Follow your nose

Jeff -- I wrote this before your mask post, but lost internet connection and couldn't post. So, don't read it as a reply or critique, so much as a parallel thought.

I was watching "Blues Clues" and the characters were playing at being pigs. Instead of dressing up as pigs, they had very simple pig noses tied on with string. I thought--- hmm--- all of our characters could have noses tied on with string, whether they are red noses or commedia-style noses. In other words, the commedia characters would not have the full mask, only noses. It would give a more consistent look-- like one world, rather than merging two.

I believe (and this is just my opinion) that noses should be assigned based on whether the character is innocent and "with the tao" (i.e. a red nose) or trapped by desire (or other worldly trap), and "away from the tao" (i.e. a commedia-style nose).

If it is not clear from the text whether the character is innocent or not (I do not believe age is really a gauge, unless you are talking about under 2-- even 2 as a cuttoff point is debatable) then, I think that we could play to find out if a red nose "is sustainable" or not. BTW, here are two things that I learned in clown school (maybe other clown-school students learned different) : clowns cannot be archetypes and not all people (characters) have a clown.

[Digressive story: On the first day of class we all got up, one by one, to present ourselves to the master. He asked us each to do a few things and then told us to go away. One guy got up and the master looked at him and told him he had no clown -- that perhaps he had some other place in the theater, maybe some kind of romantic or action hero, he didn't know. He didn't throw the guy out (that was a different guy and a different story) but he basically said that, for him, clown school was a waste of time.]

That being said, what would it mean for Father Laurence to have no nose? That he is outside the world (e.g. the devil)? That he is spiritually deformed or maimed? Please discuss.

If we went with Dave's meta-route, I perhaps everyone starts in red-nose to tell the story and put commedia-style noses on top of the red nose to become characters. Maybe some of the clowns get trapped in their commedia-style nose? Like when we try-on things in our lives that, without our intending to, change us forever.