Word: circus
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...APPLE CIRCUS. A one-ring circus that is both breathtaking and witty. The traditional panoply of acrobats, elephants and high-wire artists is presented with a sophisticated theatrical flair -- to the delight of kids and adults alike. In Manhattan through...
...their families. The clowns' purpose: to alleviate the fear and confusion of hospital stays and provide bright moments with humorous routines, such as "drawing blood" -- with red crayons -- and giving funny-bone examinations. Christensen has found the C.C.U. so fulfilling that he quit performing with the Big Apple Circus last fall to devote full attention to improving and expanding the project...
Clown Care got its start in 1986, when an official at Babies Hospital asked if Big Apple Circus clowns would entertain at a gathering for patients and their families. Christensen and fellow clown Jeff Gordon obliged, performing a 20-minute parody of hospital personnel, food and procedures. Patients and staff alike roared with laughter, especially when the clowns coaxed the otherwise formal chief surgeon into participating in a silly bell-ringing routine. The session, says Christensen, was "the most fulfilling 20 minutes of my professional career, and it was from that experience that the C.C.U. plan took root...
With $10,000 in grant money from the Altman Foundation, used mostly for props, salaries and administrative overhead, Christensen and the Big Apple Circus designed a five-week pilot program. As he tuned in to the needs of his new audience, Christensen made changes in his timing and toned down his circus-arena makeup and gestures to suit the bedside. Perhaps the most daunting hurdle was earning the respect and support of the medical staff. "They had to accept that we were there as part of their world," he says...
...program's hugely successful trial period, Christensen and the circus had no trouble finding further funding from a number of local and national foundations and corporations. He recalls only one voice of opposition. "A hospital staff member once said, 'Clowns don't belong in the Intensive Care Unit.' So I said, 'Neither do children...