Richard Pochinko
Encyclopedia
Richard Pochinko was a notable Canadian
clown
trainer who developed a new style of mask/Clown performance training, known as the "Pochinko technique".
, a blue baby requiring immediate blood transfusions to survive. His father died of a heart attack while waking one night to attend his baby son, for which Richard forever blamed himself. As a child, he would build miniature stages and circuses to play with. He got so excited about loving his baby chicks that he innocently crushed them in his arms. As a teenager he left the farm and moved to Selkirk because of antagonism with his new stepfather. There he lived with his sister Christine, and often with the family of his friend Doreen Cooper. "I met Rick when we were 15, 9th grade, when the kids who had attended country schools were all sent to junior high school in Selkirk. That's when Rick moved in with Chris to get away from his stepfather as well as to be close to school and not have to take the school bus every day. After he graduated from high school, where he was Social Co-ordinator and President of the Drama Club, he worked at Burn's meatpacking plant while he apprenticed at Manitoba Theatre School in Winnipeg in the evening and weekends. He and Victor met at MTS." His early family difficulties set him on a life-long quest for a "real family" to belong to.
Richard left Selkirk/Winnipeg in 1965. With his friend Victor Colonval he escaped the small town and took off to Toronto in the early 1960s to experience big city street life. He tried being a hustler at the Ford Hotel on Bay and Dundas, but didn't have the heart to accept payment. He worked at various jobs including being an orderly at St. Joseph's Hospital, where he comforted dying patients, a youth worker in Riverdale for the Toronto Parks and Recreation, and a systems analyst for Eaton's Dept. Store. The young people he worked with loved him so much, they asked him what he would love to have. Richard replied, "a canoe", and they promptly set off for Eaton's, picked up a canoe on display on the fourth floor and carried it out of the store no problem. Richard was delighted but aghast and took them back to the store, ironically they got caught trying to return the canoe. It was also at tis time that Richard met the first love of his life in Donna. They were engaged to be married, but sadly she succumbed to polio shortly after. His early life experiences gave Richard a compassion and understanding of the human condition that was so much a part of this "charismatic man". He would do anything for anyone, share all he had with those that needed it.
A couple of years later he moved to Montreal and began to gather his "family", Diedre J. and Ken M., as well as Alan Merovitz, Rhona Gold, Sharon Nelson, Freda Perel, and Ellen Gautschi. Ellen was in the Theatre program at George Williams University and worked with Richard to produce her Commedia dell'arte play "Cuckold", as well as a production of Emmlyn Williams "Night Must Fall", featuring Alan M. In 1967 Richard was hired to be one of 10 Stage Managers at the Montreal World Fair, Expo 67. One of his jobs was to drive the performers, including Marlene Dietrich and Maurice Chevalier, out to the stage. Chevalier said to him one night "You know, smiley, i've been doing this for 60 years and i still get nervous every time i go on stage."
Richard and Ken M. were hired at Neptune Theatre that fall in Halifax to be stage manager and designer, respectively. Richard also worked with the Tritons, young company, and acted in Llanford Wilson's play "Home Free", directed by Jan Henderson, a theatre student at Dalhousie. Deidre and Rhona came out from Montreal, Ian returned from a trip to Europe and North Africa, and all lived together with Richard on Woodill St. Richard was juggling 3 love relationships and ian was becoming his close friend and confidant. It was during one of the few nights that Richard actually stayed in the apt. that he asked Ian to come and cuddle with him.
Ian Wallace often recounts what he calls the spaceship dreams, dreams during which Richard would speak in his sleep to Ian, who was still awake:
This was a recurring experience that continued in Halifax, later in Toronto, and culminated in an amazing series of "channelled talks" in Paris. Diedre, Rhona and Ian all worked at Neptune as well, and eventually Richard and Ian became partners. They moved to Indian Point, on the Atlantic near Mahone Bay shortly afterwards, Richard was called to come back to Toronto to work as assistant stage manager on the revolutionary new musical HAIR
to be presented at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Ian joined Richard in Toronto where they stayed with Walter Cavalieri until they found their first apartment on Bay St. across from the Greyhound Bus Depot and next to the infamous Ford Hotel which was at Bay and Dundas St. It was during rehearsals for the show that Richard began to recognize people that he had seen in the "space-ship" including Michael Rudder, Judy Marshak, Denis Simpson, Amber Wendelborg, and Jan Kudelka. He had told Ian in Halifax the previous year, that "there were a lot of people on the ship, some we already know, others we have yet to meet."
