Clown Through Mask

The Pioneering Work of Richard Pochinko as Practiced by Sue Morrison

By Veronica Coburn, Sue Morrison, Maike Schultz

Intellect Ltd

Copyright © 2013 Veronica Coburn and Sue Morrison
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84150-574-9

Contents

PREFACE,
INTRODUCTION,
BACKGROUND INFORMATION,
Chapter 1: Richard Pochinko,
Chapter 2: Sue Morrison,
PART ONE: The Basics of Pochinko Clown,
Chapter 3: The First Day,
Chapter 4: Preparatory Exercises,
Chapter 5: First Foundation Exercise For Clown,
Chapter 6: First Foundation Exercise For Mask,
Chapter 7: Second Foundation Exercise For Clown,
Chapter 8: Second Foundation Exercise For Mask,
PART TWO: Building a Personal Mythology,
Chapter 9: Making One North,
Chapter 10: Experience & Innocence,
Chapter 11: Painting One North,
Chapter 12: Wearing One North,
Chapter 13: Checking In,
Chapter 14: The First Turn,
PART THREE: Masks Two to Six,
Chapter 15: Making & Wearing Mask Two South,
Chapter 16: Making & Wearing Mask Three East – Time To Check In,
Chapter 17: Making & Wearing Mask Four West,
Chapter 18: Making & Wearing Mask Five Below Below,
Chapter 19: Making & Wearing Mask Six Above Above,
PART FOUR: Performance,
Chapter 20: The Turn For Two South,
Chapter 21: The Turn For Three East,
Chapter 22: The Turn For Four West,
Chapter 23: The Turn For Five Below Below,
Chapter 24: The Turn For Six Above Above,
Chapter 25: The Soirée,
PART FIVE: Joey & Auguste,
Chapter 26: The Basics,
Chapter 27: Performance Exercises,
PART SIX: Clown Theatre,
Chapter 28: Red Nose Theatre,
Chapter 29: Developing Original Clown Material – Sue Morrison Style,
Chapter 30: The Future Of The Form – Clowns For Our Time,
AFTERWORD,
BIBLIOGRAPHY,

CHAPTER 1

Richard Pochinko

Clown Through Mask, originally named The Canadian Clowning Technique and sometimes referred to as Pochinko Clown, was devised by Richard Pochinko, 1946–1989. Pochinko, from rural Manitoba, had a fascination with the circus and performance from the time he was a young boy. There was nothing in Pochinko’s background to give birth to or encourage an interest in the arts. His parents were farmers, they did not share his passion, but neither did they stop their only son from following his heart. In 1960, at the age of 14, he left home to enter a theatre programme lasting four years in the Manitoba Theatre School in Winnipeg. This was to be the first step in Pochinko’s lifelong journey in search of a new type of Canadian theatre, a theatre for our time.

Having graduated, at the age of 18, the young Pochinko indulged an innate curiosity by enrolling in various workshops and programmes while he embarked on a career in the theatre. He studied dance at the Bianca Rogge School of Modern and Interpretive Dance in Toronto, music/piano in Montréal and film production under the auspices of the National Film Board of Canada. He moved to Halifax in 1967, aged 21, and as he forged a career at The Neptune Theatre as a stage manager he began to direct his own work. It was also in Halifax that Richard Pochinko first met Ian Wallace. Ian Wallace would go on to become Pochinko’s most important collaborator. He was with him to witness the birth of ideas, he worked alongside Pochinko as he developed the form to house those ideas, and together, with Pochinko directing and Wallace performing as Nion, they created performances that exploded existing perceptions of clown theatre. Pochinko was always gracious in acknowledging others’ achievements. “Every generation creates artists who are just a little ahead of their time, to lead us to new forms of celebration. Nion is one of these artists” (Heffernan 1988: p. 13).

It is generally agreed that it was during his time in Halifax that Pochinko began to feel a sense of dissatisfaction with the state of theatre in Canada. He was known to speak of a desire for a new sort of Canadian theatre, theatre that was connected, essential, theatre that would represent and reflect the Canadian experience.

