The Colorado Adventure

Clowns

06 Mar 2009 1 Comment

by liese4 in girl scouts

I needed a quick and easy thing to put together for girl scouts for today and I found that our council had a clown box with everything ready to go, so I picked that. When I called council to pick up the box though, the lady said they couldn’t find it, maybe it was out, maybe it was being refilled. Great. So I bought some paint and threw together some suitcases filled with hats and props and printed out the clown sheet. We started out by going over types of clowns, how they look and what they wear.

WHITE FACE:

Makeup: Classic Pierrot or Harlequin face. Exposed flesh is white. Features (eyebrows, mouth, and nose) are painted on in red and black.
Wardrobe: This is the elegant clown. Styles vary but are coordinated in color and material. Well-fitting costumes with glittery or flashy materials. Traditional costume has been a jumper with a ruffled collar.
Character: Decent in manners; performances are artistic in nature. In the hierarchy of clowning, he is the top. He instigates and sets up the routines and is in command of the situation he is in.

AUGUSTE:

Makeup: Base colors are flesh tones of pink instead of white. Features are of exaggerated proportions. Mouth area is usually outlined in white, and often the area around the eyes are also white. Features are red and black.
Wardrobe: Appearance is usually classified as a “tailor’s nightmare.” Colors and patterns seldom match. Costumes can be ill fitting.
Character: Most slapstick of all clowns, typified by wild actions and manners. In the hierarchy of clown, he is the second rung. When he is with the White Face clown, he is the brunt of the joke orroutine.

TRAMP OR HOBO:

Makeup: Base can range from the flesh tones of the Auguste to an almost white. Black is applied to the neck and extended to the beard line. Makeup usually reflects the character of that clown (happy or sad).
Wardrobe: Easiest to care for. Usually a dark suit which has been ripped, torn, or profusely patched. Costume reflects a shabby individual.
Character: A Tramp can be happy or sad. Sometimes known as the fall guy, the Tramp is the brunt of all jokes and routines that he is in. He is the clown who gets the pies, water, etc. Nothing goes right for him.

CHARACTER CLOWN:
Makeup: No specific style, but must characterize or portray a particular character. No masks are allowed.
Wardrobe: Should fit the character represented (Keystone Kop, Laurel & Hardy, nurse, baseball player, etc.).
Character: Must be a readily recognizable character like those listed above.

Then we went over how to show people things rather than say them. Happy, sad, mad, waiting, stop, ouch, yes, c’mon, angry. It’s amazing what you can communicate with your eyebrows! Then we played a relay game where we were supposed to be dressing up and running back to the next person and having them dress up and then running back to the suitcase.

Hannah didn’t know which suitcase to use and wanted what Bethany had, but they had fun doing it. We started painting faces with water based make up (that just means it’s easier to get off, but it does tend to dry and be crackly.) Hannah liked her face.

We drew out what we wanted the faces to look like, or some of us just drew faces on the paper and didn’t use paint on ourselves.

Krista was very obliging and sat down and let 4 or 5 girls paint all over her face. Here’s the transformation.

I was dressed up like a character clown I guess, they couldn’t figure out who I was (Salvador Dali? A bank robber? Hercule Poirot?)

We walked a tightrope that was on the floor, C did such a good job convincing us that she was high in the air as she wobbled all over the rope with her umbrella.

I tried to teach a few of the kids how to juggle, but it’s hard and they just wanted to play around.

Here is Grace’s face, Bethany just painted her arms. Here is E being an her own clown.

It would have been nicer to have the grease paint, but I don’t think many people would have tried it since it’s so hard to get off. I should have followed the package directions though, it said no purple or blue near the mouth and no orange near the eyes. I guess those colors in those places are harder to get off? I have a purple mustache still and I have washed with soap and almond scrub. I finally gave up and put on some make up to cover it up.

Wanna play some clown games, learn about clown college, shoot a clown out of a cannon? Go here.

We’re going to a play about Esther tonight. Some of the families from worship dance are dancing in it so it should be very pretty.