Some months later they moved to a house at 749 Manning Ave. where Ian, Richard, Judy and Rhona experimented with a Ouija board, encountering some very strong presences which mostly talked to Richard and Rhona, however one night a very gentle energy came on the board and asked to speak to ian. She called herself the "Vudu Kween" and said that she was his lady forever. She described herself as "i am purple". This gave Ian shivers down his spine, because out on the back fence was his painting of 3 Atlantean goddesses, which he had cut out from the linoleum in the Bay St. Apt. The central figure was purple. These "grape ladies" as he called them had started to appear as doodles on his psych. notes at the University of Alberta, and continued with a circular painting in Halifax. Now she identified herself as his muse and inspired the creation of a series of batik paintings http://www.richardpochinko.com/batiks1.html, most of which were sold to the cast of HAIR, enabling Ian to accompany Richard on his theatre tour of Europe, "to seek Grotowski, who they travelled to Warsaw to find, Poland experience theatre and art all over Europe, and attend the Jacques Le Coq mask school in Paris.
In Paris they bought a car and headed off to the south of France on a 3 month adventure through Monte Carlo, Florence, Rome,
at which point the car started to have problems, so they split up, Richard taking a bus to Brindisi with Athens his destination, and Ian drove the car north to Venice and down the Dalmatian Coast to wait for Richard and have the car attended to. They corresponded via the American Express Office, Ian describing the billboards on the road beside the olive grove he was camped in. After spending time with the National Greek Theatre learning chorus technique, Richard started north by bus to Dubrovnik and eventually met up with Ian at the olive grove on the coast just outside Zadar. It was a joyful reunion with many stories to share over a quantity of plum brandy. It was here that Ian had purchased the "oil lamp" which became an icon for what was to occur later in Paris. The trip continued north to Vienna, Prague, Warsaw, all the while camping along the way. "In Warsaw people were offering to buy our jeans." In Warsaw we found out that Growtowski was in Holstbro, Denmark working on "The Passion of St. Matthew" with Eugenio Barba
. The shortest route would have been North, through the East Zone to the Baltic sea, but instead they would only allow us to cross the East Zone Berlin. This was 1970 and Berlin was a divided island in a heavily armed communist dictatorship. "We encountered tanks and machine guns at the border crossing where we were searched and cross-examined by two imposing women for several hours, eventually being forced to exchange a certain amount of dollars into east german marks, and to purchase with dollars a travel insurance policy and given strict orders not to leave the auto-bahn until we arrived in Berlin."
Speaking as I,ME,RICHARD,HE (IMRH) he spoke of the creation of a school which would be ahead of its time, would last for a year, disband, and then re-emerge some years later. (The Theatre Resource Centre, Ottawa) He said that Ian would be a well-known clown http://www.richardpochinko.com/nion.html/ to which Ian thought inside "I don't think so". During one of the talks IMRH scanned the room, noting the Lautrec prints, he said that everything was perfect, that those prints were to inspire one of our future creations, (it became the lighting for Nion in the Kabaret de la Vita, Montreal, 1983) and that together they would evolve a new clown figure, from European and Amerindian roots, not re-creating the past, but reviving the traditional role of the trixtr' societies of America in a new form for NOW. One night, to show Ian the "energy" he was seeing, Richard took the brush and paints to paper making tiny dots of colored light, but it wasn't the same so he got frustrated and crushed his drawing. Immediately he said "oh my God, i've just done something really wrong and they're telling me to lie down. They're opening up a huge jewelled book called the Secrets of the Universe and they're showing me the precious gift of creativity and how i went against the nature of the universe by destroying my creation." As he experienced this admonishment, Ian could literally see the pain and anguish ripple through his body, as well as becoming aware of the entity referred to as "they", there was now a triangle of linked communication. For Ian this was a tremendous experience to witness and be a part of, because during the day he was reading books that Richard had chosen in New York to bring on the trip. They were Vera Stanley Alder's "the Finding of the Third Eye", and the "Initiations of the World". What Ian was reading in the afternoon was manifesting with Richard in the evening in that room in Paris on the rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud.
