All photos Anna Zastrow
For more pics, also see Jerry Snell's Facebook page, Circus Summer School Roi Et (Part 1):
Roi Et - Clowning with the kids - Day 5
Good day today! We shook things up a bit. Did a little show for the kids before each class. Some classic clown scenarios, slapstick and relationship play (status -- one the boss, the other the doofus/ one straight, the other the jokester, e.g., or as in clown terms referred to as "white clown" and "August"). The kids laughed a lot! Great. I wasn't sure how it would go over, if they would laugh or just look at us strangely wondering what strange antics we were up to now. So great to see them laughing away all together. Humor truly is universal since the classic schtick we are doing they find hilarious too. Tripping and falling, dropping things, one clown making fun of the other, interrupting the serious clown with various antics and general goofing off. We riffed and improvised and kept the playing going -- playing off of the kids and each other -- and Liz discovers a game with the kids using the horn (honk honk), where we take turns chasing each other and have the kids chase us.
Then we did some clown movement and dance with the kids. Focus and participation good now.
And then, acrobatics! Rolls, cartwheels, headstand. The kids loved this and we had a lot of fun.
Boy, between the show (w/costumes on in the heat) and the acrobatics, we sure had a work-out today!
All in all a great week, great start. One more week to go (thru the 27th).
Then we did some clown movement and dance with the kids. Focus and participation good now.
And then, acrobatics! Rolls, cartwheels, headstand. The kids loved this and we had a lot of fun.
Boy, between the show (w/costumes on in the heat) and the acrobatics, we sure had a work-out today!
All in all a great week, great start. One more week to go (thru the 27th).
Roi Et - Clowning with the kids - Day 3 and 4
Well, after another day or two more, the kids are opening up, finally getting the game and coming up with movements and expressions on their own in the exercises/games we are doing. Yey! We do a lot of movement and silly dance; movement and sound together, rhythm and formation, and general games to be silly and goofy. I try to get the kids to engage their bodies as much as possible.
Continuing same exercises, we play with movement and sound. I incorporate English lessons (the school wants us to teach them) in the workshop. Have them repeat words of what I'm doing. "Circle"... "Movement!" and "Sound!"... "Make a movement." And demonstrate physically. I get Pat to teach me how to tell the kids in Thai to "do your own movement and sound" -- "tam muen gan daeh kwam kit koun!" (i.e., do the same but your own idea). They get it (most of them) but still too shy to do it. But they are starting to! One little girl who is quite precocious gets the game quickly and starts to suggest to her fellow kids when they hesitate what movements they might do. Everyone together do same, and then one by one passing around the circle a different movement and sound combination. Then build imaginary machine. It's all very silly to the kids. We pass a clap around the circle and I specify to look at each other, make eye contact, and clap at same time -- and I exaggerate the looking part with my eyes and this they think is super funny. We do funny exaggerated faces. I pass out clown noses for the kids to wear. Liz and I improvise a little wearing our noses, clown and goof around -- and the kids get a kick out of this.
Nonetheless, the kids are very unfocused today, towards the latter part of the workshop. Tired? It seemed even hotter yesterday than today. 4th day fatigue? Bored with doing same thing? Off day?
Continuing same exercises, we play with movement and sound. I incorporate English lessons (the school wants us to teach them) in the workshop. Have them repeat words of what I'm doing. "Circle"... "Movement!" and "Sound!"... "Make a movement." And demonstrate physically. I get Pat to teach me how to tell the kids in Thai to "do your own movement and sound" -- "tam muen gan daeh kwam kit koun!" (i.e., do the same but your own idea). They get it (most of them) but still too shy to do it. But they are starting to! One little girl who is quite precocious gets the game quickly and starts to suggest to her fellow kids when they hesitate what movements they might do. Everyone together do same, and then one by one passing around the circle a different movement and sound combination. Then build imaginary machine. It's all very silly to the kids. We pass a clap around the circle and I specify to look at each other, make eye contact, and clap at same time -- and I exaggerate the looking part with my eyes and this they think is super funny. We do funny exaggerated faces. I pass out clown noses for the kids to wear. Liz and I improvise a little wearing our noses, clown and goof around -- and the kids get a kick out of this.
