Clowns Without Borders - USA

A Quick Tally.
February 19-March 8
Artist: Moshe Cohen
Partner: Enfants du Monde/Droits de l’Homme (EMDH) Children of the World/Human Rights
Locations : Mandalay. Yangon
15 SHOWS in Children’s Training Schools (5), Vocational Schools (3), Education (3) and Development Centers(1), National Orphanages (2), Monastic Education Centers (1) in Mandalay and  Yangon
12 WORKSHOPS after shows ( w/ 30 children and Activity Facilitators)
1 DAY TRAINING for Activity Facilitators and  Care Givers
1 WORKSHOP for local actors and community educators

March 20.

Just completed, Project Burma 2010 offered a two-fold focus on bringing laughter into Children’s Institutions and on training the activity facilitators and care givers who work in them. In partnership with EMDH (Children of the World), the only NGO working in these institutions, Moshe Cohen brought laughter and worked with children to open their expression. He performed for approximately 1650 children to great delight, laughter and open smiles.

This project follows up on the International CWB 2009 project in response to the Nargis Cyclone that brought Moshe inside two Yangon institutions in 2009. He trained the activity facilitators from EMDH to use games and clown /theater exercises to open up humor, individual expression, imagination and focus. Moshe then taught workshops in the institutions with the facilitators. This year Moshe pursued the same method and wrote a manual for the facilitators summarizing the work. Moshe will follow-up on the project with team leaders via email and skype in the coming months to gage how to continue developing humorous expression in the institutions.

link to more photos on Moshe’s website (www.yoowho.org)

March 5th
Sitting in the airconditioned cool of the administrative office at EMDH, while outside it is 99 degrees, and I am thankful for this moment of cool respite. This mornings show had me once again sweating up a storm as I played up the antics with the 250 boys at the Kabaye Boys Training School. The children are a mix of orphans, street children and children in conflict with the law.  We have a great time, and they take eagerly to my requests to open up their voices.

One of the bits I have developed in the show is asking them if they want me to play rock and roll, and requesting them to respond with a very American “Yeah”. Generally they hesitantly respond with a proper “Yes”, but I demand a loud “Yeah”. At Kabaye, the kids are ready, their voices eager and after I egg hem on a few times, their “yeahs” are loud and unified. I play the bit two or three times over the course of the show, after the big “Yeah” I get my ukulele, do a few Peter Townsend windmills (they don’t get the reference for sure, but they like the move just the same), then just play a single strum before putting the instrument back down. The first time I do this, there are a few chuckles, but the second time, they are most often laughing as they definitely have clued into the joke. Today the kids are more than happy to sing along with me, as

I play my little song.

Yes I’m going
Yes I’m going
Down the road
Down the road
Going to sing my song, and then
It’s time to go.
Their voices are loud, they are enjoying the singing. I’m pretty sure they don’t really understand the words they are singing, but as I have just sung the Myanmar translation, I am sure they know the jist of it. The workshop after the show today is good fun, the boys are quite inventive with their funny and that is great to see.
My trip here is winding down the shows and workshops with the institutions are done. 15 shows and 12 workshops with children plus an all day workshop with the staff, all in 9 days. I have had meetings with the staff, and in a few months I will get feedback from the facilitators and team leaders as to how the training we shared is working with the children, and then we will plan the next steps. Sunday I will conclude my work here joining the French Clown team to teach an all day workshop for local actors and some of the staff of Medicins du Monde.

March 4.
The contrasts are enormous. Driving down the small lane to reach the Malikha Girls Training School, we pass a series of gated mansions with shiny new cars in the driveways and ribbons of razor wire topping the fences guarding them. There is cool shade underneath manicured landscapes. The training school also has a gate, one that two young women open for us, and a lane with a more natural landscape that leads into the institution.  I recognize the place immediately.   When I came here last year, I was surprised to only be allowed to play for 60 of the girls in a small room. There was no explanation other than that is what the principal decided. This year there is a new principal, and indeed I will get to play for all of them.
The girls are waiting for us in the large assembly hall, an open wooden hangar building with dusty wooden floors. The dust surprises me as almost everywhere people slip off their thongs before entering interior spaces, but not here. I note a sharp contrast between the Monastic school environment, and Malikha. EMDH is the only outside group allowed to work in these schools, and I am feel quite lucky to play for and work with these children. I was quite intrigued as to how the facilitators select the 30 girls to do the workshop with me, of the 240 children who come to the show. Although the situation does not allow me to go into detail, the bottom line is that the facilitators choose the girls whom they feel will benefit the most from extra doses of laughter and fun. The girls and I have a great time, peals of laughter echo in my ears as I write, now a few hours later back in the comfort of the EMDH apartment. A rest before heading back into the heat of the day for an afternoon show and workshop at Kyaik Whyne Boys Training School.