Although the Lecoq Program normally lasts two years, Jacques Lecoq
himself dismissed Pochinko after only a few months. The truth is that Le Coq recognized Richard's grasp of the European mask work immediately and told him to return to Canada to create his own form of mask/trixter.
through mask
"Soon after our return to Canada," says Ian, "jah-smih, or jonsmith, appeared to Richard at the foot of our bed as a nine foot tall man who wore a cape covered with moons and stars. Richard awoke with a start and trembling with fear, said to me, 'do you see him?' I said no." In his pursuit of mask/clown training Richard journeyed to Seattle to work with Bari Rolfe, former Le Coq student. It was while he was there that he again encountered "Jah-smih", Shaman presence or spirit guide
, at the Seattle Museum of West Coast Masks and Native Culture. Jah-smit told him to sit on the wharf and look out to the horizon until he was able to see himself. It was from this encounter that Richard came up with the idea of "facing yourself in each of the 6 directions", and subsequently sculpting a mask energy form for each with the eyes closed. By surrendering to the color and form rhythms of the masks and journeying into the innocence and experience of each, the
students discovers a way into their creativity in which the 6 direction elements become expressed in the birth of a trickster
also called heyoka
, fool
, mischief maker, clown
, contrary
, messenger of the gods, coyote
. This is the archetypal figure that appears in every ancient culture and is revered by the people as an intermediary between the community and Creator
. The function of the trixt'r is to toss convention into the air. If he/she felt that the chief was talking bullshit it was perfectly acceptable to shit on the chief's head. We find such trixt'r societies in amerindian communities particularly in the south-west, most notably among the Hopi
and Zuni, and in Canada, Ian Wallace
has created a registry of new clowns trained in Pochinko technique called the Richard Pochinko False Face Society Jah-smih guided Pochinko to create a mask technique which would re-birth this trixt'r figure in America for the future, he also said that these clowns will begin to appear as conditions worsen in the state of the world, that they will provide the healing power of laughter to help communities deal with the collapse of the patriarchy and teach respect for Gaia
our Mother.
The Geometry of the masks is to see oneself in the six directions of one's 'Artistic playground', the idea came from jonsmith's advice "to look out at the horizon until he could see himself". Each of the directions became a heightened concept, North became North of North, South became South of south, Above became Above Above, Below became Below Below, West became West of West, and East became East of East. Added to this, was a seventh direction, the Red Nose which was capable of working at each of the 6 directions, anywhere in between, or all of them at once.
In the Technique that developed, which Pochinko called The Canadian Clowning Technique (although, to date, most Canadian Clowns are still trained in European techniques, it is commonly referred to as the Pochinko Clowning Technique), a mask is made for each direction, and the seventh mask is the clown. Variations include a three-mask technique (based on the three polarities) and a six-in-one mask technique evolved by Ian Wallace with Raoul Papadans in Vancouver 2005. To the Pochinko Clown, Clowning is about allowing all honest emotions and impulses to occur, and then structuring that creative licence to build a performance. By contrast, other techniques teach structure before freedom.
As foretold in the "Paris Talks", a school was created (Theatre Resource Centre, Ottawa 1975), teachers continue to be trained and the work is becoming a part of the education system, teaching creativity from the inside-out, rather than facts and linear thinking from the outside-in. This teaching takes place at several colleges and Universities in Canada.. Recognized teachers of Pochinko Mask/Clown Technique include Jan Henderson and Mike Kennard, at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Penelope Stella, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, David MacMurray Smith, Fantastic Space in Vancouver, John Turner, Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Sue Morrison, Institute of Canadian Clowning, Toronto, Sara Tilley, 6 in 1 technique, She Said She Said theatre co., St. John's Newfoundland, Cheryl Cashman, and Ian Wallace, Vancouver. Anne Skinner took the mask work into the realm of Voice training with the creation of Vowel Masks and a performance piece in Toronto entitled The Ninth Wave.
Richard founded the Theatre Resource Centre with Anne Skinner, in Ottawa, July 4, 1975. The company produced a 3
cast version of Lord Byron's Cain, and after a year disbanded. Some years later, Ian re-birthed the TRC and was re-joined by Richard to produce a number of seminal works, including Nion - Birth of a Clown, Pythagoras
- a Mystery, Dario Fo
's Elizabeth, Almost by Chance a Woman, Alfred Jarry
's Supermale, Asylum, Passages, Extra Terrestrial Walk-Ins seeded by Amber Wendelborg, The Beavers featuring Nion and Gloria Eshkibok in collaboration with Cree writer Thompson Highway and Native Earth Theatre. The T.R.C still operates as a clown training school under the direction of Pochinko's former apprentice, Sue Morrison.
, for
actors at Native Earth Theatre in Toronto, as well as with youth of the Musq'ue'am
and Squamish nations in British Columbia. Marsha Coffey and Cheryl Cashman have worked with the community of Pond Inlet, Iqualuit, in the Canadian Arctic. Sue Morrison has guided clown/mask workshops in New York, South America and Europe,
to name a few.