Nonetheless, the kids are very unfocused today, towards the latter part of the workshop. Tired? It seemed even hotter yesterday than today. 4th day fatigue? Bored with doing same thing? Off day?
Roi Et - Clowning with the kids - Day 2
Today the kids are much more engaged! I think it helps to have smaller groups. Now about 40 per class -- three groups instead of two. They are warming up to things.
We work on movement and sound. For now I lead and initiate the creative movements, but ultimately I want them to initiate and come up with expressive movements on their own. We'll get there (I hope). It's a challenge to get them to do it at all. But they are starting to follow along more and do the movements. And they look to be having fun, even if still a little embarrassed. The older kids, too, so much more into it today! First day, they were way "too cool." (The typical junior high school kid.) I work on loosening them up a bit, get them to play and express themselves freely. They find the "woosh" and "boing!" game very funny (silly); laughing and giggling. (A simple theatrical warm-up game: passing a "woosh!" around the circle -- or "zip!" or a clap -- and when someone jumps and shout "boing!" the woosh reverses the other way around circle.)
We work on movement and sound. For now I lead and initiate the creative movements, but ultimately I want them to initiate and come up with expressive movements on their own. We'll get there (I hope). It's a challenge to get them to do it at all. But they are starting to follow along more and do the movements. And they look to be having fun, even if still a little embarrassed. The older kids, too, so much more into it today! First day, they were way "too cool." (The typical junior high school kid.) I work on loosening them up a bit, get them to play and express themselves freely. They find the "woosh" and "boing!" game very funny (silly); laughing and giggling. (A simple theatrical warm-up game: passing a "woosh!" around the circle -- or "zip!" or a clap -- and when someone jumps and shout "boing!" the woosh reverses the other way around circle.)
Roi Et - Clowning with the kids - Day 1
First day of workshop. October 13, 2008.
120 in the school and first day they put 70 kids in one class for us to do our workshop! Holy cow. After that we arranged three groups so we have a more manageable amount for each class. The kids are very shy and held back. I don't think they have ever done or even seen anything like this before. Silly goofy movement, especially done by an adult, in a class. On purpose! I see them act and move silly and freely when playing on their own in the school yard, they're kids after all. But to do so consciously, in a structured way, as requested by a teacher. To express themselves with purpose -- freely and assertively with creativity and imagination. That's not done in school. There is no creative play in school. No exposure to expressive arts, to theater and dance. I am told that in Thai schooling, children are taught to follow rules and not to have any ideas of their own. Total conformity. This can be said for a lot of education, in the Western world too, but especially true in Thailand, so it appears. Indeed, it's been a challenge to get them to move freely about the room, not in a circle or a line.
I wonder how they are receiving what we are doing. Not too many tourists come to this area; they are not used to seeing foreigners -- and here I am making all kinds of silly movements and sounds, acting like a fool! And wanting them to do it!
120 in the school and first day they put 70 kids in one class for us to do our workshop! Holy cow. After that we arranged three groups so we have a more manageable amount for each class. The kids are very shy and held back. I don't think they have ever done or even seen anything like this before. Silly goofy movement, especially done by an adult, in a class. On purpose! I see them act and move silly and freely when playing on their own in the school yard, they're kids after all. But to do so consciously, in a structured way, as requested by a teacher. To express themselves with purpose -- freely and assertively with creativity and imagination. That's not done in school. There is no creative play in school. No exposure to expressive arts, to theater and dance. I am told that in Thai schooling, children are taught to follow rules and not to have any ideas of their own. Total conformity. This can be said for a lot of education, in the Western world too, but especially true in Thailand, so it appears. Indeed, it's been a challenge to get them to move freely about the room, not in a circle or a line.
I wonder how they are receiving what we are doing. Not too many tourists come to this area; they are not used to seeing foreigners -- and here I am making all kinds of silly movements and sounds, acting like a fool! And wanting them to do it!
Roi Et - town and country and life
It's a bigger town than I expected. I thought it was going to be a podunk one-horse little town. It has a rather nice city center with a lake and fountains and a pagoda with a large Buddha statue on a little island in the middle.
