Do you see a Loon? A Loon I See
New Beginnings as the Clowns Take Over My Life
Where were the clowns taking us? A powerfully healing force was unleashed and we followed it like we were a canoe in the rapids. And here is the last piece of Wolseley Tales about Tall Grass Bakery where I also worked as a counter person and created Puss in Cahoots.
The First Peace Show
Karen Ridd’s sister-in-law was organizing a first-time concert for the night before the Peace Walk. She wanted a clown piece. My clown friend Karen phoned me. A clown piece about peace? I had never considered doing a clown show at that point. I just roved as a character and engaged with kids and adults as I went. Alright, I was game to volunteer my time for a worthy cause.
Karen had some ideas that she had worked on before. Pierrot and Robo would fight over a chair. They would think of all different ways to sabotage each other. We would start taking chairs from the audience and stockpiling them. Then we would start taking each other’s chairs. We would collect watches and jackets from the audience. Finally, we would resolve the altercation by sharing. We were both silent clowns. I used mime and Robo used props. Simple enough.
I was doing the dishes a couple nights before the show when Karen called. “CBC wants to tape our rehearsal for “Arts Tonight”. What? “Tomorrow they’ll come down to the Cultural Centre and tape our rehearsal.” What? “We need a name. Now. Uumm. I like birds. It should have a bird in the title. How about a Loon. Okay. How about I see a loon? I know, Loonisee. Okay. Pick you up at 5:00 tomorrow.”
Driving through construction at rush hour with a frantic blue haired clown was nuts. Construction workers were staring hard. I got the giggles. How bizarre could life be?
There were the CBC trucks parked outside the cultural centre when we arrived. I couldn’t believe it. After introductions, Karen and I - the two clowns - stumbled through the scenario. The producers laughed. At the end the producer said, “Oh, that gave me a lift. I needed it today.”
As a result of that, CBC did a half hour piece on Karen as a clown in the hospital, which brought great awareness to the field. I used the video tape to successfully apply to teach mime and clowning with the Manitoba Artists in the Schools Program. Loonisee was born.
Popcorn Philosophy
When I first started to research clowning, my intention was to show how clowning can be healing, which I know from working as a clown in the hospital and by hearing amazing stories from clowns who work in the hospitals across the country. I have also been impressed by stories from clowns who have done humanitarian work in response to environmental crisis like Hurricane Katrina or the hurricane in Haiti. Clowns have gone to Africa and Russia, always bringing a message of cheer and hope. In my own work I’ve discovered clownishness or the ‘carnivalesque’ in work with people with disabilities. Myself, I’ve also healed tremendously on my path as a performing clown.
I was surprised to find a strong historical social and cultural connection of the clown to healing. This clown presents itself in an infinite variety of ways and calls itself many different names such as fool, jester, trickster, guillare, Harlequin, Pierrot but is never-the-less recognizable as a figure who plays an important role in each culture. I call this the archetypal role because the role itself is a form that each culture manifests in a unique way that is the same but different from the last ‘humanifestation’. The nature of the clown who fills this role is always paradoxical and from this paradox grows ambiguity, which can demonstrate that certainty is unreliable and through making a space for questions, create a sense of new possibilities. Where this can become confusing is when you look at many commonly held notions of clowns today. Through a separation of the concepts of meaning and entertainment, the role of the clown has lost some of its context of value to the culture.
Wolseley Tales: Tabitha & Tall Grass Bakery
The Wolseley Elm, Prairie Sky General Store, Humbolt’s Legacy, Sled Dog Music, Tony’s Tomboy and Barchette’s have all contributed over the years to the unique flavour of Wolseley. Tall Grass Prairie Bakery is reminiscent of Mrs. Lipton’s.
Tabitha grew up on a farm and didn’t want food out of cans. She worked at an Experimental Lakes Area in Ontario where a scientific study discovered that dumping phosphorous was polluting the Great Lakes. At that time, in 1990, small farmers were in crisis, some farmers committed suicide. Many sold up and left their farms. In Wolseley, Harvest Collective was raising consciousness about food and promoting local, organic. Where does food come from, what is its value?