Among Pochinko's notable students are Anne Skinner, Stratford Festival, Jan Henderson, Jan Miller, Cheryl Cashman, Michael Rudder, Judy Marshak, Jan Kudelka, Tantoo Cardinal
, Margaret Hollingsworth, Danny Bakan, Ida Carnevali, Johanna McIntyre, Neil Gordon Lees, Karen Hines
, Sue Morrison, Marsha Coffey, John Towsen at N.Y.U., Debra Silver, Howard Jerome, Alice Brownlee, Della Burford, Peter Jarvis (aka Silver Elvis), John Turner & Mike Kennard Mump and Smoot
,Ian A. Wallace aka Nion
http://www.richardpochinko.com/nion.html who appeared at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic games in his mask creation of Jaguar Plumed Serpent, Quetzacoatl, signalling the rebirth of trixt'r light energy, and Paul Wildbaum http://www.paulwildbaum.com/.
Pochinko is widely referred to by schools and magazines covering clowning in Canada.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
clown
Clown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
trainer who developed a new style of mask/Clown performance training, known as the "Pochinko technique".
History
(1946–1989) born and raised in CanadaLockport, Manitoba
Lockport is a small unincorporated community in Manitoba, Canada located just north of the city of Winnipeg. It is the site of ancient agricultural inhabitation, a migratory bird feeding area as well as a dam and lock of the Red River. The Red River Floodway joins the Red River just down river...
, a blue baby requiring immediate blood transfusions to survive. His father died of a heart attack while waking one night to attend his baby son, for which Richard forever blamed himself. As a child, he would build miniature stages and circuses to play with. He got so excited about loving his baby chicks that he innocently crushed them in his arms. As a teenager he left the farm and moved to Selkirk because of antagonism with his new stepfather. There he lived with his sister Christine, and often with the family of his friend Doreen Cooper. "I met Rick when we were 15, 9th grade, when the kids who had attended country schools were all sent to junior high school in Selkirk. That's when Rick moved in with Chris to get away from his stepfather as well as to be close to school and not have to take the school bus every day. After he graduated from high school, where he was Social Co-ordinator and President of the Drama Club, he worked at Burn's meatpacking plant while he apprenticed at Manitoba Theatre School in Winnipeg in the evening and weekends. He and Victor met at MTS." His early family difficulties set him on a life-long quest for a "real family" to belong to.
Richard left Selkirk/Winnipeg in 1965. With his friend Victor Colonval he escaped the small town and took off to Toronto in the early 1960s to experience big city street life. He tried being a hustler at the Ford Hotel on Bay and Dundas, but didn't have the heart to accept payment. He worked at various jobs including being an orderly at St. Joseph's Hospital, where he comforted dying patients, a youth worker in Riverdale for the Toronto Parks and Recreation, and a systems analyst for Eaton's Dept. Store. The young people he worked with loved him so much, they asked him what he would love to have. Richard replied, "a canoe", and they promptly set off for Eaton's, picked up a canoe on display on the fourth floor and carried it out of the store no problem. Richard was delighted but aghast and took them back to the store, ironically they got caught trying to return the canoe. It was also at tis time that Richard met the first love of his life in Donna. They were engaged to be married, but sadly she succumbed to polio shortly after. His early life experiences gave Richard a compassion and understanding of the human condition that was so much a part of this "charismatic man". He would do anything for anyone, share all he had with those that needed it.
A couple of years later he moved to Montreal and began to gather his "family", Diedre J. and Ken M., as well as Alan Merovitz, Rhona Gold, Sharon Nelson, Freda Perel, and Ellen Gautschi. Ellen was in the Theatre program at George Williams University and worked with Richard to produce her Commedia dell'arte play "Cuckold", as well as a production of Emmlyn Williams "Night Must Fall", featuring Alan M. In 1967 Richard was hired to be one of 10 Stage Managers at the Montreal World Fair, Expo 67. One of his jobs was to drive the performers, including Marlene Dietrich and Maurice Chevalier, out to the stage. Chevalier said to him one night "You know, smiley, i've been doing this for 60 years and i still get nervous every time i go on stage."
Space Ship Dreams
It was during that summer of Expo '67 that Ellen G. brought a young man, Ian Wallace, newly arrived from Alberta, to meet Richard at the apt. on Rue. St. Urbain. This was to be the start of a life-long friendship and creative partnership.Richard and Ken M. were hired at Neptune Theatre that fall in Halifax to be stage manager and designer, respectively. Richard also worked with the Tritons, young company, and acted in Llanford Wilson's play "Home Free", directed by Jan Henderson, a theatre student at Dalhousie. Deidre and Rhona came out from Montreal, Ian returned from a trip to Europe and North Africa, and all lived together with Richard on Woodill St. Richard was juggling 3 love relationships and ian was becoming his close friend and confidant. It was during one of the few nights that Richard actually stayed in the apt. that he asked Ian to come and cuddle with him.
