Meet The Clowns
Becca Chapman (Executive Director, “Goe”): Becca Chapman (MAT/SEP) is from Chalmette, Louisiana. She is a performer, an educator, a lover of community, and a curious human being. She received her BFA in performance from The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) and has acted professionally since 2009. While acquiring her Masters in Art of Teaching degree from UNO, she taught elementary school for over a decade at Trinity Episcopal School. In 2018, Becca, along with Alex Smith, co-founded a therapeutic healthcare clowning nonprofit, Prescription Joy, that brings imagination and wonder to pediatric and adult hospitals in the Greater New Orleans area. Prescription Joy is now operating in four locations: Children’s Hospital New Orleans, Ochsner’s Hospital for Children, St. Bernard Parish Hospital, and the New Orleans Women and Children’s Shelter. Additionally Becca is a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner that is training to work with people with medical trauma and at end of life care. After receiving a Death Doula certification through Going with Grace, she is now working with the nonprofit, WAKE, which provides death care resources to the community.
Alex Smith (Artistic Director, “Joe”): A seasoned stage performer, Alex holds a degree in Performance and a degree in Technical Theatre from Whitworth University. He has years of youth theatre education experience with many organizations in Washington State and locally, including Southern Rep, Trinity Episcopal School, Newman School, and Success Prep Academy. He teaches ages ranging from 4 to 18. He is well versed in physical theatre, including mime and has Actor-Combatant certifications from Dueling Arts International in Broadsword, Single Rapier, Quarterstaff, Rapier/Dagger, Small-sword, and Unarmed stage combat. He has trained under Jeff Raz, a Cirque de Soleil clown and casting agent, as well as professional clowns and performers Darci Fulcher and Jenny Sargent. Alex loves bringing children’s creativity to the stage, and co-writes customized productions for Trinity Episcopal’s 4th grade play with Becca each year. Catch him keeping up with the nerdiest trends and improvising with adults and kiddos alike in Dungeons and Dragons adventures!
Maddy Kolker (PLPC Play Therapist degree expected May 2024, Clown) is thrilled to be clowning around with Prescription Joy! Maddy is completing their Master’s in Counseling under the administrative supervision of Jodie “Trey” Roberts (Trey.Roberts@lcmc.org). Their background is in acting, and they have worked professionally in New York, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. They also enjoy teaching acting to kids (and losing to said kids while playing sports). Maddy is now working as a therapist in training, specializing in LGBTQ affirming therapy, grief, relationships, and play therapy. She looks forward to integrating her experiences with Prescription Joy into her grief and play therapy work. Maddy deeply loves her dog Luna, who is also a clown, although she does not know it.
Calvin Kai Ku (Clown Trainer/Clown):
As a performer of many talents, Calvin Kai Ku has traveled all over the world to bring his unique brand of laugh out loud engaging entertainment for audiences in all varieties of stages.
He has performed for the WuQiao International Circus Festival, tech and industrial trade shows, San Francisco 49ers CEO: Jed York, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, eBay, Entire Productions, Circus Bella, Zaccho Dance Company, World Entertainment Services, Tech Crunch, Trident Capital, Cedar Fair Entertainment, and many more.
Since 2010, Calvin Kai Ku performs regularly with the Medical Clown Project, a non-profit organization of professional performing artists who provide therapeutic clowning to populations in hospitals throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, such as California Pacific Medical Center, Laguna Honda Hospital, Rhoda Goldman, and the San Francisco Center for Jewish Living.
Owen Ever (Clown)
Owen Ever is a nerd committed to storytelling, history, and healthcare justice. He has resided in Bulbancha (New Orleans) since 2009. As a support specialist at Project Lazarus, Owen works towards healing and empowering people living with HIV through housing, mental health and harm reduction services. He is also a multidisciplinary theater maker and ensemble member of Goat in the Road Productions, The Radical Buffoons and Vagabond Inventions. Owen works frequently with Last Call and LOUD: Queer Youth Theater and was formerly a curator and social historian at The New Orleans Pharmacy Museum.
Jessica Lozano (Clown)
Jessica Lozano is a theatre artist, arts educator and graduate of Loyola University New Orleans. Moved by the powerful city that surrounds her, she strives to create work for the community that fosters awareness of social injustices, awakens critical consciousness and engages audience members to become active citizens in a multicultural world. Jessica is a member of Goat in the Road Productions and a 10 year member of The Cripple Creek Theatre Company . She is a 2019 recipient of the New Orleans Excellence in Teaching Award for the city of New Orleans.