In 1971 Richard Pochinko applied for and was awarded a most remarkable grant from the Canada Council, a research grant that allowed him to travel to Europe to broaden his knowledge of theatre. What a gift, the means to indulge and feed a burning curiosity. Pochinko, with his then partner Ian Wallace, embarked on a journey of discovery that brought him to England, Greece, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Scandanavia and France where he encountered some of the greatest theatre minds of our modern age. Imagine this barrel-chested Polack; that is how Sue Morrison remembers him:

“He was barrel-chested with thinning hair and a perpetual grin on his face, he looked like a football player and he had the most bright blue eyes, everybody loved him, everybody wanted to be with him.”

Imagine this curious and charismatic Canadian standing at the site of the ancient Theatre of Epidaurus envisioning the long-dead clowns standing in their comic socks, masks made from stiffened linen and human hair in their hands, ready to perform in a ribald Satyr play in honour of Dionysus. Imagine him encountering the groundbreaking theories of Jerzi Grotowski in his Teatr Laboratorium in Wroclaw, theories that declared the purpose of theatre to be the discovery of truth in that space between actor and spectator eschewing all else, including script, if unnecessary.

It [theatre] cannot exist without the actor-spectator relationship of perceptual, direct, ‘live’ communion. […]

Theatre […] provides an opportunity for what could be called integration, the discarding of masks, the revealing of the real substance: a totality of physical and mental reactions. This opportunity must be treated in a disciplined manner, with a full awareness of the responsibilities it involves. Here we can see the theatre’s therapeutic function for people in our present day civilization. It is true that the actor accomplishes this act, but he can only do so through an encounter with the spectator – intimately, visibly, not hiding behind a cameraman, wardrobe mistress, stage designer or make-up girl – in direct confrontation with him, and somehow ‘instead of’ him. The actor’s act – discarding half measures, revealing, opening up, emerging from himself as opposed to closing up – is an invitation to the spectator. (Grotowski 1986: pp. 19, 211 & 212.)

Imagine the young Richard Pochinko, hungry for a new Canadian theatre, discussing Grotowski’s ideas with Peter Brook in London and Eugenio Barba in Scandinavia, both Brook and Barba also studied with Grotowski. And then imagine Pochinko arriving in Paris, full of ideas born of his experiences, full of passion to create a theatre for his time, imagine him arriving in Paris to enrol at École Jacques Lecoq. École Lecoq, the groundbreaking theatre school that taught and continues to teach theatre from a corporeal perspective; a curriculum designed to develop theatre makers rather than actors, a curriculum designed to ignite passion and initiate pathways rather than complete a journey, a curriculum designed to provoke curiosity rather than provide answers.

Pochinko enrolled at École Jacques Lecoq in October 1971 and studied there until June 1972. It is unclear why Pochinko did not spend longer studying there; the curriculum spans two years. Perhaps he did not have the financial resources to complete the second year. Perhaps he was asked to leave. The school is known for dispensing with some of its students between the first and second years of study. If he was asked to leave, the reasons are not clear. No matter, there is a story that is told of his leaving and it is this. That Lecoq, seeing great potential in his student, instructed Pochinko to return to his own country and take the work in a new direction. Canada, a new country, with its mix of Native and European people. Celtic Newfoundlanders, First Nation Inuit of the Arctic, the Gallic Quebecois, the people of the Haida First Nation of the Northwest Coast, the Polish – Richard Pochinko was of Polish descent – all Canadians with much in common and much to set them apart. And it was in this melting pot of experience, drawing on all influences, that Richard Pochinko found fertile ground for his work.

Pochinko returned to Canada in June 1972, and enrolled in a mask workshop taught by Lecoq graduate Bari Rolfe, in the University of Washington in Seattle. And it was in Seattle whilst he studied with Rolfe that he met a man, Jonsmith, an expert in Native mask and clown, a territory that Pochinko was becoming increasingly interested in. Jonsmith would become Pochinko’s lifetime teacher and mentor. It was through Jonsmith that the young Polish Canadian learnt about Native ways. It was through Jonsmith that Pochinko learnt about the Native delight makers, the heyoka, the blue jays, the banana ripeners, the koshare and the kwirana. Jonsmith taught Pochinko about the purpose of Native clown and it was Jonsmith who invited his protégé to sit on the edge of a pier in Seattle and stare at the horizon until he could see himself on the horizon. It was surely from this experience that Pochinko divined the central tenet of his teaching.