Ian Wallace often recounts what he calls the spaceship dreams, dreams during which Richard would speak in his sleep to Ian, who was still awake:
...The most vividly emotional and meaningful flight was one night when we were flying over a dark landscape and he said that I should steer over to the left and go over the hill there. I said aye-aye sir and made the movement. As we got over the crest of the hill he got excited about seeing some people off in the distance. He was very happy and as we got closer he exclaimed "oh look, they're waving at us" - as we got closer still he suddenly went "Oh God, Oh my God!" he went from being extremely happy and excited to unbelievable shock and horror as he saw the people. He said in a trembling voice "they're not waving at us, they're all encased inside glass tubes and they're banging on the glass trying to break out" --- in a flash he said "oh my God! that's our mission, that's why we're here - to set them free, to help them break out of the glass tubes." -http://www.richardpochinko.com/rich.html
This was a recurring experience that continued in Halifax, later in Toronto, and culminated in an amazing series of "channelled talks" in Paris. Diedre, Rhona and Ian all worked at Neptune as well, and eventually Richard and Ian became partners. They moved to Indian Point, on the Atlantic near Mahone Bay shortly afterwards, Richard was called to come back to Toronto to work as assistant stage manager on the revolutionary new musical HAIR
Hair
Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class....
to be presented at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Ian joined Richard in Toronto where they stayed with Walter Cavalieri until they found their first apartment on Bay St. across from the Greyhound Bus Depot and next to the infamous Ford Hotel which was at Bay and Dundas St. It was during rehearsals for the show that Richard began to recognize people that he had seen in the "space-ship" including Michael Rudder, Judy Marshak, Denis Simpson, Amber Wendelborg, and Jan Kudelka. He had told Ian in Halifax the previous year, that "there were a lot of people on the ship, some we already know, others we have yet to meet."
Some months later they moved to a house at 749 Manning Ave. where Ian, Richard, Judy and Rhona experimented with a Ouija board, encountering some very strong presences which mostly talked to Richard and Rhona, however one night a very gentle energy came on the board and asked to speak to ian. She called herself the "Vudu Kween" and said that she was his lady forever. She described herself as "i am purple". This gave Ian shivers down his spine, because out on the back fence was his painting of 3 Atlantean goddesses, which he had cut out from the linoleum in the Bay St. Apt. The central figure was purple. These "grape ladies" as he called them had started to appear as doodles on his psych. notes at the University of Alberta, and continued with a circular painting in Halifax. Now she identified herself as his muse and inspired the creation of a series of batik paintings http://www.richardpochinko.com/batiks1.html, most of which were sold to the cast of HAIR, enabling Ian to accompany Richard on his theatre tour of Europe, "to seek Grotowski, who they travelled to Warsaw to find, Poland experience theatre and art all over Europe, and attend the Jacques Le Coq mask school in Paris.
In Paris they bought a car and headed off to the south of France on a 3 month adventure through Monte Carlo, Florence, Rome,
at which point the car started to have problems, so they split up, Richard taking a bus to Brindisi with Athens his destination, and Ian drove the car north to Venice and down the Dalmatian Coast to wait for Richard and have the car attended to. They corresponded via the American Express Office, Ian describing the billboards on the road beside the olive grove he was camped in. After spending time with the National Greek Theatre learning chorus technique, Richard started north by bus to Dubrovnik and eventually met up with Ian at the olive grove on the coast just outside Zadar. It was a joyful reunion with many stories to share over a quantity of plum brandy. It was here that Ian had purchased the "oil lamp" which became an icon for what was to occur later in Paris. The trip continued north to Vienna, Prague, Warsaw, all the while camping along the way. "In Warsaw people were offering to buy our jeans." In Warsaw we found out that Growtowski was in Holstbro, Denmark working on "The Passion of St. Matthew" with Eugenio Barba
Eugenio Barba
Eugenio Barba is an Italian author and theatre director based in Denmark. He is the founder of the Odin Theatre and the International School of Theatre Anthropology, both located in Holstebro, Denmark.-Biography:...
. The shortest route would have been North, through the East Zone to the Baltic sea, but instead they would only allow us to cross the East Zone Berlin. This was 1970 and Berlin was a divided island in a heavily armed communist dictatorship. "We encountered tanks and machine guns at the border crossing where we were searched and cross-examined by two imposing women for several hours, eventually being forced to exchange a certain amount of dollars into east german marks, and to purchase with dollars a travel insurance policy and given strict orders not to leave the auto-bahn until we arrived in Berlin."
