Imagination rules the stage for ‘Kikiricaja’
Send in the clowns.
South Coast Repertory is expanding cross-border relationships with artists from Baja California by hosting “Kikiricaja: Una Historia de Payasos,” a play about clowns performed entirely in Spanish.
The production by Inmigrantes Teatro de Baja California opened Thursday and will continue with four more performances in the repertory’s Nicholas Studio. The show is geared toward children 7 and older.
Translated as “Cock-a-doodle-doo Box: A History of Clowns,” “Kikiricaja” tells the tale of friends Bartolomeus and Comino, who live in wooden boxes where they eat, play, imagine and invent worlds. Such a tale, director Raymundo Garduno said, can be enjoyed without bilingual proficiency.
“The clown itself is a child, maybe not on the outside, physically, but it’s an adventurer,” Garduno said through a translator. “Children can identify with the clown because of the way he views the world.”
SCR artistic director Marc Masterson and Sara Guerrero, the director of the theater’s Dialogue/Dialogos project, were at a theater conference in San Diego last year when they visited Tijuana and watched a piece from Inmigrantes Teatro. The two were interested in the company’s artistic direction and invited the company to perform at the Costa Mesa venue. A year later, “A History of Clowns” is the Mexican theater’s debut at Studio SCR, an alternative to SCR’s main stage selections.
The play is the result of the theater company’s collaboration with Teatro Paraiso, a national theater house in Spain. The Spanish performing arts company produced the play in the 1980s, but after Garduno became friends with the director, he was allowed to produce the script. Today, Inmigrantes Teatro is the only company in the world with exclusive rights to produce it.
Garduno’s interest in clowning developed when he was an actor. He was introduced to a Cirque du Soleil clowning class and studied under award-winning choreographer, director and clown Daniele Finzi Pasca at the National School of Theater in Mexico City. Pasca, who won the Hans-Reinhart-Ring, the highest distinction of Swiss theater for his contribution to performing arts, created and directed the 2014 Olympics closing ceremony and the opening ceremony of the 2014 Paralympics, both in Sochi, Russia.
“It was poetic and theatrical for me,” Garduno said of his studies. He has been practicing the clowning for 14 years.
For the current show, Garduno said the most challenging aspect was teaching the art to skilled actors who didn’t have a familiarity or knowledge of the physical comedy. He also noted that the actors had difficulty imagining a world they had to create onstage.
The three actors had to look at a box and build a story out of it. The process was an exercise for them to learn how to interact with the audience and entertain theatergoers with a funny skit or demonstration. To act out ideas, the actors had to master illustrating communication with exaggerated gestures, facial movements and words.
Garduno said his favorite scenes are the ones where the characters can look at any object onstage and create a story out of it. Imagination, he said, is the heart of the play.
The set at South Coast Repertory accommodates moments of happiness and sadness, conflicts, reconciliation, travel and friendship, Garduno said. The family-friendly show will celebrate mutual trust and support and the storyline is a reminder of the importance of laughter.
The play, written by Miguel Angel Garrido Ramon, was first performed at the La Jolla Playhouse. It ran there for three days in February.
Such an offering is the mission of the Studio SCR, which features a variety of provocative and experimental theatrical works. The Studio, in its fifth year, partners with Southern California companies and artists.
Laura Bustamante of Dialogue/Dialogos, an SCR group that partners with organizations and individuals to promote the art of storytelling, said the play is an example of a theater project that helps tell stories of the Latino community.
“I think it should be urgent for people to see this play because Spanish-speaking plays are so scarce, especially in Orange County,” Bustamante said. “It’s a unique one.”
If You Go
What: “Kikiricaja: Una Historia de Payasos”
When: 7 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday; and 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
Cost: $15
Information: (714) 708-5555 or visit scr.org