“I don’t have my usual assortment of props for this tour. Chris and I talked about moving toward being catalysts of good cheer. These shows are less about the audience appreciating us as visiting performers, and more about the community members appreciating each other.”
-Alex Feldman, performing artist
Tour Overview
Three Clowns Without Borders USA artists travelled to Haiti for a tour in collaboration with artist-envoy organization Project Troubadour. They visited the rural southwest region as guests of the U.S./Haiti organization Hispaniola Health Partners, which provides medicine to that region. Hispaniola Health Partners invited CWB to join the community in celebrating their brand new clinic, and bring comic relief to a refugee camp of Haitian-Dominican exiles close to the Dominican border.
The second half of the tour was centered in Port-au-Prince, where the clowns performed shows for hundreds of children in orphanages and schools. Some of these places receive grassroots-level support from an international network of concerned folks associated with members of the team. While in the capital, the clowns shared skills with local performers and artists.
Tour Context
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and the 2010 earthquake compounded many economic and social problems. Relatively calm since 2006, Haiti saw a rise in instability in 2015 and 2016, as presidential elections were repeatedly postponed. New elections are slated for April this year.
The Team
CWB sent three physical comedians on this tour: Alex ‘the Jester’ Feldman, Clay ‘Mazing’ Letson, and Chris ‘Hoopoe’ Yerlig. They mixed juggling, music, mime and improvised comedy to create their performance.
CWB – USA follows United Nations naming conventions for all countries, nations, and territories, along with the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To read more about our Code of Ethics, click here.
