Out of School: Activities - Clowning around

Abrightly coloured banner encircles an area which is surrounded by cheerful, laughing faces. Burlesque-style music plays. Two jugglers with painted faces throw skittles between them. Then one goes behind the other. The front one juggles with three rings, without stopping, while the other keeps stealing one for a few seconds, before replacing it.

Everyone laughs and applauds. Then the clown enters in a bright suit with an enormous tummy, smiley clown face with painted red nose, a curly wig and a hat with a flower in it. She falls over her feet, bounces off the sides because of her huge tummy and ends up on her bottom with her legs kicking the air, making everyone laugh.

Visiting a circus has a great feel- good factor which starts with anticipation, leading to enjoyment of the show and finally to talking about it for ages afterwards. Running an out-of-school circus will have the same effect on your club.

If you are running an activity day, you can prepare and rehearse for the circus in the morning and put it on in the afternoon. At an after-school club it could be a project over a week or two, culminating in the performance. An out-of-school club circus involves planning, teamwork, discipline, preparation, confidence, humour, and a bit of luck and magic on the day.

Roll up!

To begin with, it is a good idea for everyone to suggest acts that take place in a circus and to write these on a large A3 sheet of paper for everyone to see.

The list may include clowns, ringmaster/mistress, lion taming, acrobatics, horse riding, juggling, yo-yo stunts, tightrope walking, flea circus, ribbon twirling, plate spinning, magic tricks. This will give everybody ideas about what to perform.

You may already have such things as toy spinning plates, a Diablo or juggling balls. But encourage children to think of equipment that could be used to represent the real thing, so new equipment won't be necessary, such as a skipping rope used to represent a snake.

Perhaps you could transfer other ideas to your circus, as follows:

- Putting a 'tightrope' on the floor. Children will enter into the spirit of the circus and will not mind that the daring height is missing, although they will soon realise that staying on it is still quite hard. Encourage them to act as though the tightrope is 100 feet in the air.

- For a trapeze act children can run to and fro, holding each other, letting go and twirling to the sides as if they are on a trapeze.

- Jugglers may or may not juggle, but if partners can swap two items almost simultaneously by throwing and catching them, it looks good and will get a clap.

- Long lengths of ribbon can be twirled to music, to great effect. Purchase a ribbon door hanger from a thrift shop and this will provide plenty of ribbon twirlers.

- Horses can jump through flaming hoops, if they are child 'horses' wearing paper plumes on their heads and ribbon tails tucked into their waistbands. Paper fire can be attached to ordinary hoola hoops held by a 'trainer'.

- 'Ferdinand Flea' can have everyone convinced that he is doing the most amazing jumps and somersaults on a piece of paper, despite being invisible, thanks to imaginative dialogue and clever finger-flicking skills.

- Three or four children crossing the circus ring by doing a series of topples one after the other from different directions looks good and is a simple and safe form of acrobatics. Running on and bouncing off an exercise trampoline from different directions is also effective.

- Clowns can practise bumping into each other (gently) and falling backwards, creeping up on each other and jumping in fright, accidentally squirting each other with trick rings or smelling a flower which stings their nose.

- It is a great idea to end the show with something for the audience to participate in, such as a challenge to put their head in the lion's mouth - this is made from a hoop with paper teeth which leaves just enough room for a child's head to go through. The lion's head is painted on to card and attached to the hoop. The hoop backs on to a large box lined with black paper, stuck with fluorescent stars and planets. Children can take it in turns to put their head in the lion's mouth. The fluorescent stars bring an 'oooh' of surprise and every once in a while, for children who won't be too frightened, the lion (a playworker) can roar.

Set the scene

Some children may decide to work in pairs or groups while others prefer to be solo. Some will appear in more than one act. The ring master or mistress is an ideal role for a child who does not want to perform, although shy children could help, or work with a partner. Another role for a reluctant child is to be responsible for putting the right recorded music on for each act.

Part of the fun is to create the circus environment. The Big Top could be defined by a play parachute draped from posts or tied between convenient hooks on a wall. Long rolls of wallpaper with 'Welcome to our Circus' can be draped along the back of a ring of chairs, to create the circus ring. Paper plate clown faces stuck around the room add a cheerful touch, as do plenty of balloons.

Children can make posters advertising their particular act. 'Come and see Fantastic Ferdinand the Flea. The world's cleverest flea', writes Katie, adding a picture of an outsize flea on a trapeze. 'Bobby's Brilliant Magic Show. Come and be amazed. Real magic, better than Hogwarts!' Bobby's sign depicts a large ace of hearts with the words around the sides.

It is important that every act performs to music. A slow balancing act requires a gentle classical style, whereas jugglers need something faster. The clowns need a theme tune so that every time it starts, everyone is expecting them. Music without words is best for a circus, because the audience will want to hear anything that the performers say and also to feel the magic of circus, rather than the pop charts!

Dressing-up clothes and face paints will help performers to look the part, and children may want to bring in their own outfits.

Rehearsals will get everyone working hard to prepare and they will also reveal any flaws in the children's plans or equipment.

To put the show together, acts should be written down in order of appearance, including the clowns' main appearance. Then the playworker can tell the ringmaster who to announce and signal for the right music. The clowns can be sent on every time an act needs time to prepare or if there are any hitches.

If the playworkers are excited and clap for each entrance and exit, all the children will join in.

Finally, at the end of the show, each child should come out and take a bow so that everyone else can clap them once more. If it is possible to rig up a net of balloons overhead, now is the time to release them - if not, just have a couple of bin bags full and set them free, whack the music up and party!