The afternoon show for about 100 boys goes well. The workshop too, although their concentration levels fade quicker than I expect. There is great focus when we move into the slow motion, as well as when I am able to get them to center into breathing into their stomachs and looking to say mingalaba  (hello) with a low voice. It’s great to see the facilitators (who did the all day workshop on Monday) helping the children to do the mime and encouraging them to express their humor. It’s clear to see that the boys are enjoying themselves as they focus into creating the  illusions of walls and tug of wars. As usual, they find it very fun to be funny monsters. Again I have them as a whole group scare me, and when I scare them, they all collapse in a big heap on the floor laughing.  I ask them to repeat their monsters but to focus on using the low voice we worked on (from their hara/center) which they do wondrously. I hear a calmness within their monster voices compared to the previous shriller screams. It could be an illusion, it  could be my wishful thinking, but I don’t think so.
Tomorrow will be my last show and workshop through EMDH, this one at Kabaye Boys Training School. After that, on Sunday, I will be joining the French Clowns Sans Frontieres team to teach a workshop at the Alliance Francaise.  Further!

March 3rd
Big show Day this morning at the Alliance Francaise. The French and Swedish Clowns Without Borders shows and my own converged on the front lawn, offering a great morning entertainment to some 415 children. Both the French and the Swedish shows have been touring in Shan and Mon states, and both are creations with local Myanmar artists. The Swedish show more along the lines of a circus/vaudeville show with numbers by individual artists linked by group numbers including acrobatics, dance and a fun chase scene. The French show is a story about an English bird collector who is looking for a bird he has lost with a great many scenes. Three Myanmar actor/clown/comedians play major roles and have the kids in hysterics, and it is wonderful to see both shows.
In the afternoon I head to the outskirts of town in the EMDH truck (with two activity facilitators and two team leaders) to the Myinthar Myo Oo Monastics Education Centre. It is my first time performing in a Monastic School this year, and I enjoy meeting the head monk, and being in a non institution environment. In some ways it is almost a day off, although I sure sweat as I dig into the funny. Definitely not a cool day, but then again, that concept doesn’t exist here this time of year. People keep reminding me that it gets Really hot in April, and that this is only a medium on the temperature scale. The workshop at the school is with younger children that the other days, 6-9, but they still dig into the exercises, and have a great time. Tomorrow it is back to the Training School world, the joys of bringing in laughter and opening up expression in challenging environments.

March 2.
- Morning Show for 60 young women at the Women’s Development Center(Institution)
Workshop with 30.
-Afternoon Show for 60 girls at the Girl’s Vocational Center (Institution)
Workshop with 30

The Woman’s Development Center is on a little bluff in the midst of the Golden Valley, the most unlikely place for an institution as it one of the wealthiest areas of Yangon. I am surprised to find myself in a stately room with chandeliers, stuffed chairs with wood carvings and a beautiful wooden floor. I inquire to it’s origins and I am told it was built by Indians before WWII. The women here are over 18 and are doing vocational training such as sewing. There is a great deal of laughter, and they howl at the sight of my bald palate and how I play with my hair. I have learned a few more words of Myanmar, and now am using the phrase puré puré, hot hot as I wipe the sweat down during the show. This too they find hilarious. Indeed it must be 100 degrees outside today, and there is a good deal more humidity in the air than in Mandalay. So much so that my cigar boxes are a little sticky.

The workshop goes very well. We have a great time indeed.

The afternoon show is equally successful if I dare say so. I have now learned my “ Yes I’m going…” song in Myanmar, which I have taped to the top of the uke. I make a little joke  out of having trouble reading the third line off the uke which they enjoy.  I have taken to playing up the rock and roll side with a gritty gravely voice, and a little kick shuffle dance. The girls love it. No they certainly don’t think I am a rock star,  but they clap along enthusiastically.

