Portable set

This nice portable backdrop went everywhere with the show. Here we have a special guest appearance from Mrs Cloppo!

Below is the set, folded, and Mrs Cloppo ready for the next gig. It consists of a stainless steel tube frame, iron weights, guy ropes for windy days, an aperture in the clock and window for puppets and a double backdrop; through the window you see the night sky. Also you can see the hand-made hand-painted props box which doubles as the seat.

'To be or not to be'. An actor

First fetch yourself a good photographer who can do you CV photographs that make you look like the actor of your choice!

Tom Hanks? Easy!
Jeremy Dallyn? Who's he?

















Second, fetch yourself an Equity Card. Insanely difficult. It's a 'Catch Twenty-Two' situation (read that book, it's one of the greats!). You need an equity card to do the gigs, but you've got to show that you've done 40 or 50 professional gigs to apply for an equity card. 

Finally wait by the telephone. Forever. Good luck! :)

Cloppo and Cloppette. 1986 to 1991

Myself and Kristina Middleton formed this theatre company, a very succuessful venture. It began with Christmas parties for playschools, and went from there to major arena shows at fetes and festivals.
This was our first publicity sheet. It was obviously good, we did about 60 shows in the first Christmas period!

We wrote and directed all our shows, designed all our literature, and built literally everything. Costumes, puppets, backdrops, storage boxes, clown shoes....

Here is the start of 'The Surprise Party' show.

The Yellow Pages was a critical source of work for us. This small ad, 60mm square, cost £500 a year, a lot in 1986, but repaid itself 10 times over.

This was our next brochure, both indoor and outdoor shows. We developed two entirely new clown personas and costumes for the big stage, and had a zany Olympics themed show, complete with smoke, bangs and swimming pools!

Really my favourite costumes ever, including size 78 trainers, hand-made of course!

'Naughty Rat', and everybody's favourite, 'Daisy the Dragon'.

We got plenty of press...

And of course, fan mail! Where are you now, 'Claire'?

The shows we did together, and later myself solo, numbered in the thousands. On the strength of these, and work earlier in Rainbow Theatre, we earned the elusive and highly prized 'Actor's Equity Card', The UK exclusive actor's union.

And naturally, membership of 'Clown's International'.

The World Clowns Convention, Bognor Regis 1991

The first and only World Clowns Convention held in the UK, Bogner Regis, West Sussex England. Over 800 hundred clowns! The World Clown Association is the USA based organisation. Clowns International is based in the UK.
         

        

We even had a first day cover official stamp!

Off the Rails, Multimedia fashion, theatre, music and sculpture show 1985, north-east England

This was a special one! A true multimedia experience, young fashion designers, mixed with actors, models, sculptors and choreographers, plus a little large scale sculture on the side! Off the rails indeed, but unique.

Edinburgh Festival 1985

Bagatelle Theatre Company, Edinburgh Festival 1985.

'Brass Monkeys' for the festival, and 'Robbo and the Wolf-man', a childrens show for the Manchester area.

The Scotsman, August 1981, review of Bagatelle Theatre Company's 'Brass Monkeys',(not the picture).

The same play reviewed in the Stage

Repertory theatre, south-east England, 1985

A play entitled 'The Fence', enacting the Greenham Common women's peace camp, a very significant piece of the history of the Nuclear disarmament campaign. Quite amazing to think that there were 160 US nuclear cruise missiles located in the UK. The camp itself was at Greenham Common for 19 years, up until the year 2000, 15 years after this play was produced!

Rainbow Theatre. Theatre-in-education company based in Sussex. 1984.

http://www.rainbow-theatre.com/

I left the community theatre in 1983 and returned to my home stomping grounds, Sussex. There I auditioned for and got one of the four playing roles, under the direction of the magnificent Mr. Nic Young, who honestly taught me just about everything I know about acting. My eternal thanks to him. He is still going, and plays a role in the running of the company to this day. Good on ya Nic! During one crazy and amazing year, we peformed close to 400 shows in one school year, sometimes 5 in a day! We rehearsed acted in at least a dozen different shows during that time, raginging from Thumbelina to Historical London during the plague, to Shakepeare.

We also did a Christmas pantomime in a theatre in Brighton, and made a TV appearance on South Today, the regional news and current affairs programme.

November 1984, 62 shows in 21 days!!!

Press clippings:

Gordon the Gnome and Jerry the Elf. 1981-1983.

In 1981 I joined a theatre group that we named the Caldecote Family Community. The business was centred round a show called 'Gordon the Gnome and Jerry the Elf'. Unfortunate I do not have a single picture of this show, but needless to say I was the elf. We toured the local area in hertfordshire from 1981 to 1983 approximately, and did hundreds of childrens parties, fetes and festivals. We also developed the 'ColourMeSunny' playschemes, and worked in conjunction with Luton City Council and Bedfordshire County Council. One highlight was to run the creche at the Festival of Mind, Body and Sprit at Earl's Court Exhibition Centre for several years. The only memento I could find was this 45rpm single of two of our favourite songs, and a single badge!