If we ever faced all directions of ourselves at once we could only laugh at the beauty of our own ridiculousness.

By the time Pochinko encountered Jonsmith he had nurtured a particular interest in the idea of clown for quite some time. Clowns intrigued him. He traced the beginnings of this fascination to his time in Paris. He and Ian Wallace were staying in an apartment opposite the Cirque d’Hiver and Pochinko would watch the clowns coming and going. He became intrigued by them and, in particular, their ability to laugh at themselves. This compulsion was no doubt compounded by his time at École Jacques Lecoq where the teaching of clown is part of the curriculum.

In 1972 Richard Pochinko persuaded the then Artistic Director of the National Arts Centre, Jean Roberts, to sponsor a centre of research to look at the theatrical territories of mask, clowning, circus, movement and Greek chorus. Pochinko advertised nationally for interested participants. He received 600 applications from across Canada and from those he chose 28 people to go on this exploratory journey with him. The journey lasted three years and it was undoubtedly during this time that Pochinko began to articulate his original ideas on clown, drawing on his European experience, Lecoq, Rolfe, Grotowski, and his knowledge of Native clown and mask.

A central point in the evolution of Pochinko’s thought on clown during the NAC research years was a tour of the Maritimes that the entire research group participated in with the American Royal Brothers Circus in 1974. The class toured and performed, as clowns, with the professional circus for a month. This followed a three-month long intensive focus on red nose. This experience was of such significance because it was this that led Pochinko to become disenchanted with the circus clown.

In the American circus the clown is not important. What’s important is the gag. That’s why you never remember individual clowns (with the possible exception of Emmett Kelly). It’s the gag that’s handed down from one generation of clowns to the next and the audience laughs, not at the clown, but at the gag. (Thalenberg 1981: p. 54.)

Pochinko’s disaffection with the circus marked the beginning of his exploration of the possibilities of the clown in the theatre. “As Canadians we are wonderful imitators, and Canadian audiences accepted the classical tradition of Europe and the Barnum and Bailey circus type of clowning without thinking of the potential alternatives we could offer” (Thalenberg 1981: p. 34). In 1975 Richard Pochinko founded the Ottawa Theatre Resource Centre (TRC), with voice coach Anne Skinner. Richard was credited as Artistic Director and Anne Skinner joined Jan Miller, Ellen Pierce, Linda Rabin and Jan Henderson on the Board of Directors. The TRC closed its doors in Ottawa after a year in operation and re-opened in Toronto in 1978 under the dual Artistic Directorship of Richard Pochinko and Ian Wallace. The legal company never ceased trading; the hiatus was geographical and somewhat philosophical. By the time the TRC re-opened its doors in Toronto its purpose and form had clarified. Its mission statement: “To provide a distinctly North American approach to mask and clown, and to facilitate the growth of new theatrical forms.”

It was during the TRC years that Richard Pochinko refined his ideology through practice and fully articulated his Canadian alternative, The Canadian Clowning Technique, a unique pedagogy for theatre of clown, a synthesis of all available experience resulting in a creative process suitable for his and our time.

There’s a European style of clowning which is where the character, the personality of the clown is more important than the situation, and that’s what makes people laugh. There’s the American way, which we’ll be working with in the circus where the gag is important, and the punctuation in the gag, to make people laugh. And there’s the Indian philosophy, the North American Indian philosophy, which is a way of living. The North American Indians consider the clown to be a holy man; he is the ‘messenger of the Gods’ – and the Gods have an incredible sense of humour. All that is clowning and I think what we’re going to do, what we’re trying to do, is see, put all that together and see if there’s, if all those different realities and different worlds can mix and work for us today, a new generation. For our generation. (Saltzman 1974.)

