The act of clowns: the hospital as a meeting place
Acting Scenic. Theater. Hospital Clowning. Meeting. Phenomenology.
This work is an investigation in Scenic Arts that had as motto some personal concerns of the author when acting as a clown in hospitals of São Paulo and Natal. From this professional experience, it has been identified that there are peculiarities in the work of actress and clown in different spaces of the society. In the context researched here, it is emphasized the need for the clowns to have to engender an opening in which they can relate to beings and to the events of space and hospital time. Therefore, it is asked: what are the main peculiarities of the hospital compared to the other areas of palhaceous activity? Based on the experience of professional clowns who work in hospital settings, what are the main aspects to be considered in acting in these spaces? In order to answer these questions, the objective is to investigate the performance of clowns in hospitals, contextualizing, for this, such action within the framework of scenic practices. In addition, from the description of experiences in the hospital fields, we intend to identify the main aspects that configure these artistic experiences in contact with the daily life of the hospital. Based on a phenomenological methodology based on Merleau-Ponty (2006, 2007, 2011), we sought to dialogue with hospital clownings experiences through interviews with seven members of the Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs) Doutores da Alegria, as well as the clown Ésio Magalhães, who was part of the NGO's cast until the year 2003. As a result of this research, we propose to discuss the scenic play based on the mixture of personal training techniques and the sensibilities of each artist, as well as the performance of clown in the hospital as experiences of theatrical meetings. In order to do so, the theoretical reference covers the Merleau-Ponty Phenomenology (2006, 2007, 2011), the play concept posed by Huizinga (2014) and the Brazilian studies on laughter, comics and palhacaria, such as Burnier 2001), Viveiros de Castro (2005), Bolognesi (2006), Kásper (2004), Wuo (1999; 2011) and Sacchet (2009).