Ben Clarendon '06 knows the secret to manipulating an audience. "If you can share a laugh, you've got something in common," he says.
Though born as Henry Benton Clarendon, the long-time Improvidence member and theater aficionado felt his long name gave the wrong impression.
"I've always thought Henry sounds like a butler's name," Clarendon said with his signature goofy grin. "Ben sounds more informal."
Indeed, as a member of Brown's improvisational comedy group, Clarendon has allowed informality and spontaneity to shape his identity at Brown.
"This troupe has been one of the best parts of my time here at Brown," Clarendon said. He auditioned for the group "on a whim" as a first-year and has been a member ever since. He said that he has not only made many close friends through the group, but has also developed tremendously as a person. Clarendon said he came to Brown as a "very shy, sort of socially awkward person," but has since developed a sense of confidence and empowerment due in part to being forced to make up jokes and garner laughs on the spot.
"Humor for me has always been an easy way to associate with people," Clarendon said. Improvidence allowed him to use his decidedly quirky sense of humor to connect with fellow students.
He added that his experience with improvisational comedy has also taught him how to cooperate, as all the members of the troupe must be in sync with each other to make the skits work.
"There's something abstract - a group mind," Clarendon said. "Everybody needs to know what everyone else is thinking." The group rehearses for two hours twice a week to achieve this level of connection for the performances. To earn laughs from the audience, Clarendon said, "everybody up there on the stage has to trust one another."
The ability to make decisions on the fly and cooperate with others has helped Clarendon pursue his main passion: theater. A theater arts and history of art and architecture concentrator, Clarendon has designed sets for numerous student plays throughout his career at Brown. Though the skills required for a thoroughly visible, outspoken, onstage comedian seem diametrically opposed to those required for a subtle and invisible set designer, "They actually complement each other quite a lot," Clarendon said.
"I've learned at Brown that you can be very practical and efficient while still having an easygoing attitude," Clarendon said. In the frenzied days of set construction leading up to a production, a good imagination - along with a fair dose of patience - is just as important as it is for an improvisation show.
For Clarendon, one of the most interesting aspects of design is the reaction of the audience. Often, individual members of the audience interpret his designs in different ways - some in ways Clarendon could not have foreseen. He recalled how gratified he was by the audience's reaction to his design for Tom Stoppard's "The Invention of Love" at Production Workshop, which involved two stories and two staircases.
Clarendon loves to experiment with set design. For last year's Musical Forum production of Stephen Sondheim's musical "Sunday in the Park With George," he designed a set in which the actors moved around and through the members of the audience, who were seated in a circle. He expressed gratitude to the directors of Brown's plays, who, Clarendon said, "realize that Brown is really the last place to experiment with theater."
"It's so great when the set designer can challenge the director to create a better or more interesting show," Clarendon said.
Next year, Clarendon will remain in Providence, working as an assistant for a local set designer. He plans to attend graduate school for design eventually, and then begin a career in set design. Clarendon said his experience with Brown faculty has been so positive that he hopes to teach theater or set design at some point in his life.
"Here at Brown, I've been given so many tools, so many pools of knowledge to draw from," Clarendon said. "It's brilliant. I feel inspired and optimistic."
