Clown Relationships and Roles

As soon as we got up on our feet and started doing something active we began to discover how we tend to take on roles. After a while messing around, we identified a main description for each of us: the innovator, the formaliser and the follower. 

The innovator got bored quickly, didn't want to follow rules and was on the look out for something new and surprising.

The formaliser saw the new and moved to find and establish patterns and rules.

The follower looked for whatever was happening and a way to join in.

Although each of these was identified with a named individual, we felt that each of us could also choose to play each role.

Other terms that seemed appropriate for some of these roles were: disruptor, rule-maintainer, and so on. 

The three roles might also easily map onto other ways of understanding clown roles, such as the circus terminology of whiteface clown, auguste, counter-auguste and ringmaster. 

Looking at traditional festivities, we also noticed three parallel roles: 

- one which is the central action, or central figure (for example, an effigy of a saint

- another which deals with the central figure but also with onlookers

- the onlookers

Further, Brecht's finding of epic theatre in the retelling of street scene has three such roles: the initial event, the witnesses who recount the event, and those who hear and see the event second hand as a performance