500 Clown Theater Comes to Chicago This Holiday Season with 500 CLOWN CHRISTMAS

500 Clown Theater,, founded in 2000 and made a non-profit in 2007, presents its holiday hit “500 Clown Christmas” for a limited holiday 2008 engagement during the first season of programming at North Central College’s Meiley-Swallow Hall.  Three Clowns welcome the audience into a musical celebration of action-based performance and improvisation that would make Fezziwig proud, complete with a holiday toast, gift-giving and original live music written by John Fournier.  A three-piece band cranks out Fournier’s songs of family, commercialism and peace on earth, while the Clowns clamor through their holiday party in search of the meaning of Christmas.  The show runs about 70 minutes with no intermission, contains mature language and themes (recommended for ages 14 and up), and includes Season of Concern collections.

500 Clown Christmas will run at the Theatre of Meiley-Swallow Hall at North Central College at the Old Grace Evangelical Church at 31 S. Ellsworth (at Van Buren), Naperville, IL from December 18th- 21st, 2008.  For more information please visit www.northcentralcollege.edu/show

The ensemble features 500 Clown Company Members Molly Brennan (as Kevin) and Adrian Danzig (as Bruce) and Paul Kalina (as Shank).  The band is John Fournier (piano, sax, vocals), Matt Thompson (bass) and Gerald Dowd (percussion).

The creative team consists of 500 Clown Company Member Leslie Buxbaum Danzig (Director), John Fournier (Composer/Lyricist), with Ben Wilhelm (Lighting Design), Jeremy Gerard (Sound Design), Jim Moore (Technical Design), and Dawn Wilson (Stage Manager).

“500 Clown Christmas” premiered in 2005 at the Storefront Theater, played there again in 2006, then went to New York City's legendary PS122 in 2007.  Please note – the originally scheduled “500 Clown Frankenstein” at Crystal Lake’s Raue Center on October 31 has been canceled, and will be rescheduled for 2009.

Chicago’s 500 Clown Theater Company received $28,000 from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Ensemble Theatre Collaborations Grant program in spring 2008. The award is supporting the partnership between 500 Clown and the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in Maryland, which commissioned 500 Clown’s newest production, “500 Clown and the Elephant Deal,” to premiere there from December 11-14, 2008.

The production will come to Chicago from June 25-July 11, 2009 (previews June 20, 21 and 24), at the Steppenwolf Upstairs Theater as part its Visiting Company Initiative.

500 Clown again joins forces with Chicago composer and lyricist John Fournier to create the original clown-theater-music production “500 Clown and the Elephant Deal,” where a rocking band, an enthusiastic Mistress of Ceremonies, and a daring crew have everything they need for a night of cabaret-theater, except a story to tell.  A sudden altered identity thrusts the players on a collision course with spontaneous characters, dangerous stunts, and a fierce runaway tale.  “500 Clown and the Elephant Deal” is loosely inspired by Bertolt Brecht's “The Elephant Calf” and “A Man's a Man,”  and the company is currently in a nine-month residency at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, involving University of Maryland Department of Theatre students as supporting cast members and creative participants in formulating the show.

This is 500 Clown’s first major national grant since becoming a non-profit organization in 2007, and according to the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Ensemble Theatre Collaborations Grant program, the award recognizes 500 Clown for doing “leading ensemble theater work in the country.”  The Steppenwolf premiere is supported in part by a grant from Boeing’s Chicago Global Corporate Citizenship.

Since its very successful run of the highly-acclaimed “500 Clown Macbeth” and “500 Clown Frankenstein” in repertory at Steppenwolf in summer 2007, the company has taken Manhattan by storm with a run of Frankenstein and “500 Clown Christmas” at PS122 in December 2007.  The New York Times called the Christmas show “ribald and exhilarating,” and the Village Voice pronounced Frankenstein “frightfully funny.”  In May 2008, they performed “500 Clown Frankenstein” to sold-out audiences at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, CA, and will perform “500 Clown Christmas” at Theatre of Meiley-Swallow Hall, North Central College in Naperville, IL, from December 19-23, 2008.

 500 Clown uses action-based performance, improvisation, and circus arts to tell long-form dramatic stories that catapult the performers into extreme physical and emotional risk. The work shifts the audience from passive to active observers and creates a charged environment that celebrates the unpredictable power of the moment. They rapidly move between planned elements and improvisation, leaving their audiences excitedly uncertain as to what is and is not planned.  500 Clown theater is raw, bold, and generous with audiences in accessibility and spirit. The company members are also educators, offering classes and workshops for professionals, nonprofessionals, college and high schools students.  500 Clown is now represented by Elsie Management of New York City. www.500clown.com

Steppenwolf’s Visiting Company Initiative provides the opportunity for other theater companies to present work in all three of the Steppenwolf theatres.  These residencies are supported by the artists and staff at Steppenwolf.  In creating relationships with Visiting Companies, Steppenwolf enriches the artistic dialogue among its artists and audiences.  www.steppenwolf.org

The Association of Performing Arts Presenters is the largest national service and advocacy organization for the performing arts, dedicated to bringing artists and audiences together through presenting and touring. With more than 1,900 members worldwide, Arts Presenters is committed to increasing community participation, promoting global cultural exchange, and fostering an environment for the performing arts to thrive. The performing arts presenting industry in the U.S. reaches more then 300 million audience-goers each year and has a national economic impact of more than $8.5 billion annually (the $9 billion is not an economic impact figure; it’s the U.S. industry’s spending power only; impact has not been measured but would be much higher).  For more information, visit www.artspresenters.org

The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties. www.ddcf.org

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center transforms lives through sustained engagement with the arts.  Through extended residencies, the Center forges relationships between extraordinary guest artists, faculty, students and the wider community, creating multiple avenues for learning and illuminating the creative process.  Providing transformational experiences both onstage and off, the Center supports and develops provocative work that represents diverse perspectives, sparking dialogue and reflection.  Located on the University of Maryland, College Park campus between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, the Center serves as home to the UM School of Music, Departments of Dance and Theatre, and the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library.  http://claricesmithcenter.umd.edu/2007/

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