Look at the alumni coming back - Charles Ross or TJ Dawe or myself-we’ve all created our own vehicles to perform. that’s the beauty of being a clown-instead of having the shame of not looking like you used to, you shamelessly celebrate it instead.”īest advice she was ever given? “Make your own show don’t wait to be cast. Darren and I have had two kids, so my body isn’t 25 anymore. Izzy has a husband in the show-played by my clown partner, Nicky Dewhurst-but my ‘real life’ husband Darren Pitura is our back-up, so I do work with him on occasion too. “In Burnt Tongue, Izzy is very innocent-it’s her first show, she’s all about finding a guy-but now she’s one of the sex experts in Zumanity. “As you get older, so does your clown, so Izzy has really grown up here in Vegas,” she explains. While it’s been nearly 20 years since she graduated, the 40-year-old Calcutt is philosophical about aging alongside her character. it also doesn’t hurt that we also have one of the best educational theatre facilities in the country.” “These factors mean that our students leave our undergraduate and graduate programs with numerous options. “In addition to our ‘hands on’ approach to education, we offer a comprehensive program that equally values practical and more traditionally academic courses,” she says. This kind of dynamic learning is what makes UVic’s Theatre department different from other Canadian universities, notes department chair Dr. It’s been 13 years since Izzy last performed in Victoria
he made such an impact on us all-the way he taught impulse, physicality, the breath-it was all so simple, but resonates in everything I’ve done since.” “As the movement coach, Kaz was a huge influence on me. In addition to the Krich, Calcutt also notes Theatre professors Linda Hardy and now-retired Julianna Saxton as key influences, but names the late legendary professor Kaz Piesowocki as being singularly important. “I spent a lot of time in the dressing room writing papers.”
“I just finished a Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Dramatic Media with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas,” she says. Not that she’s been resting on Izzy’s laurels since then. She was scouted by Cirque du Soleil as early as 2000 (“I was put forward for Varekai and Corteo”), but it wasn’t until 2005 she joined Zumanity. It didn’t take long for Calcutt to make a name for herself with the Izzy trilogy- Burnt Tongue, It’s Me, Only Better! and Out of My Skin-winning multiple awards and playing to sold-out audiences across North America and as far afield as the Sidney Opera House. “We were doing duos at a cabaret in front of an audience and I asked my clown partner, ‘Do you think I’m pretty?’ That’s really where Izzy was born.” It was there Calcutt met master teacher Sue Morrison, which resulted in her studying with noted Calgary physical theatre company The Green Fools and it was there, during a Morrison-led workshop in Clown & Bouffon, that Izzy first emerged with what became her signature line. While Calcutt had mask and movement training at UVic, she didn’t formally study clowning until after graduation, when she attended California’s acclaimed Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre on the advice of then-Theatre professor John Krich. There will also be a pre-show lecture at 7pm Friday, Oct 28. That keeps it fresh.”Ĭalcutt’s Burnt Tongue will be playing at the Phoenix 8pm daily from October 25-29, with an additional 2pm matinee on Saturday, Oct 29. “My partner and I are the comedians in the show, and we change what we do every night based on what the audience says and does. That’s a lot of audience members.”Īnd while it’s Shannan Calcutt who got the job, it’s her famed alter-ego clown Izzy who has entertained over half-a-million Cirque spectators in Zumanity. “We do two shows a day, five days a week, 477 shows a year. Shannan Calcutt is at home in Vegas (photo: Ginger Ana Griep-Ruiz)
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