Paris 1970
After an adventure filled whirl-wind tour of Europe they arrived back in Paris and just off Place de la Republique, in a tiny hotel room on Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud an amazing thing happened. Daily Richard would attend classes at the school while Ian worked on set designs for the plays they were to produce with Ellen G. on return to Canada, as well he continued to create his batik paintings. One night after return from class Richard lay down to have a nap while Ian cooked dinner. Soon after lying down, Ian noticed that Richard was stroking his fore-head as before in the "space-ship dreams", only this time Richard sat bolt upright on the bed, looked around the room with wild eyes and said to Ian in a child-like voice "don't be afraid, my name is I,ME,RICHARD,HE and when you tell Richard about this he won't believe you" then he giggled. He asked Ian to "adjust the oil-lamp because it was too bright." He said that "this was being allowed to happen because of your love for each other." after about 20 minutes of describing and explaining the nature of reality, planes of existence, and where he was coming from, he started to have a dry mouth. Ian asked him if he wanted some water, which he did. "and move slowly because your're shifting the energy in the room" As Ian presented the glass of water he abruptly shifted back to Richard again, who said "what are you doing?" "i'm bringing the water you asked for" ian replied. "what do you mean, i've been sleeping" richard said. "oh, richard, i have something to tell you" and ian proceeded to relate what had just happened, the stroking of the forehead, the 20 minute talk, richard said "stop, i don't want to hear this, I don't believe you!" "that's what you told me you would say" "No! don't say any more!" and that was that. The "Paris Talks"http://www.richardpochinko.com/rich.html/ continued every night at the same time, around 5 p.m., for three weeks, approximately 20–30 minutes at a time.Speaking as I,ME,RICHARD,HE (IMRH) he spoke of the creation of a school which would be ahead of its time, would last for a year, disband, and then re-emerge some years later. (The Theatre Resource Centre, Ottawa) He said that Ian would be a well-known clown http://www.richardpochinko.com/nion.html/ to which Ian thought inside "I don't think so". During one of the talks IMRH scanned the room, noting the Lautrec prints, he said that everything was perfect, that those prints were to inspire one of our future creations, (it became the lighting for Nion in the Kabaret de la Vita, Montreal, 1983) and that together they would evolve a new clown figure, from European and Amerindian roots, not re-creating the past, but reviving the traditional role of the trixtr' societies of America in a new form for NOW. One night, to show Ian the "energy" he was seeing, Richard took the brush and paints to paper making tiny dots of colored light, but it wasn't the same so he got frustrated and crushed his drawing. Immediately he said "oh my God, i've just done something really wrong and they're telling me to lie down. They're opening up a huge jewelled book called the Secrets of the Universe and they're showing me the precious gift of creativity and how i went against the nature of the universe by destroying my creation." As he experienced this admonishment, Ian could literally see the pain and anguish ripple through his body, as well as becoming aware of the entity referred to as "they", there was now a triangle of linked communication. For Ian this was a tremendous experience to witness and be a part of, because during the day he was reading books that Richard had chosen in New York to bring on the trip. They were Vera Stanley Alder's "the Finding of the Third Eye", and the "Initiations of the World". What Ian was reading in the afternoon was manifesting with Richard in the evening in that room in Paris on the rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud.
Although the Lecoq Program normally lasts two years, Jacques Lecoq
Jacques Lecoq
Jacques Pierre Lecoq born in Paris, was a French actor, mime and acting instructor.He is most famous for his methods on physical theatre, movement and mime that he taught at the school he founded in Paris, L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq from 1956 until his death in...
himself dismissed Pochinko after only a few months. The truth is that Le Coq recognized Richard's grasp of the European mask work immediately and told him to return to Canada to create his own form of mask/trixter.
Jah-smih
Jah-smih instilled in Richard the fundamentals for a new, North American approach to ClownClown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
through mask
Mask
A mask is an article normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes...
"Soon after our return to Canada," says Ian, "jah-smih, or jonsmith, appeared to Richard at the foot of our bed as a nine foot tall man who wore a cape covered with moons and stars. Richard awoke with a start and trembling with fear, said to me, 'do you see him?' I said no." In his pursuit of mask/clown training Richard journeyed to Seattle to work with Bari Rolfe, former Le Coq student. It was while he was there that he again encountered "Jah-smih", Shaman presence or spirit guide
Spirit guide
"Spirit guide" is a term used by the Western tradition of Spiritualist Churches, mediums, and psychics to describe an entity that remains a disincarnate spirit in order to act as a guide or protector to a living incarnated human being....
