaudeville style. I liked it a lot. To an outsider the two different studios of people in comfortable clothing entering and exiting at the behest of a male in a folding chair probably looked almost identical. But, from my point of view Chris Bayes and Joel Jeske’s approach to clown are completely different.
My sense of the clown gym with Chris Bayes, was very much that of a drama professor and his students, which is to be expected since Chris Bayes teaches clowning in a number of different academic acting programs.
Mark Lonergan and Joel Jeske were also teaching and doing most of the talking, but their approach seemed more like peers taking their turn to show and tell other creators of physical theatre how they came up with their material and what works for them. They talked about their work in Parallel Exit and how much talking was involved when the ensemble made up of men from different performing disciplines, dance, clown, musical comedy and music first started making new work together.
The clown looked at situation and decided to take the time to figure out all the different ways he could possibly approach it while the musical comedy guy said, Just tell me what you want me to do and I’ll give it to you. Those two would have a difficulty making new work together unless they appreciated the value of each others approach. Apparently they do since that company has been in existence for over ten years.
Walking to the train, Mark and I had a brief conversation about the RBBB Clown College and how it is missed. When the clowns were offered contracts at the end of Clown College class they had a cohesive style. Now that the clowns are hired individually their performance styles are all over the map.
When I got home, The Husband (who used to be a theatre director), was working on a presentation about, Agile, his favorite approach to software development.
I see similarities between the work of self-producing physical theatre companies and the way an Agile software development team works. Trust and respect are necessary between all the members of the team or the ensemble for successful communication and collaboration. Conflict is to be expected as part of the creative work of building the team (or ensemble). But, when each member comes to understand and willingly participate in the unwritten norms of behavior that define the identity of the team (or ensemble) that is how the stage is set so that amazing things can happen.
Successful physical theatre ensembles and Agile software development teams both require a shared sense of purpose, vision and passion for the work. Jeff Sutherland, one of the inventors of the Scrum software development process said that all the members of the team (or ensemble) need to care as much about each other’s work as they do their own.
That’s pretty much the exact opposite of the behavior My Kid observed during her recent fascination with episodes of the reality television show “Toddlers and Tiaras”.