Hannah Pepper (Clown)Hannah Pepper is an actor in New Orleans, LA. A collective member of Last Call, Hannah was a member of the New Orleans-based ensemble Mondo Bizarro for ten years and has collaborated with NEW NOISE, ArtSpot and The Radical Buffoons and MoonLab Pictures. Hannah is a member of Alternate ROOTS and Southerners on New Ground. Currently, Hannah is working on a solo performance new piece about climate and carcerality.
Cynthia Kamurigi (Administrative Assistant) received her Bachelors in Sociology and Anthropology. She is passionate about healthcare equity and migrant rights.She has devoted her time to helping underserved communities through her work as a case manager, ESL Tutor and health advocate. She is working on furthering her education to increase her capabilities to better serve people.
Clowns Emeritus!
Though they have moved away, their work has shaped this organization. These amazing humans contributed so much to help grow RxJoy!
Madison Krekel (Clown) wears many hats. Some of them are: dancer, performer, writer, rock 'n' roll crooner of their band SNATCH ATTACK, creative consultant, death doula (Going with Grace certified), and now, very excited to add healthcare clown! They were born on Ohlone land (Oakland, CA), their spirit was raised on Lenapehoking land (NYC), and they now reside in beautiful Bulbancha (New Orleans, LA).
While in NYC, they were a long-time collaborator with the immersive theater company Third Rail Projects, including over 600 hundred performances as the Mad Hatter and Nurse Mary Ann in their Bessie Award-winning and New York Times Top 10 Pick show Then She Fell. They were also in the original collaborative cast of the Bessie Award-winning reconstruction, Variations on Themes from Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and other work by John Bernd with additional choreography and direction by Ishmael Houston-Jones and Miguel Gutierrez.
Other NYC credits include dancing for Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company, Ballez, Dancenoise, Laurie Berg, Vanessa Walters, and as a psychedelic mushroom and singing n’ dancing bakery girl on At Home With Amy Sedaris.
Aubrey Inman (Clown):
Aubrey grew up in Colorado and has been living in New Orleans since 2016. They have been making puppets since 2019 when they co-formed the puppet rock band, Taxidermy Time Machine. Their love of dancing, music, crafting, and improv drew them to puppetry, and seeing the way kids and adults can light up when interacting with a puppet drew them to Healthcare Clowning.
In 2020, Aubrey connected with Prescription Joy and collaborated on the puppet and clown news show, Wow!News and visits to The Village at St. Bernard. They began clowning in hospitals in 2022.
Aubrey’s troupe of puppets are often made of reused materials and look like animals, plants, and silly monsters that talk, sing, and dance. It has been a fun challenge to create puppets that can be sanitized in the hospital. Nancy the Fancy Fish is a rainbow-colored fish that sings and swims through the hospital; her bubble-wrap and clear vinyl outer layer can be sanitized between rooms (and what fish doesn’t love a bath??)!
Mike Rudis (Clown)
Mike Rudis started his professional clown experience in second grade after performing the Wicked Witch of the West’s melting scene from The Wizard of Oz in the middle of class because the teacher said he couldn’t go outside for recess. Mike has five years experience working with survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual violence in various capacities, from counseling, answering hotline calls, and presenting to high school students on how to be active bystanders in their schools to prevent bullying and dating violence. As both a student and facilitator, he has also experimented with hospital clowning through the Patch Adams Gesundheit! Institute, offering play, humor, connection, and vulnerability in hospital and care settings. Mike is currently practicing social work in New Orleans. Mike loves bad puns, ostentatious socks, and smothering all of his food with garlic.
Miranda Pollock (Clown)
By day, Miranda (AKA 'Love-bug') is solving mysteries and giving her best try at systems-level change through public health research. By night and by weekend, she can be found scooting through town on her ruby-red bicycle, practicing and learning to teach yoga, jamming out to live tunes, and reading stellar books. Love-bug discovered medical clowning through international clowning trips with Dr. Patch Adams, and workshops at the Gesundheit! Institute. She was so inspired by a clown's way of bringing love (and sometimes even social justice!) to the community; she was craving more! Once she got home to New Orleans, she searched and searched until she found Prescription Joy, and she simply wouldn't let go of their embrace! Although Love-bug is relocating West soon, New Orleans will always be one of her homes, and Prescription Joy will always be one of her families.