Well, the school we are teaching at is outside of the city, about a half-hour drive. We pass endless rice paddies, endlessly, along a red dirt road. Small neighborhoods with clusters of scrappy houses bunched closely together. Simple cement structures or wooden houses on stilts. Laundry hanging and various scraps littering the space below and the yard. Cows, chickens and dogs wander among the houses. And little kids. Suddenly, next to a scrappy shack with a corrugated metal roof, there's a big fancy house with white-washed walls, clean and new, and a beautiful blue tile roof, as well as a gilded gate and fence. And then another scrappy shack. Peculiar contrast. And cows everywhere, grazing between the houses and along the roads, in front of municipal buildings, on the soccer field, and in the grassy divider section between highway lanes.
We travel in the back of a pick-up truck. Common mode of transportation here. I like the sun and wind in my face. But sometimes it's going a bit fast, especially over the potholes in the road.
We live in one of the school principal's houses, sandwiched between a Thai boxing place (which interestingly is housed in what looks to be a cow shed, next to cows grazing in a field) and a temple. At night one hears the monks chanting, filling the air with peace and serenity, and then on the other side the "pow! bam! boom! aargh!" from the boxers.
Every morning at 6 am I am awakened by announcements on a loudspeaker with the occasional music and chanting. Apparently, the temples broadcast announcements (local news?) across the neighborhood. The ultimate public radio. I am pretty much ready to get up at that time anyway. The sun just having risen, the day starting. We go to bed early instead. By 8 or 9 o'clock we're beat -- after a hard day's work jumping around with the kids!
We work at the school from 9 am to 3 pm. I teach three intensive classes. It's hot. Already after the first class I am soaked with sweat! At the end of the day I feel like I've been run over by a truck. But it's great! Cuz it's good work and the kids are getting so much out of it.
The other teachers along for the ride are Liz Knox (from Canada), who's clowning with me, and then Pat, a Thai juggler, and Tony, an American ex-pat juggler, and they are teaching (you guessed it) juggling.
Well, the school we are teaching at is outside of the city, about a half-hour drive. We pass endless rice paddies, endlessly, along a red dirt road. Small neighborhoods with clusters of scrappy houses bunched closely together. Simple cement structures or wooden houses on stilts. Laundry hanging and various scraps littering the space below and the yard. Cows, chickens and dogs wander among the houses. And little kids. Suddenly, next to a scrappy shack with a corrugated metal roof, there's a big fancy house with white-washed walls, clean and new, and a beautiful blue tile roof, as well as a gilded gate and fence. And then another scrappy shack. Peculiar contrast. And cows everywhere, grazing between the houses and along the roads, in front of municipal buildings, on the soccer field, and in the grassy divider section between highway lanes.
We travel in the back of a pick-up truck. Common mode of transportation here. I like the sun and wind in my face. But sometimes it's going a bit fast, especially over the potholes in the road.
We live in one of the school principal's houses, sandwiched between a Thai boxing place (which interestingly is housed in what looks to be a cow shed, next to cows grazing in a field) and a temple. At night one hears the monks chanting, filling the air with peace and serenity, and then on the other side the "pow! bam! boom! aargh!" from the boxers.
Every morning at 6 am I am awakened by announcements on a loudspeaker with the occasional music and chanting. Apparently, the temples broadcast announcements (local news?) across the neighborhood. The ultimate public radio. I am pretty much ready to get up at that time anyway. The sun just having risen, the day starting. We go to bed early instead. By 8 or 9 o'clock we're beat -- after a hard day's work jumping around with the kids!
We work at the school from 9 am to 3 pm. I teach three intensive classes. It's hot. Already after the first class I am soaked with sweat! At the end of the day I feel like I've been run over by a truck. But it's great! Cuz it's good work and the kids are getting so much out of it.
The other teachers along for the ride are Liz Knox (from Canada), who's clowning with me, and then Pat, a Thai juggler, and Tony, an American ex-pat juggler, and they are teaching (you guessed it) juggling.
