[tim]

I don't know to what extent I agree or disagree with the thesis expressed in her essay. But I think I can see in some sense how the whiteface, particularly, can be symbolic of a certain death to self. Even many people who first start out as whiteface clowns like how it allows them a certain anonymity and freedom to explore apart from their typical selves. So to the degree that a whiteface enables one to put self aside in order to become a new being, there is I suppose some truth to it.

Of course, it could be argued that the clown is showing us the foolishness of humanity and the world, to which we must die in order to become a new person and find our true selves in Christ. In this regard, the actions of the clown could be perceived as the a kind of enlivened expression of death and sin rather than life in Christ.

I'd like to know more about the real reasons why clowns so often wore white in the earliest incarnations of this expression. I imagine that it may have been part theatrical, even for mere expression of "read" to an audience, and part to offer a sort of mask of anonymity which focused your attention on the character apart from the human being who is playing it. This would have been especially important in the days when a clown had a more serious purpose of social commentary and not just silly circus fun.

But I basically see the whiteface as something of a blank slate on which the brightness of color and characterization can be expressed.