, at the Seattle Museum of West Coast Masks and Native Culture. Jah-smit told him to sit on the wharf and look out to the horizon until he was able to see himself. It was from this encounter that Richard came up with the idea of "facing yourself in each of the 6 directions", and subsequently sculpting a mask energy form for each with the eyes closed. By surrendering to the color and form rhythms of the masks and journeying into the innocence and experience of each, the
students discovers a way into their creativity in which the 6 direction elements become expressed in the birth of a trickster
Trickster
In mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior. It is suggested by Hansen that the term "Trickster" was probably first used in this...
also called heyoka
Heyoka
The word Heyókȟa refers to the Lakota concept of a contrarian, jester, satirist or sacred clown.Heyókȟa are thought of as being backwards-forwards, upside-down, or contrary in nature. This spirit is often manifest by doing things backwards or unconventionally—riding a horse backwards, wearing...
, fool
Foolishness
Foolishness is the lack of wisdom. In this sense it differs from stupidity, which is the lack of intelligence. An act of foolishness is sometimes referred to as a folly....
, mischief maker, clown
Clown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
, contrary
Contrary
Contrary may refer to:* Contrary motion, in music theory* Contrary Magazine, a literary journal founded at the University of Chicago* Contrary , in certain Amerindian cultures* Contrary , a character from Malibu Comics' Ultraverse...
, messenger of the gods, coyote
Coyote
The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...
. This is the archetypal figure that appears in every ancient culture and is revered by the people as an intermediary between the community and Creator
Creator deity
A creator deity is a deity responsible for the creation of the world . In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator deity, while polytheistic traditions may or may not have creator deities...
. The function of the trixt'r is to toss convention into the air. If he/she felt that the chief was talking bullshit it was perfectly acceptable to shit on the chief's head. We find such trixt'r societies in amerindian communities particularly in the south-west, most notably among the Hopi
Hopi
The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...
and Zuni, and in Canada, Ian Wallace
Ian Wallace
Ian Wallace is the name of:*D. Ian M. Wallace, ornithologist*Ian Wallace , science fiction author*Ian Wallace , pioneer of Vancouver's conceptual art movement...
has created a registry of new clowns trained in Pochinko technique called the Richard Pochinko False Face Society Jah-smih guided Pochinko to create a mask technique which would re-birth this trixt'r figure in America for the future, he also said that these clowns will begin to appear as conditions worsen in the state of the world, that they will provide the healing power of laughter to help communities deal with the collapse of the patriarchy and teach respect for Gaia
Gaia (mythology)
Gaia was the primordial Earth-goddess in ancient Greek religion. Gaia was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods and Titans were descended from her union with Uranus , the sea-gods from her union with Pontus , the Giants from her mating with Tartarus and mortal creatures were sprung or born...
our Mother.
First Creations
Upon his return to Toronto he began to experiment with this idea with 10 actors, and director Marigold Charlesworth, in preparation for the first clown show, Iroquois Creation Legend, for the Theatre Hour Company, directed by Pochinko with actors Judy Marshak, Jan Henderson, Rhona Gold, Tauve, Michael Rudder and Ian Wallace, and for the Hexagon Co directed by Marigold Charlesworth with actors Richard Partington, Robert Moore, Jan Kudelka, Robin Cameron and Mary Swinton. Both companies performed and presented workshops in High Schools for 6 months all over Ontario in 1972. The second show So Runs the World Away was created in 1973, all text was from Shakespeare, gathered and compiled by Jan Henderson and Robert Moore, and again performed on a 6 month tour of Ontario for the same two companies.The Geometry of the masks is to see oneself in the six directions of one's 'Artistic playground', the idea came from jonsmith's advice "to look out at the horizon until he could see himself". Each of the directions became a heightened concept, North became North of North, South became South of south, Above became Above Above, Below became Below Below, West became West of West, and East became East of East. Added to this, was a seventh direction, the Red Nose which was capable of working at each of the 6 directions, anywhere in between, or all of them at once.
In the Technique that developed, which Pochinko called The Canadian Clowning Technique (although, to date, most Canadian Clowns are still trained in European techniques, it is commonly referred to as the Pochinko Clowning Technique), a mask is made for each direction, and the seventh mask is the clown. Variations include a three-mask technique (based on the three polarities) and a six-in-one mask technique evolved by Ian Wallace with Raoul Papadans in Vancouver 2005. To the Pochinko Clown, Clowning is about allowing all honest emotions and impulses to occur, and then structuring that creative licence to build a performance. By contrast, other techniques teach structure before freedom.
