Past Projects

the walking tall project - miami artist residency

Wise Fool collaborated with the Carnival Performing Arts Center in Miami, FL from March 2004 - August 2007. This collaboration, in the form of a circus and physical theatre residency called the Walking Tall project,provided a wonderful opportunity for Wise Fool to share our experience with underserved urban youth.

Each spring, Carnival Performing Arts Center and Wise Fool provided a five-week series of circus and physical theatre workshops throughout various communities in Miami-Dade County for youth and adults. All children’s workshops culminated with a big-top circus performance in which all participants took part. For photos from the "Walking Tall Circus" see our photo gallery

For children, the workshops included introductory, intermediate, and advanced stilts classes for ages 7-12; trapeze, hoop, and acrobatics classes for ages 7-15; clowning classes for ages 5-12; and juggling and puppetry classes for ages 8-15. Classes met twice a week for two-hour sessions.

Wise Fool also helped to advance the skills of a local improvisational troupe, the Urban Disturbance. This group was established by the Miami Performing arts center in the hopes of bringing awareness to their new facility in downtown Miami.

fools without borders

Chiapas, Mexico: Artists from Wise Fool have collaborated with Clowns without Borders on two delegations to Chiapas, Mexico. The first delegation was in 1997, which involved members of Wise Fool Puppet Intervention (the San Francisco-based organization out of which Wise Fool New Mexico grew) and Chaos Collective. Called "Circo de Manos," this was a delegation of thirteen women and a child. In a 1973 school bus, this circus traveled to Chiapas, and performed a revolutionary circus tale in autonomous villages and refugee encampments. Two years later, in 2000, the second delegation included artists from Wise Fool New Mexico and involved seven women and a small circus dog. This delegation performed a puppet circus and led several workshops in giant puppet building. More information about Wise Fool artists in Chiapas can be found at http://www.infinex.com/~yoowho/Wise.Fool.Report.html.  For additional information about Chiapas, visit http://www.ezln.org

Posoltega, Nicaragua:In the wake of the terrible flooding from Hurricane Mitch that killed thousands and left tens of thousands homeless and orphaned in Western Nicaragua in 1999, Wise Fool founders Robbie Ann Pino and Alessandra Ogren joined a Sister City delegation to Polsoltega, Nicaragua. They performed a clown show in eleven of the refugee camps and also led painting workshops, enabling children traumatized by the events to have a creative outlet to express their loss.

challenge new mexico

In an effort to offer a fun, personally satisfying and educational outlet for the visions and perceptions of the mentally and physically challenged and to expose the general public to their fresh and creative world, Wise Fool New Mexico and its artists have been working with developmentally disabled adults through the arts programming of Challenge New Mexico since 1998.

From 1998-2001 Wise Fool artists worked with the participants at Challenge to create giant puppets, shadow puppets, props, sets, songs and scripts for seven original theatrical pieces. During this time Wise Fool was also instrumental in the creation and artistic direction of a weeklong summer intensive theatre arts camp for adults with developmental disabilities. In the summers of 2000 and 2001 Challenge Performing Arts Camp drew participants from across the state and culminated in full-length performances at the Greer Garson Theatre. The Challenge Theatre group also performed their works at local cultural events such as the La Voz Festival of Latino Arts and The Snowball Cotillion.

Their theatrical works include:

• Tales under the Full Moon—original fairy tales. Spring and winter 1999
• Circus Bizurkus—collaboration with members of the One Railroad Circus. Winter 1999
• Weaving a New World—original plays and songs for the new millennium. Spring 2000
• Elements—summer camp production of original dance, theatre and song. Summer 2000
• Dream On—shorts and songs of dreams come true. Winter 2000
• Blue Velvet Meets Elvis—a short musical play chock full of Elvis Impersonators. Spring 2001
• Seasons—summer camp production of original dance, theatre and song. Summer 2001