Portland performer Anne Zander trained in physically devised theater at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London, an improvisational discipline where theater pieces are developed through movement. While at RADA, Zander tells Eugene Weekly in a phone call, she fell in love with clowning — not so much rodeo-style clowning, the kind most in the United States are familiar with, but the Italian tradition of commedia dell’arte. Zander drew on that background to tell the story of her first year of parenthood after giving birth to preterm twins who both spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit. With an emotional arc, the roughly hour-long one-person show, Anne Zander is MOTHER, comes to The Hybrid Gallery on Friday, March 7. The show is interactive, raw, outrageous and funny, as Zander explores the highs and lows of parenthood through a clown character she says personifies “the mess and the exhaustion, the absurdity” and “body horror of it all.” Like many, Zander says she didn’t have childcare for the first year after her children were born. “So it was just me and them, and trying to adjust to that, that reality after dearly wanting them, dearly wishing to become a parent, but still being overwhelmed by the experience,” Zander says. “Once I emerged from that first year, technically what they call postpartum, after giving birth, I knew I needed to make this show.” — William Kennedy

Anne Zander is MOTHER is 7:30 pm Friday, March 7, at The Hybrid Gallery, 941 West 3rd Avenue. Tickets are $15 advance, $20 door. Zander teaches an all-level clown class at Revelers Aerial Works, 1369 South Bertelsen Road, building E, suite 2, Saturday, March 8, 5 pm to 7:30 pm, sliding scale $25–35.