Roi Et, Isaan, Thailand; Oct 13 - 26, 2008 - Project info
We are in Roi Et in the northeastern Isaan region of Thailand, here to clown with the kids. Isaan is an impoverished area relying on rice crops and often facing drought or, conversely, flooding.
Background Information
School: Dondaen Konwaisamakee. The project is located in Roi Et province, Dindam subdistrict.
The children who will benefit from this program are from underprivileged families in the Roi Et province. Children face problems of poverty and some even to the point of being like an orphan where their parents migrate to Bangkok for work leaving them with their neighbors or their ageing grandparents. Students are often involved in working or harvesting to gain a small amount of money to get through day by day. The circus activity is another effective channel that can increase their income but at the same time give them a chance to exercise and practice their acrobat skills. Villagers participate with students sometimes, and the children create shows for the community in return for rice. Up until now, the income from these shows is sometimes more than harvesting where they do not have to face the problems of droughts or flood.
We will be doing workshops in the hopes of creating a permanent structure for using performing and circus arts as an educational tool or simply a way to build confidence and resolve feelings of isolation and abandon in youth cornered by complex problems such as poverty, human trafficking, war, and AIDS/HIV. A simultaneous project is being done in Sangklaburi near the Burmese border where artists are working with Burmese refugees.
Above information from Circus Action International.
More info can be found under “Circus Action International” at; http://www.jerrysnell.com/.
Background Information
School: Dondaen Konwaisamakee. The project is located in Roi Et province, Dindam subdistrict.
The children who will benefit from this program are from underprivileged families in the Roi Et province. Children face problems of poverty and some even to the point of being like an orphan where their parents migrate to Bangkok for work leaving them with their neighbors or their ageing grandparents. Students are often involved in working or harvesting to gain a small amount of money to get through day by day. The circus activity is another effective channel that can increase their income but at the same time give them a chance to exercise and practice their acrobat skills. Villagers participate with students sometimes, and the children create shows for the community in return for rice. Up until now, the income from these shows is sometimes more than harvesting where they do not have to face the problems of droughts or flood.
We will be doing workshops in the hopes of creating a permanent structure for using performing and circus arts as an educational tool or simply a way to build confidence and resolve feelings of isolation and abandon in youth cornered by complex problems such as poverty, human trafficking, war, and AIDS/HIV. A simultaneous project is being done in Sangklaburi near the Burmese border where artists are working with Burmese refugees.
Above information from Circus Action International.
More info can be found under “Circus Action International” at; http://www.jerrysnell.com/.
AND I'M OFF!
October 4th I took off from NYC flying to Bangkok via Detroit and Tokyo. Two hours plus thirteen hours plus six hours! That thirteen hour flight was a killer, especially since I got food poisoning on the way. But I survived and finally arrived in Bangkok at midnight October 5th (going on October 6). A few days to acclimate and get ready and then off to Roi Et in the northeastern Isaan region of Thailand to start the project working with the kids!
Finally got a chance to get on a good computer with good internet and create a blog so that I can now give you all a full report of what we've been doing with the kids and to show some great pics!
Finally got a chance to get on a good computer with good internet and create a blog so that I can now give you all a full report of what we've been doing with the kids and to show some great pics!
* * * * *
PHOTOS - getting started -- in Bangkok:
Anna and Liz goofing off in the hotel room
Impromptu clowning with kids on a sidestreet of Bangkok
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Op-Ed Columnist - If This Isn’t Slavery, What Is? - NYTimes.com which tells the story of teenage girl, Long Pross, who had her eye gouged out by her brothel owner. I saw this girl when I was at Afesip’s clinic (where I had been put up). Her eye condition was much worse then. It was an incredible sight, and it was hard to look at her. Yet I was drawn to the sight of her eye, if only for my eyes to fully register that what they saw was true and real, and to somehow grasp what had happened to her. Still, I didn’t want to stigmatize her further by staring at her. She seemed in surprisingly good spirits considering what she had experienced. Of course, you can’t cry in despair constantly. I’m sure she was experiencing a moment of great relief being now in the hands of Afesip and not the brothel she came from.