The workshops are going well. The girls today were enthusiastically joining in, and picking up the mime relatively quickly. They are enjoying expressing their humor after the usual initial hesitations.  There are always a few in the group who are truly quite funny and enjoy playing it. The butoh style slow motion brings in incredible focus, and a sense of peacefulness. The idea of them scaring me as monsters was a big hit this afternoon with the girls. There is more to this than meets the eye. More about that (hopefully) in a later post. Next stop is calling. All in all things seem to be going quite well.
March 1.
All day workshop for Activity facilitators plus caregivers, 12 in all.  At the end of the workshop, one of the caregivers comes up to thank me (translated by one of the facilitators) for the day telling me that this will be very useful for her to work with the girls. After all that is my  motivation for coming back to Myanmar, to take the training that I started last year a few steps further. I am grateful for her words.

February 28.

The muscle I pulled in my back two days back is slowly returning to normal, still pulling and aching some, and like a good soldier I carry on cursing myself for having forgotten the arnica back home. I have been liberally dosing the tiger balm, and as I sit down in the cool of the Mandalay EMDH office I do my best to straighten my back as I sit down to type, and all kinds of little cracklings that I never knew existed release some of the tension.

Mandalay Show number 5 this morning in the Boys Training School, some 100 boys have a very good time as I play the goof a little more than usual as they seem extremely appreciative of YooWho’s goofy laugh. Afterwards workshop number 5 with twenty of the boys, the EMDH trainers and a few of the care givers. There are seven on the young EMDH staff working with me all weekend, and as we go they are understanding better and better the principles behind the training.Their miming skills are improving as well. The boys have an especially good time playing monster and get over their shyness at playing the ridiculous nature of it.  I stand in the middle of the circle and ask them all to scare me at once. They are quite perplexed that I would be asking them to do this, and I note a few sideways glances to their caregivers who indeed encourage the activity, so they let loose their roars and it gets quite loud indeed.

As in the previous workshops, they are very hesitant to express themselves, and especially to act out their funny. Still by the end of the session there is a lot less inhibition. Six shows, and six workhops in three days in extreme heat is a rather ambitious goal, however I am going for it, and relieved that there is only one more to go this afternoon. Another training school, this one a private christian run one for boys, which means that it is not really an institution like the others.

Last night I made the pilgrimage to the Mustache Brothers show which unfortunately only tourists are allowed to go see. The brothers are famous dissidents, and have done prison time for their irreverance and mocking of the government. There is an informal agreement now that they can do their show in the front room of their house, as long as it is only for the foreigners. Otherwise they would undoubtedly be back in the cells. There are large photographs of them posing with Aung San Su Shi who is otherwise completely invisible, at least visually, in the rest of the country. It is forbidden to say her name and she is referred to as ‘the Lady’.
Yesterday shows  (and workshops)at the Girls Training School for some 70 girls plus care givers and the afternoon at the YWCA for 100 plus kids in a rather small room.

February 25.

Early morning cool breeze gives little clue of the heat to come later in the day. Negotiate the ride to the EMDH office with the taxi driver, yesterday afternoon it was 2500 kyat ($2.5), which is the correct price I am told, I have to bargain him down from 3000. This morning the driver says 2000, I certainly don’t negotiate that price. A high percentage of the  taxis are ancient relics, 25 year old Toyota Corollas and the like, invariably the inside of the cabs hardly looks better than what you would find in a junkyard, metal skeletons missing panels, door or window handles, springs in the seats, etc etc. almost all are left hand drive with the steering wheel on the wrong side, testimonials to their former Japanese lives.

Good news, my travel authorization has arrived, which means that I have official permission to go into the institutions in Mandalay. Took three weeks instead of two, but it came in in time, that’s all that counts. Off to negotiate a few taxi rides and get ready for the trip to Mandalay this afternoon. Shows and workshops start tomorrow morning.

A few hours later, I am waiting at the airport negotiating the two hour flight delay in the corner bar section of the waiting room demarked by fake bamboo trees laden with flashing white lights, strings of leds that would say christmas if they were red and greens of another country. The two hour stretches into three, and then three and a half. Finally the promising sound of distant propellers taxiing into landing position. At the four hour mark, a Burmese voice over the loudspeakers converts promise of possibility into reality.

Elements of surprise in Myanmar domestic air travel. There is security. We have to pass bags and bodies through the typical xray scanners. However there is no need to take laptops or liquids out of the bags, or change out of the pockets. Everyone stands on a wooden box to be patted down and wanded. The wand emits a symphony of sounds, the security officer, a woman, feels lots of goods in my cargo pockets, and then nods that I am indeed secure. No need to check just what is inside the bag either. The transfer bus to the aircraft is a brand spanking new German bus, unlike the one that greets us in Mandalay with weathered duct taped linoleum flooring.