The Canadian Clowning Technique, Clown Through Mask, draws on both Native and European approaches to clown. It reinvigorates the European theatre clown by adopting the idea found in Native society that a clown serves an essential function. In giving the modern theatre clown the responsibility of purpose their delight is underpinned by relevance and the work gains the possibility of meaning. The art form then has the potential to be elevated to the level of the profound.

This highlights a quality that sets Pochinko Clown apart from most, if not all, other modern ideologies on red nose performance and that is the absence of the belief that a clown must be funny. Do not misunderstand. Pochinko clowns are funny. Pochinko clowns love to make us laugh. That is why the central tenet encourages us to face all directions of ourselves at once so that we can laugh at the beauty of our own ridiculousness. But, taking inspiration from the Native concept of wholeness, a Pochinko clown is encouraged to embrace all that they are and following the idea that a clown has a story that must be told, like the heyoka who must perform his/her shameful secret, then the function of any individual clown is to understand the value of their story to the group. And if their story asks difficult questions then their function might be to make us think. If their story is full of terrible sadness then their function might be to make us weep. If in the execution of their duty they elicit laughter as well then that is wonderful. If not then that is also wonderful providing they are doing what is necessary. Pochinko clowns share the responsibility of having to do what is required with Native clowns.

In terms of the detail of Pochinko’s curriculum, he devised a system of exercises inspired by the Native vision quest to equip his students in fulfilling their red nose obligations. A quest is an epic journey that has at its heart a search for something that must be attained. The journey ends where it begins but the destination differs from the start because of the acquisition of this vital ingredient. The function of the journey is to lead the traveller where they need to go so that they encounter the thing they require. Transformation is the purpose of a Native vision quest, from boy to man, from girl to woman, from man to medicine man, from woman to shaman, from man/woman to clown. In Clown Through Mask the transformation is from ignorance to wisdom. The centre of the quest is a question. Who am I? With mask the tool, with mask as catalyst, with mask as entry to the sacred space.

This structure is unique and it is what makes Pochinko’s methodology different to any other pedagogic approach to clown. All approaches to clown demand that the performer work from themselves but no other methodology provides a structure for the student to achieve knowledge of self.

The European approach to clown, its teaching methodology, is often described as a via negativa. All learning is achieved in performance; clown on the floor with class as spectator, the teacher as auteur manipulating the student towards success with offers and provocation. The student, on the floor, knows that s/he is succeeding if they avoid a negative response. “That is shit.” The teaching of clown is notoriously brutal, admittedly, it is brutal for the purposes of provocation but it is brutal nonetheless. The student works to avoid failure that arrives in the form of being asked to sit down. The power of knowledge in this scenario is weighted towards the teacher. The student, even one who has succeeded in a particular exercise, can come off the floor as they went up, empty handed, no knowledge, just success or failure. No tool. No reference point. Only memory. And relief.

Sue Morrison is an auteur, the centre point of her room, any good teacher of clown is, and although she can be harsh, firm, she can be truly provocative, her guiding light is positive. If the “European” approach is known as a via negativa then hers is a via positiva. If in the “European” approach students try to avoid the instruction to “sit down” then in Clown Through Mask Morrison’s students strive to hear her mantra:

“Beautiful. That’s beautiful.”

And before her students ever get to a point where they are guided by that beacon of beauty they are provided with a non-performance structure, the making and wearing of six masks, which gives them the opportunity to get to know themselves. Therefore, when they step onto the floor to begin their journey towards clown performance, they are equipped with knowledge and they have a tool. In fact, they have six tools in the six masks that they wore for their vision quests. Not only are the masks the catalyst for the students’ epic journeys into self but they also function as tools to be used in performance. Like any mask they are there to be expressed. Truthfully. Emotionally. Corporeally.

(Continues…)Excerpted from Clown Through Mask by Veronica Coburn, Sue Morrison, Maike Schultz. Copyright © 2013 Veronica Coburn and Sue Morrison. Excerpted by permission of Intellect Ltd.
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