Tabitha is a lapsed Hutterite who joined the Grain of Wheat church in Wolseley. The Grain of Wheat is an ecumenical church, a church that includes some Mennonites, some Hutterites, some Presbyterians and some Lutherans. In discussions they were saying, “Shouldn’t we respond to the farm crisis? What can we do?” They thought, “If we baked more of our own bread, then we could use more organic grains and support the farmers.” They decided to start their own baking co-op. A couple gave the group money to buy a mill. The money had been given to them by their family to buy fine china, but they decided to buy the china when the group had sold the bread and could pay them back. St Margaret’s Church on Westminster Avenue donated their kitchen and the baking co-op was formed.
The baking co-op grew and attracted all kinds of community members. They started to need a larger building. Wheat Song Bakery, started by Carolyn Ackerman, was for sale but the time wasn’t right. Jamie Marrin had turned the Laundromat on Westminster Avenue into the New Taste bakery and had sold it to a chef who opened a sweet pastries shop. When the bank foreclosed on the Sweet Pastries Shop, the organic whole grain baking co-op was ready. Tabitha and four others decided to open the Tall Grass Prairie Bakery and they raised enough money to buy the building. They took a business course at the YMCA. The course said to start slow, and take time to get organized. The first day with only Tabitha as staff, they baked 2 dozen muffins, 25 loaves of bread, and 2 dozen Cinnamon buns. 200 people showed up for the opening. To have a blessing Tabitha had to buy back her own bread to bless because they were sold out by 10am.!
The bakery has thrived and now has two locations. Another member of the baking co-op, Tom Janzen, became a farmer and grew organic grain for the bakery. Eight years later he opened Bread and Circuses Bakery Café.
A few years ago, a Wolseley resident’s son went to England to go to university but he was terribly homesick for Wolseley. He was particularly homesick for Tall Grass Prairie Bakery cinnamon buns. He told his mother, “I think I will be able to make it through if I can get a Tall Grass cinnamon bun.” His mother knew a friend who was going to England and would be taking the train past the town where the student was staying. The only trouble was the train didn’t stop at that station. The mother phoned her son and told him to be at the station on the landing at the exact time and there would be a surprise for him. There he was when the train came in. It slowed down a little. His mother’s friend opened the window of the train, yelled, “Here catch!” and threw him a half dozen Tall Grass cinnamon buns. And so, he made it through four years of university away from Wolseley.
Rooming houses, well-educated hippies, Grain of Wheat, house sharing, co-ops, clowns, University of Winnipeg students, welfare recipients, yuppies, intellectuals. Wolseley has changed over the years and is moving up, but concern for healthy food remains the same.
Odds & Ends
Wolseley Tales: In and Under the Granola Belt
Company Name: Loonissee
Origin: Winnipeg, MB
Website: www.tlacosse.com/shows/wolseleytales.htm
Playing in: Venue #22 Partner's Deli
CBC Review:
Thanks to mosquito blockades, collective bakeries, and an enduring love for all things organic, Wolseley is deservedly known as a world unto itself. So why shouldn’t it have its own Fringe show?
Sue Proctor stars here as storytelling clown Agnes, weaving tales of Wolseley’s past. Proctor’s quaint delivery makes her seem like everybody’s mother (she’s actually parent to singer-songwriter Jeremy Proctor, who adds guitar accompaniment and performs his own tunes), and that works for the folksy content. Though the stories are too vague and disjointed to engage all audiences, Wolseleyites will enjoy hearing about the origins of the Tall Grass Prairie Bakery and the old greasy spoon at the corner of Lipton and Westminster.
The delicatessen venue is, like Malathion, both a blessing and a curse: enjoying a beer and a meal with the show is great, but the hollow acoustics are frustrating. Audio problems aside, Proctor’s performance is warm, rambling, and peeling a bit around the edges: in other words, it’s quite a bit like the neighbourhood it celebrates.
CBC Rating: Three BarsReviewed by: Melissa Martin
Audience review:
This is a sweet, goofy, laid-back reminiscence about life in Wolseley. Family friendly, guitar accompaniment by Jeremy Proctor. Wolseley and former Wolseley residents will find much to like and chuckle over; if you aren't from Wolseley, you may wish you were. Karen Johannson's batiks decorate the windows at Partners.
Disclaimer: the reviewer lives in Wolseley and LOVES cinnamon buns.
Posted by: Ardythe Basham | July 19, 2007 08:52 PM
References
Proctor, Sue. The Archetypal Role of the Clown as a Catalyst for Individual and Societal Transformation. https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/977096/