Life's a Drag | A Clown Cabaret!

Life's a DRAG - a Clown Cabaret! is The ASSEMBLY’s 10^th show to date. Since its inception in 2014 The ASSEMBLY has created 9 mostly sold-out shows. Most of those shows have been collectively self-directed, and some shows received artistic direction from outside facilitators to guide, goad and otherwise support the creative process.

In 2017 Raina Von Waldenburg brought her deep sense of physicality to the work in The ASSEMBLY’s 7^th show, DisASSEMBLY.

In 2018 Sonia Norris helped shape a vision of fierce feminist joy in the collective’s 9^th show, The ASSEMBLY in a Nutshell.

This year Deanna Fleysher brings her wild playfulness and dramaturgical drag to the creative process in The ASSEMBLY’s 10^th show Life's a DRAG - a Clown Cabaret!

The ASSEMBLY is a Vancouver based, all female/non-binary feminist clown collective, founded in 2014 by Lisa Voth and several other longstanding members. The group meets weekly to play, explore and generate performance material in an organic, flexible feminist mode. Each member brings a diversity of skills and approaches to the group, and most members are trained in, or at least familiar with, the Pochinko or Canadian style clowning technique. Members also bring their understanding and experience of clown from training with such renowned teachers as Philip Gaullier, Gina Bastone, Francine Cote, John Turner, Karen Hines, Sonia Norris and Deanna Fleysher to name a few.

When they aren’t clowns on stage, some of their day jobs include: nurse, teacher, social worker, carpenter, storyteller, actor, shadow puppeteer, stilt walker and hospital clown! They also work creatively in several theatre, dance and puppet companies in town including Mind of a Snail Puppet Company, V’ni Dansi Metis Dance Company, Mortal Coil Performance Society and Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret.

Members of The ASSEMBLY are active and productive artists who are passionate about clowning and creating new work in an environment that is open, playful, inclusive, curious, feminist and fun! The collective continues to grow, and aims to bring their particular style of theatrical clowning to a wider audience…that’s YOU!