SOS: A Summer Clown Cruise
We are on a marooned luxury liner. The cruise entertainment — a Puerto Rican clown troupe — and their audience are the only souls remaining on board the doomed vessel. Survival skills merge with circus skills as the stranded performers juggle hope, despair, and juggling — for, of course… THE SHOW MUST GO ON.
Theater Oobleck launched a two-year collaboration with El Circo Nacional de Puerto Rico with this free, family-friendly, bilingual extravaganza in Chicago’s Humboldt Park, featuring clowning, acrobatics, cantastoria, fire, and a live nine-piece band.
Featured performers included Chicagoans Emmy Bean and Jay Torrence and, from San Juan, Arturo Gaskins, Briony Plant, Coco Drillo, and Angelle Guzmán Torres. The band includes Chicago musicians Ronnie Kuller, Julie Pomerleau, Chris Schoen, T-Roy Martin, Daniel Villarreal, and members of San Juan’s Banda Municipal de Makula-Barun: Dave Buchen, Arlemar Mendez, Xavier Claudio, and Pablo Bayamon.
SOS: A Summer Clown Cruise served as the jumping-off point for a collaboration to develop a new circus-informed play inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron and focusing on the themes of emigration, exodus, and home, to premiere in San Juan and Chicago in 2015.
The entire shebang was generously supported by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund, and The MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
El Circo Nacional de Puerto Rico is a populist circus founded in 2010 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
SOS: A Summer Clown Cruise was presented as part of the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks with the support of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Arts programming in neighborhoods across the city advances the goals of the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Cultural Plan.
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Oobleck's Decameron Circus receives NEA grant
Big news! Theater Oobleck has just received our second grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. This one will support our ongoing collaboration with El Circo Nacional de Puerto Rico, which will continue with shows in San Juan, Puerto Rico in January and May, and a brand new Chicago show in June: SOS: A Decameron Clown Cruise.
See our full press release for details.
posted 12/05/2014
The Most Sarcastic Child in Chicago Watches a Clown Show
Writer Paul Dailing is chronicling life in our city in his “1001 Chicago Afternoons” blog. He stopped by “SOS: A Summer Clown Cruise,” and gave this report.
The sun started its slow descent over the boathouse to the west, glistening and glimmering off the lagoon where happy fishermen plied their futile hobby. The spot of grass by house and water was filled with smiling families, laughing children and the sounds of a small live band playing a light and smooth 1920s Puerto Rican jazz.
“Is this that clown thing they were talking about?” came a voice from behind me.
The voice was a female one, withering in that way only 12 year olds can muster.
Read the full story
posted 07/24/2014
…for the amazing cantastorias by Adam Cook and Sam Wilson to arrive. They will be part of the set for SOS: A Summer Clown Cruise.
They sent us some photos to whet our appetites.
posted 06/26/2014
Oobleck receives MAP Fund grant
Big news: Oobleck has received a prestigious MAP Fund grant to support our collaboration with El Circo Nacional de Puerto Rico. We are one of 39 organizations receiving funding for this year — you can read about all the amazing projects here.
Oobleck Founding member Dave Buchen will be leading up the production, tentatively titled Decameron Carnival Cruise. It will premiere in the Spring of 2015 in Chicago and San Juan.
posted 05/06/2014
Oobleck receives International Connections Fund grant
Big news: Theater Oobleck is embarking on a collaborative circus arts production with El Circo Nacional de Puerto Rico. We will develop the work — a melding of circus arts and Oobleckian narrative, addressing issues surrounding emigration from Puerto Rico — to premiere in both Chicago and San Juan in 2015.
The project is being made possible through the generous support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund. You can read about all the wonderful projects they are supporting this year by reading their press release.
The populist El Circo Nacional de Puerto Rico was founded in 2010. It has performed regularly throughout the island at festivals, schools, theaters, and in the streets.
posted 10/07/2013