Mandalay baggage terminal is all modern steel, glass and marble, and has three shiny stainless steel baggage carousels. Big mammoth ones that stretch a few hundred feet out in a very modern looking and completely empty terminal. There are luggage carts lined up for the passengers. Everyone waits patient by the carousel number one. The familiar red light and buzzing sounds start up, but the belt doesn’t start moving. A pause and repeat sequence, still nothing. Three minutes later, a phalanx of baggage personnel appear out a side door retrieving a small caravan of carts, that reappear loaded with luggage a few minutes later. One can’t help but smile.

February 24, 2010
Mandalay.

After a 4 hour flight delay, finally find myself in Mandalay, ancient capital, and spread out town, peaceful and relaxed compared to the busy Yangon.  Two shows and a workshop today. The Girl’s Vocational School in the morning, an institution for children.  Some 70 girls live here, and they were quite happy to have a show. Lot’s of laughter and funny moments as Mr. YooWho negotiated the contents of his jacket pockets and suitcase. Playing in a large open hangar kind of building that had several large pigeons cooing from the rafters, and provided for a special dialogue, as Mr. YooWho kept glancing upwards wondering if the pigeons would be dropping anything down. A singing moment with the girls accompanied by ukulele was rather reserved from YooWho’s point of view but despite their shyness, it was a welcome change for the girls. Afterwards I offered a workshop to the headmistress, her assistant, the teachers and caregivers and three girls from the school. Quite fun working with simple mime and clown exercises, very shy at first, not very comfortable with the idea of expressing their humor-one would think that asking them to rub their hands together in a funny way wouldnt be so challenging, however it took a few minutes to get them into playing the game, and to express in a humorous way. Later on they were far more engaged as I lead them through series of exercises, accompanied by lots of laughter and play.  I hope that they will share with the girls.
An afternoon show at the Buddhist Orphans Home for some 100 boys who had a great time as did Mr. YooWho in a large hall with the fans going. Trying to blow a bubble inside a bubble while standing on my suitcase was a new challenge which proved near impossible as the fans would blow the bubbles quickly away. Magically however, several large bubbles traveled a pathway towards the floor then back up towards me popping just as they were almost within reach. The boys really weren’t sure if I was controlling the bubble or not. I enjoyed the magic. Two shows and workshops the next two days, in more institutions, and then back to Yangon to do much more of the same there….

February 23, 2010

Yangon - Just arrived

I’ve escaped the stuck in transit no seats available 2 day wait at Tokyo aiport, and after a good hike through the interminable hallways of the Bangkok airport, I have finally arriving last night in Yangon. From freezing cold to very hot, from not much to do to a full schedule.

Planning and meetings today with EMDH.  A little bit of an adventure to find the office.

But now, in the space of a half hour, my empty day tomorrow has been filled with two shows with the Brave Heart organization in two education centers.

Flight to Mandalay on Thursday with shows and workshops in children’s institutions. Then back to Yangon for many shows and workshops. AS I write, there are two other Clowns Without Borders teams on the road in Myanmar. The French and Swedish teams are busy performing in Monastic schools and other institutions for, no doubt,  lots of laughing children.

February 21, 2010

Heading to Myanmar for some Clowns Without Borders time

Last winter (Jan-Mar 2009) there was an international Clowns Without Borders push to bring laughter to the delta area where the Nargis Cyclone hit in May 2008. There were parallel Belgian, French, Swedish/US projects spreading out in different areas of Myanmar. Each group collaborated with Myanmar artists to create shows together which were then performed. The Myanmar-Swedish-Australian-US project brought together 6 artists to perform 18 shows and numerous workshops. In Labutta, the group offered a joint workshop to the Activity Facilitators and Social Workers of numerous NGO’s working in the villages affected by Nargis. The focus stayed on creating games, play, and fostering humorous expression with the children.

Moshe Cohen was the US artist in this project. Afterwards, he stayed on in Yangon to do 5 shows with the Belgian-Myanmar group.
At the same time he offered training sessions to Activity Facilitators who work with children in Training Schools and Child Friendly Spaces of disadvantaged areas. The training was similar to the delta workshops in focus, taking the work further by Moshe’s participation in AF activities in the field, thus providing hands on training.
This winter the international CWB push as all of last years groups are sending performances to Myanmar. Moshe Cohen will focus on working in the Training Schools, in Yangon and in Mandalay. He will be offering performances and furthering last year’s training with Activity Facilitators with more workshops and field trainings.