 "Photo: 500 Clown")
 "Photo: 500 Clown")
Photo provided by 500 Clown 500 Clown poised in their costuming for the rock musical '500 Clown (sings) Christmas Carol(s).' The show is running now through January 7 at Storefront Theater in downtown Chicago.
Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts is housed on the ninth floor of the Auditorium Building in downtown Chicago. When stepping off of the elevator there, the sounds of practicing instruments float through the air. Some students here are carrying large instrument cases, others stacks of papers for an upcoming rehearsal.
A further walk down a hallway leads to a door. But unlike preceding floors, this door doesn't connect the ninth floor with the Herman Crown Center; this one leads to two final offices on the CCPA floor. One of those contains the effervescent theatre professor Adrian Danzig.
Danzig's office has a terrible view. None of Michigan Avenue's famous trees can be seen. It's bleak. It's the top of a roof - pebbles and rocks and unpromising windows.
But Danzig's office itself provides a bit more promise. Next to his desk sits a black and white photo of his wife, Leslie Buxbaum Danzig. She looks like a famous actress from the 20s - eyes gazing out into the distance with a soft grey contrast surrounding the edges of the picture frame.
Aligning the walls next to a bookshelf is what could be considered the centerpiece of Adrian's office - and career. Covering the walls are posters featuring plays from his theatre company, 500 Clown.
Adrian Danzig, you see, is a clown.
But we're not talking Bozo or Ronald McDonald clowns. His work is about clowning the movement - live, vivacious theatre performances that reckon audiences to question the physical and emotional feat of the clowns/actors before them.
"Real clowns don't think what we do is real clown," said Adrian. "We want to make work from the perspective of an artist making work as opposed to 'Here's a finished product.' People should be able to say 'That was so fun' or 'My god how did you do that."
Danzig has been teaching his clowning techniques at Roosevelt for seven years. He feels his teaching experiences have helped his perspective on clowning.
"I know a lot more about the work than I used to because I've been teaching it for seven years," said Danzig. "By articulating what you know, you start to know it in a different way. I didn't study to be a clown. I studied to be an actor."
When he first came to Roosevelt, Danzig tried to fit everything he wanted to teach into one class.
"At first it was an enormous amount of information into one class," he said. "Now, I've been able to break up the work into three separate classes."
But Adrian isn't the only one involved with Roosevelt - or with 500 Clown. Remember Leslie, the timeless woman from the photograph? She's involved too. When she isn't at home tending to the couple's young son, she's the primary director for the theatre company, and she has also guest taught and directed at Roosevelt.
Currently, the couple are collaborating on 500 Clown (sings) Christmas Carol(s), a clowning piece about the trials and tribulations of the holiday season juxtaposed with creative, original songs.
"Music has a whole history in clown," said Leslie Buxbaum Danzig. "Music and clown have been in the middle or end of clown terms. Not who we are, but defining an inspiration."
And it was music that set the company together on this current ambition. Originally, another member of the 500 Clown family, Molly Brennan, collaborated with composer John Fournier on a show together about the legendary comedian Fatty Arbuckle. With John's help, the troop was able to create musical renditions for 500 Clown (sings) Christmas Carol(s).
"Doing Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a mainstay in the holiday season. So our idea was to try our hand at it. Pretty quickly we decided we didn't want to really retell the Dickens' tale," said Leslie. "The company members and John talked about the story and what was interest to us dramatically. After that, John went off and wrote eight songs."
According to Adrian, the Christmas show is about music and emotion and how that emotion plays out to a person - especially during a tumultuous time like the holidays.
"Rock 'n' roll doesn't show emotion," he said. "It's the opposite of clown. Clown shows what affects me. It might rise to a crisis. Going to a rock show is about playing it cool. If you look at Christmas it's a nuanced experience. Humans have a hard time and they get through it. It's a time when people are at risk."
Leslie agrees, calling the show a fusion of clown mixed with rock and pop influences.
"It's not a form we've ever seen before, it doesn't quickly fall into genre," Leslie said. "We're trying to come up with a phrase where it fits in."
The previous shows produced by 500 Clown were 500 Clown Macbeth and 500 Clown Frankenstein. Neither one had a central focus of music, being based more in the near-silent tradition of clown work. 500 Clown (sings) Christmas Carol(s), however, required eight months of rehearsal on the songs.
But Adrian insists that each nightly performance changes. The group starts off with a list of actions for their show which continually grows as the show progresses. Seeing a 500 Clown show means that you will never see the same thing twice.
The mainstay, however, at any 500 Clown performance is a talk back after the show. The couple and the company itself feel it is important to maintain feedback with their audience. They revel in the opinions of those who watch them perform and take great credence on their input. Many of Adrian's students are also an important part of this talk back process as they are able to see the show before it opens to the general public.
"The [student] feedback was essential, said Adrian. "It ranged from sophomores through students who graduated two years ago. What we put into the show from the student input were so many [emotional] lows."
Yet the main focus in Adrian's eyes is for the audience to have a chance to take their guard down and really experience the living, breathing art of a live semi-impromptu theatre performance. For him, and 500 Clown, the experience is about learning to take off the mask of the mundane.
"We want to make an opportunity for people to choose to be awkward," said Adrian. "To take off that 'cool mask' and increase the opportunity for a human connection."
Note: 500 Clown (sings) Christmas Carol(s) is running now at the Storefront Theatre (66 E. Randolph St., Chicago) www.storefronttheater.org) through Jan. 7, 2006. Tickets are $15, and $10 for students and seniors. For more information on 500 Clown, visit their Web site at www.500clown.com.
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