ClownFest:
All Boats
ALL BOATS ALL CLOWNS
presented by Julia Bray
Oct. 4, 2024 @ 7:30 PM
Make Work, Get Lifted: An Evening of Creative Connections
All Boats, the beloved community variety show, has teamed up with CoHo’s Clownfest to bring you a robust, wacky, wild, and daring array of solo and duet performances from some of Portland’s most experimental clowns! Hosted by a mysterious guest clown, this night packed with a variety of wildly different clown acts is not to be missed!
All Boats was founded in 2015 in NYC as a solution to the exclusive, hierarchal, and insular circles of art that tend to feature the same creators and play safely within their own mediums. To obliterate this phenomenon, All Boats operates through a nomination-based model. Previous performers are asked to pass the opportunity on to artists who need the catalyst to create, the space to be witnessed, and the chance to forge community. This organic expansion of creative connection and wild artistry has generated the All Boats motto: Make Work, Get Lifted–the more we make, dream, and dare to create, the bigger our communal web of magic and artistry becomes. In connecting through the ritual of art, a rising tide lifts All Boats.
The Reviews are In
“All Boats is a space where a truly wide range of work can be explored and presented, where risks are championed and diversity of artistry is ever-present.”
-Hannah Whitney, Actress, NYC
“‘All Boats’ is a powerful anecdote to the New-York-is-dead malaise so many people speak of nowadays. It’s Bohemia in Bushwick-a combination of Dionysian inhibition and cosmopolitan flare”
–Dan Sickles, Director of “Dina” the grand prize jury winner for Documentaries at Sundance 2017
“A place to get lit up inside, inspired and meet your next collaborator, All Boats offers so many gifts: a creative deadline, a captive audience, and a web of authentic connections between the multitude of talented creators”
– Joseph Merlo, Playwright, NYC
Featuring Work By
Moldy Melon presents: BACKSTAGE
Step behind the curtain with Backstage, an absurdist solo clown performance where achieving the perfect skincare routine becomes a hilariously chaotic quest. Watch as our bumbling clown navigates a cluttered vanity with oversized products, encountering cosmic mishaps along the way. From a cleansing catastrophe and a toner tornado to a mask mayhem and a moisturizer meltdown, each step is an uproarious struggle for divine beauty. The show takes a surreal twist when a comically divine skincare god descends to bless (or curse) the clown’s efforts. With a catchy, humorous song and an avalanche of cosmetic chaos, Backstage offers a whimsical exploration of skincare rituals gone wildly wrong. Perfect for those who enjoy slapstick humor with a touch of celestial absurdity!
Moldy Melon (he/she/they) is a Pacific Northwest-based performance artist and somatic healing practitioner. Moldy Melon received their Bachelor of Arts from Williams College and has performed at Earthdance Creative Living Project in Plainfield Mass., Almost Holden Gallery in Los Angeles, 18th St Arts Center in Santa Monica, Electric Lodge in Venice Ca., and most recently at Freakdown Festival in Yachats Ore. Moldy Melon has extensively studied somatics- notably Continuum Movement, Body-Mind Centering, Cranio-sacral therapy, Hakomi Therapy, Butoh dance, Contact Improvisation, and subtle body energies. He can be seen galavanting on bicycle on the unceded territory of the original peoples of the Multnomah, Wasco, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Cowlitz, Bands of Chinook, and many other Tribes.
Clown Mystics present: SEERS OF THE SAVANT GARDE
Seers of the Savant Garde,” is a semi-improvisational divinatory comedy with a clown oracle deck informed by the Tarot. While the scaffold of the show is set, it is the “luck of the draw,” the energy of the audience, and the collective instincts of the Clown Mystics that co-create the direction of each show, achieving an ephemeral sense of camaraderie by inviting the audience into the collective spellcasting.
The Clown Mystics are a newly formed group of clowns and magic makers, dedicated to the art of ritual performance through the absurdity and play of the clown. They are currently working on shaping an upcoming piece titled “Seers of the Savant Garde.”
About the Creator
JULIA BRAY is a renaissance human – whether she is creating, acting, singing, dancing, producing or teaching, she is thrilled by the study of human behavior, the ways we can laugh about it, and the opportunity to deepen intimacy with the human experience through performance. After 10+ years living in NYC, she has made Portland her home. Her favorite professional experiences range from Off Broadway plays and musicals, to “Law and Order SVU”, HBO’s “How to Make it In America” and her recent gig, stealing a pig from Nicolas Cage in the feature film “Pig”. Julia’s plays and solo-shows have been seen at Dixon Place, Fresh Ground Pepper, Theater in Asylum, The Habitat Theater Company & CoHo Theater Lab”. Julia graduated from NYU Tisch with a double major in Drama and Sociology. As a queer spiritual human, their work lives in the intersection between spirituality, science and comedy. She is obsessed with immersive spaces and the opportunity that art has to transform consciousness. Alongside her artistic career, she is a trauma-informed peer coach, a practicing astrologer, a dance and meditation teacher, and a hospice volunteer.
CoHo needs your support
CoHo is a nonprofit theater that heavily relies on the generosity of our community to continue. If you support our mission, please give what you can!