Coastal Now Menu

Sota embraces ‘compassionate clowning’ in Guatemala City

by Prufer

Benjamin Sota, dressed as his clown persona, was sitting in a fast-food restaurant in Guatemala City this past spring with the rest of the clown troupe, watching his pal Patch Adams give an impromptu performance. Adams was wearing “the largest pair of underpants in the world,” and a fellow lady clown was wearing the smallest pair.

It was hysterical, and it happens nearly every place Adams and his clown entourage go. Usually it is for healing purposes, but sometimes it is just spontaneous play.

Sota, professor of physical theatre at Coastal Carolina University, was part of Patch Adams’ Alternative Spring Break clown trip to Guatemala City where the troupe performed for sick children, the disabled and the elderly with about 30 other clowns from Guatemala and other countries.

Sota, his mentor Adams and fellow clowns partnered with a Guatemalan volunteer organization called Fabrica de Sonrisas (Factory of Smilemakers) and spent a week visiting and clowning at Anini Center for children with cerebral palsy; Hospital Juan Pablo II, a government-run pediatric hospital; Napoles, a state hospital for the terminally ill; the James Project, an orphanage for the destitute; Abby, a children’s mental asylum; and Hermano Pedro, a center for elderly with special needs; as well as other places and for patients in need of some joy.

“We performed for more than 500 kids with cerebral palsy and Down syndrome, and oh, my God, what fun we all had!” says Sota. “They were the perfect audience. There was so much joy!” Afterward, the children lined up to give “little kid hug after little kid hug, I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced that kind of joy.”

The trip, from March 18 to 25, was funded by a professional enhancement grant from CCU, and Sota is already writing grants and making plans to return in the fall with his theater students in tow. “It’s experiential learning at its best,” says Sota, who is also on CCU’s QEP committee.

The academic plan, according to Sota’s grant request, was to explore how theatre can interact in healthcare settings and celebrate the “personhood” of each individual, regardless of physical or cognitive limitations.

“The work creates connectivity, lightness and joy in centers where sadness, trauma and boredom often reside,” he says.

Sota, who at CCU runs the only BFA in physical theatre program in the country, is a seasoned clown and circus performer, having started with the skills his grandfather taught him when he was only 12 – trapeze arts, juggling seven balls, riding a unicycle. As a young man, he founded his own Zany Umbrella Circus in 2004, traveling around the country to parks and fairs in the U.S. and abroad and eventually to the Kennedy Center and the White House. He went to New Orleans in post-Katrina in 2006 to provide comic relief to the stressed survivors and to war-torn Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2007 to clown for children there.

Prior to the clowning, or actually in the middle of it, Sota did take time out to earn a few degrees – a bachelor’s degree in architectural studies from the University of Pittsburgh in 1999 and two subsequent MFA degrees – one in physical theater and one in directing.

A year later, he met Patch Adams, a physician who believes in healing through humor, at Camp Winnarainbow in California, founded and run by Wavy Gravy, “the first clown activist who was using circus to bridge cultures,” according to the camp’s website. First hired as director of aerials, Sota taught kids skills like trapeze arts, tight-wire walking and riding a six-foot unicycle. Fellow instructor Adams, already as a legend as a consequence of the Robin Williams movie, taught clowning, and the two became instant friends.

“Patch would come every summer and teach how to use circus performance to heal,” says Sota. “There were kids from broken families, kids whose dads had HIV, kids who had never seen the stars, kids in gangs. He was using performance to heal broken families. Patch has reaffirmed what is important in my life,” says Sota. “His work reminds me where to teach from and how I should spend my time in life."

Adams’ founded the Gesundheit Global Outreach program in West Virginia, which encourages humanitarian clown missions to improve the health of individuals and communities in crises from sickness, war, poverty and injustice. Now in his 70s, Adams travels 220 days a year to countries around the world, raising money to build schools and hospitals where most needed.

In the fall, Sota hopes to found the first university Compassionate Care In Theatre (CCIT) group in the United States and share his performance model with students, implement experiential learning and expand the understanding of performance in caregiving facilities. He also hopes to take a group of students with him to Guatemala City on a compassionate clowning trip.

“Clown allows us to tackle huge concepts in a joyful way,” says Sota. “The students learn that our hardship will never go away but can turn into something else, perhaps something beautiful or artistic. The clown reminds us to dance with these hardships and to use our personal history in a way to celebrate individuality, connections in community, and the joy of hope and possibility.”

Already the graduates of CCU’s physical theatre program are making their mark. One of them is Peter Seifarth ’17, who will conduct research on theater in Nepal during the 2017-2018 academic year as CCU's first student Fulbright scholar. He commended Sota for encouraging and inspiring him during his struggles. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without him; he will forever be influential in my advancing career.”

Stephen Craig, another graduate of the program, worked for Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus until its recent closure.

So don’t be surprised if you happen upon the Zany Umbrella Circus tent pitched on Prince Lawn one day as part of its tour. It is part of the plan to bring compassionate clown care to the likes of stressed college students and overworked faculty and staff.

“It is why I have used a clown archetype to connect to refugees in Jordan, orphanages in Afghanistan, with farmers in Ethiopia, school children in Italy, and different groups at home here in Conway,” says Sota.

Sota recently received confirmation that his performance group, the Zany Umbrella Circus, will be the guests of honor in Amman, Jordan, at the Children’s Museum of Jordan’s 10-year anniversary celebration. The circus will be the only group performing July 15 and 16 in a large amphitheater to about 5,000 people. He is also planning some performances in Syrian refugee camps in Jordan.

Article Photos