Quick Takes With Four Clowns’ Jeremy Aluma

Robin Hood Director Talks Sets, Costumes and His First Encounter with Robin

Kevin Klein and Alexis Jones in Robin Hood.

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SCR: Think back and tell me how you first got introduced to the legend of Robin Hood.

Jeremy Aluma: Fittingly, my earliest memory of Robin Hood is Mel Brooks (Men in Tights, 1993)! I remember having a sleepover birthday party in middle school and watching it with my friends. Of course, I loved the gags, puns, large characters the actors played and of course the farce of all previous Robin Hoods, which I only slightly understood.

SCR: Describe the set and costumes for me. Do they have a “wow” factor?!

JA: We settled on the concept of a forest playground early in the discussion process and truly that is what has been created. Set designer Fred Kinney has created a set complete with climbable trees, large angled fallen logs and holes to pop in and out of.

Costume designer Leah Piehl had a challenge: six actors featured in roughly 25 different roles and jumping in and out of costumes sometimes in about 20 seconds. The overall feel is that of a traveling minstrel troupe of actors, which really helped shape the concepts, colors and appearance. We wanted to keep the colors bright and vibrant and make the costumes functional and easy to put on and take off. There're a lot of wonderful elements to play with, too: fat suits, five-inch platform-sole shoes for height, weapons, hats, crowns and cloaks.

Julia Davis, Raymond Lee
and Amir Levi in Robin Hood.

SCR: What are some fun moments in Greg Banks’ Robin Hood?

JA: The moments that I imagine are going to be the most fun are the interactive parts with the audience. The call and response, Much asking an audience member to help him. Also, I think dressing Robin as a lady so he can thwart the Sheriff's plan is just hilarious.

SCR: Not to get too deep, but what are some lessons that come out of Banks’ Robin Hood?

JA: There are a number of them. Helping humanity always should come before our personal need to amass wealth. Never cheer the death of any man, even your enemy. Learn from your failures, grow from them, change from them and proceed, never give up, every great success story came with a lot of failure. Take care of nature. Love, honor and respect your friends. Help those less fortunate than you.

SCR: What do you hope audiences—young and old—will come away with from seeing Four Clowns in this production?

JA: My first goal with Four Clowns always is to entertain an audience. So it's very important that they have a good time and laugh. It's also rewarding to work with a script that has so many opportunities to interact with the audience and, of course, we've added a few more! I'd like audiences to see the nature of theater as a living, vibrant art form, unique in its ability to respond to each audience member differently. Humanity also is an important theme for me in most productions that I direct and this play has some valuable lessons; it would be wonderful for those to impact audience members, too.

SCR: In your best Robin Hood-era language, how would you issue an invitation to folks to come the show?

JA: Forsooth, me lads and ladies of yesteryore and yoreyyore! "If you desire the spleen and will laugh yourselves into stitches, follow us."

Clowning Around In Sherwood Forest

Daniel Hopkins, Julia Davis, Kevin Klein, Alexis Jones, Raymond Lee in Robin Hood.

What happens when you take the classic story of Robin Hood—that famous, English outlaw who robbed from the rich to give to the poor—and add four clowns, two musicians and a lot of merriment?  We hope you’ll join us to find out, as South Coast Repertory presents Greg Banks’ imaginative new adaptation of Robin Hood for our Theatre for Young Audiences series November 2 – 18.

Robin Hood costume design
by Leah Piehl

With this production of Robin Hood, SCR is thrilled to introduce our TYA audience to the Los Angeles-based Four Clowns troupe—four actors and two musicians—who will play more than 20 characters.  The clowns use physical comedy, mime, improvisation and jokes to dramatize Banks’ Robin Hood—a high-energy look at the timeless tale of Robin and his band of Merry Men, with swashbuckling adventures and triumph against great odds.  We’ll see Robin fight against the evil King John and Sheriff of Nottingham, woo the beautiful Maid Marian, and strive to help the poor—as he teaches lessons about friendship, loyalty and the importance of helping those less fortunate than yourself.

Playwright Greg Banks has skillfully refreshed the tale of Robin Hood with interactive opportunities that invite the audience into the world of the play so that they can be part of the action, including jokes, fight scenes, jumps, tree climbing, flips, gags and maybe even the occasional red nose.

“Whether they’re reacting to a gag or a pratfall, you hear immediately how kids feel about something” says director Jeremy Aluma.. “Children bring out some great creativity in us as performers and that’s wonderful.”

The cast includes clowns Amir Levi, Raymond Lee, Alexis Jones, Kevin Klein and musicians Daniel Hopkins and Julia Davis.  The design team includes Fred Kinney, sets; Leah Piehl, costumes; Jeremy Pivnick, lights; Brian Danner, fight director; and Jennifer Ellen Butler, stage manager.

Set design by Fred Kinney.

Four Clowns won the coveted Best of Physical Theatre award at the inaugural Hollywood Fringe Festival three times in a row in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The troupe also earned top nods at the Minnesota and San Francisco Fringe festivals and became Ovation Recommended in Los Angeles. In February 2012, Four Clowns took part in South Coast Repertory’s Studio SCR Series, a program that partners with SoCal's most intriguing arts groups and presents a series of eclectic, contemporary theatre works.

Although Four Clowns’ work for adults has been edgy and sometimes risqué, this will be their second show for young audiences—and they’ve shown themselves to be quite adept at channeling their inner child.

The Four Clowns’ rollicking, fun and funny take on Robin Hood is not to be missed!

About the Playwright Greg Banks

Greg Banks

Playwright and director Greg Banks was commissioned to write Robin Hood by The Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, where he directed the play’s premiere in 2011.  Since then, Robin Hood has been performed for children at theaters across the country including Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre Company and Seattle Children’s Theatre.

His work as a writer, actor and director has taken him all over the world from Singapore to Seattle. In the United Kingdom, he has directed for many companies including The Unicorn Children's Theatre London (The Wizard of Oz), The Birmingham Stage Company (Kenoukes Kingdom), The Bristol Old Vic (Endgame), Polka Children's Theatre, Traveling Light (Tir Na N'og; winner of the Samuel Beckett award), Plymouth Theatre, and Royal Theatre (Why the Whales Came).

He is a frequent collaborator at many U.S. theaters including Minneapolis’ The Children’s Theatre Company, Seattle Children's Theatre and The New York State Theatre (Tempest, King of Shadows). He wrote and directed an adaptation of Pinnochio for Taurus Voice, and Salaam for Fair Game Theatre. Other projects include a Native Canadian adaptation of his production of Tir Na N'og, Treasure Island for The Birmingham Stage, and his own adaptation of Huck Finn for The Children's Theatre Company. In addition to Robin Hood, Banks has directed Sleeping Beauty, Antigone, and John Glore’s adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time for CTC.