“Ayúdeme, por favor!” cries a frantic Chilean apricot to a confused audience. This is the start of Tutti Frutti, a clown show that promises lots of playfulness. Trapped in a packing house with her family and friends—the peaches, lemons, and grapes—this Imperial apricot desperately begs for help from an audience that doesn’t understand a word she’s saying.
Co-created by Iveliz Martel and Bradley Wrenn, Tutti Frutti takes the audience on a whirlwind journey filled with humor, surprises, and a touch of longing. The show originated a year ago when Martel, who also performs the piece, collaborated with her former clown teacher Wrenn. What began as a short piece for the 12 Min Max Festival at Base Art Space in Seattle evolved into a 20-minute performance for the 2024 Springshot Festival at 18th and Union. Then, it continued to grow with a 45-minute adaptation for the CoHo Clown Festival in Portland. Now, Martel and Wrenn return to 18th and Union with the support of the Latino Theatre Projects and an hour-long show that features the quest of a Chilean apricot yearning for freedom.
The story follows the apricot as she plots her escape from an exploitative packing house supervisor to pursue her ultimate dream: becoming a soap opera superstar in North America. The journey is far from easy. She must leave her loved ones behind in pursuit of a better future and confront the power of Paola Bracho, the diva of all telenovela divas.
“The show is inspired by my childhood and the afternoons I spent watching Mexican telenovelas with my grandmother while eating apricots,” says Martel. “I was fascinated by the heroes, villains, and all the drama and suspense in each of those stories.”
Tutti Frutti uses the dramatic flair of telenovelas to explore themes of migration, dreams, and the challenges along the way. “It’s a wild adventure of a tiny apricot and its aspirations, wrapped in a playful, interactive clown show,” says Wrenn. “It’s performed, through, with, and for the audience.”
Wrenn emphasizes that the term “clown” shouldn’t be intimidating. “A lot of people are turned off by the term, but it’s really about a playful performance state that, in this case, Iveliz embodies,” he explains. “Being a clown is about rediscovering who you were before anyone told you ‘no.’ It’s a performance that’s wild, unhinged, and fully present, inviting both the performer and the audience to step into the unknown.”
Tutti Frutti promises moments of joy and laughter, encouraging the audience to reconnect with the childlike playfulness that often gets lost in adulthood. “We want the audience to have fun and not be afraid to interact with the performer,” Martel says. “I’m passionate about putting Latine stories on stage with humor, and, at the same time, using Spanish in art spaces.”
Martel highlights the importance of representation for the Latine community—which often remains unseen due to legal status concerns—in all public spaces, including theater. “Having Latine voices and stories on stage is essential,” she says. “It’s a reminder that we– Latinos, Latinas, and Latines– are integral to the fabric of this country.”
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