As foretold in the "Paris Talks", a school was created (Theatre Resource Centre, Ottawa 1975), teachers continue to be trained and the work is becoming a part of the education system, teaching creativity from the inside-out, rather than facts and linear thinking from the outside-in. This teaching takes place at several colleges and Universities in Canada.. Recognized teachers of Pochinko Mask/Clown Technique include Jan Henderson and Mike Kennard, at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Penelope Stella, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, David MacMurray Smith, Fantastic Space in Vancouver, John Turner, Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Sue Morrison, Institute of Canadian Clowning, Toronto, Sara Tilley, 6 in 1 technique, She Said She Said theatre co., St. John's Newfoundland, Cheryl Cashman, and Ian Wallace, Vancouver. Anne Skinner took the mask work into the realm of Voice training with the creation of Vowel Masks and a performance piece in Toronto entitled The Ninth Wave.
Richard founded the Theatre Resource Centre with Anne Skinner, in Ottawa, July 4, 1975. The company produced a 3
cast version of Lord Byron's Cain, and after a year disbanded. Some years later, Ian re-birthed the TRC and was re-joined by Richard to produce a number of seminal works, including Nion - Birth of a Clown, Pythagoras
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him...
- a Mystery, Dario Fo
Dario Fo
Dario Fo is an Italian satirist, playwright, theater director, actor and composer. His dramatic work employs comedic methods of the ancient Italian commedia dell'arte, a theatrical style popular with the working classes. He currently owns and operates a theatre company with his wife, actress...
's Elizabeth, Almost by Chance a Woman, Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany; he was of Breton descent on his mother's side....
's Supermale, Asylum, Passages, Extra Terrestrial Walk-Ins seeded by Amber Wendelborg, The Beavers featuring Nion and Gloria Eshkibok in collaboration with Cree writer Thompson Highway and Native Earth Theatre. The T.R.C still operates as a clown training school under the direction of Pochinko's former apprentice, Sue Morrison.
Teaching Continues
Ian A. Wallace had the honor of being invited to present a mask/trix'tr workshop at De-ba-jeh-mu-jig theatre for youth and elders of the Wikwemikong reservation on Manitoulin IslandManitoulin Island
Manitoulin Island is a Canadian island in Lake Huron, in the province of Ontario. It is the largest island in a freshwater lake in the world. In addition to the historic Anishinaabe and European settlement of the island, archeological discoveries at Sheguiandah have demonstrated Paleo-Indian and...
, for
actors at Native Earth Theatre in Toronto, as well as with youth of the Musq'ue'am
and Squamish nations in British Columbia. Marsha Coffey and Cheryl Cashman have worked with the community of Pond Inlet, Iqualuit, in the Canadian Arctic. Sue Morrison has guided clown/mask workshops in New York, South America and Europe,
to name a few.
Among Pochinko's notable students are Anne Skinner, Stratford Festival, Jan Henderson, Jan Miller, Cheryl Cashman, Michael Rudder, Judy Marshak, Jan Kudelka, Tantoo Cardinal
Tantoo Cardinal
Rose Marie "Tantoo" Cardinal, CM is a Canadian film and television actress.-Career:Cardinal was born in Anzac, Fort McMurray, Alberta. Her mother, Julia Cardinal, was a Métis of Cree descent...
, Margaret Hollingsworth, Danny Bakan, Ida Carnevali, Johanna McIntyre, Neil Gordon Lees, Karen Hines
Karen Hines
Karen Hines is a Canadian actress, writer and director. She is the artistic director and producer of "Keep Frozen: Pochsy Productions."Hines has appeared in several television series, including many of Ken Finkleman's satires such as The Newsroom, Foreign Objects, and Married Life for which she was...
, Sue Morrison, Marsha Coffey, John Towsen at N.Y.U., Debra Silver, Howard Jerome, Alice Brownlee, Della Burford, Peter Jarvis (aka Silver Elvis), John Turner & Mike Kennard Mump and Smoot
Mump and Smoot
Mump & Smoot are a Canadian clown duo created by Michael Kennard and John Turner, directed by Karen Hines. Also referred to as 'clowns of horror' they've produced interactive, improvisational plays aimed squarely at adult audiences.-Background:...
,Ian A. Wallace aka Nion
Nion
Nion is the Irish name of the fifth letter of the Ogham alphabet, , probably meaning "fork". In Old Irish, the letter name was Nin, a name which is notable for referring both to a specific letter, and to any of the Ogham letters in general....
http://www.richardpochinko.com/nion.html who appeared at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic games in his mask creation of Jaguar Plumed Serpent, Quetzacoatl, signalling the rebirth of trixt'r light energy, and Paul Wildbaum http://www.paulwildbaum.com/.
Pochinko is widely referred to by schools and magazines covering clowning in Canada.
External links
- http://www.richardpochinko.com/ Richard Pochinko False Face society]