Author Archives: Circus Smirkus
The Laundromat, The Airport, and Me
On our first night in Freeport, I arrived in the evening after the entire site had been set up. The concessions and novelties tents were set up in their usual fashion on either side of the midway with the Merriconeag Waldorf School’s blue-gray buildings just up the hill. From the parking lot where we parked the vans, the blue and white Big Top tent overlooked the rest of the site behind the trailers in the back lot, parked in orderly rows. The narrow alleyways between the bunk trailers created shade for staff members to sit and read. It had been…
A wonderful secret about our shows in Freeport, ME
Not everyone knows that more than half of all Smirkus shows are used as fund-raisers by other non-profits. Our shows in Freeport, ME today are among them. They’re sponsored by the Merriconeag Waldorf School. Merriconeag has been an enthusiastic partner for the past 8 years. “Our presentation is truly a community event, and Circus Smirkus has become the hub of our performing arts wheel that allows us to travel far in the Greater Portland area, “ says school spokeswoman Trace Salter. “ Smirkus proceeds give us fuel for the trip.” The school splits its Smirkus earnings between the operating budget,…
Pie, anyone?
Troy Wunderle is coming to get you. “The Pie” is an essential component of any successful clown act. Before I joined Smirkus, I thought that the pies clowns used were made of whipped cream. This is not true, as whipped cream would damage fragile costumes. Shaving cream is the favored material. When applied liberally to a paper plate it becomes the key ingredient for a good time. Give Artistic Director Troy Wunderle one or even two pies and he’s unstoppable. He will find you and when he does you’re getting a face full of Barbisol. I have witnessed six “pie-ings”…
Aiming high: Smirkus troupers prepare for professional academies
From training in mid-June until the end of tour in August, Circus Smirkus is a serious commitment for the troupers. While many will return to school or head off to their first years of college in the fall, others have decided to make a longer commitment to the circus craft. Olivia Saunders, 19, of Acton, MA and Ezra Weill, 18, of Seattle, WA are troupers with plans to go on to study professional circus. Olivia will begin in the fall of 2012 at École de Cirque de Québec in Quebec City and Ezra at the École Nationale de cirque in…
GOOD MORNING NEWBURY!
Smirkus left Sandwich, MA to raise our Big Top yesterday on Manter Field in Newbury, MA, for 4 shows today and tomorrow! Our Newbury shows benefit a very cool enterprise, Theater in the Open (or “Tito,” to those in the know), a company of dedicated professional and amateur artists who are proud to be in “in residence” at Maudslay State Park in Newburyport. The theater’s mission is to “transform the magical tradition of storytelling into theater.” Using puppetry, pageantry, music, movement and acting, the theater explores myths, classic literature, original scripts and modern dramas to produce a season of FREE theater…
25 years and then a party
At the end of this tour, Smirkus is having the party of the year – or rather, the party of the last 25 years. The gala is scheduled at the end of tour, when Smirkus performs the final shows at home in Greensboro, Vermont on August 18th and 19th, just a few minutes’ drive away from the Smirkus headquarters. Last night I spoke with Jeanne Halal, who is helping to plan the gala. She told me about the schedule of events, the dress code, and what it takes to make a celebration such as this a success. EJ: What are…
Putting the “Mud” in “Mud Show”
In its quarter century, When Rob Mermin founded Circus Smirkus in 1987, he created it along the lines of a “mud show;” the traditional, small, one-ring show that would travel the countryside and set up a tent regardless of the weather. Smirkus has seen plenty of mud. Rob’s new book, “Circus Smirkus: 25 Years of Running Home to the Circus,” (written with journalist Rob Gurwitt) details the trials of the “Great Killington Flood of 1988” and the “Great Kennebunkport Mud Bath of 2008.” Last night I got my first taste of, well, mud. It started raining in the evening…
The Night Jump
The only thing on my mind right now is how much my hands and fingers hurt. I am typing this with fingertips that have been smashed and scraped by all manner of set pieces, boxes of equipment, mashed by steel tent stakes, and maybe shut in a car door or two. There is a bruise forming under my fingernail and a good quantity of skin is missing from my left thumb, causing me to wince every time I hit the spacebar. I started my day in Waltham, MA and I’m ending it in Sandwich, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. Outside my…
Seven Clowns
Outside of the Big Top tent under gathering angry-looking clouds heavy with rain, seven Smirkus clowns are working hard to perfect the latest variation of a routine before the downpour that is sure to come. They are working under the direction of Smirkus artistic director, Troy Wunderle. Wunderle and others have been working hard on this routine. The group consists of Sam Gurwitt (George Washington), Magnus Giaever (King Louis), Anna Partridge (viking), Chase Culp (caveman), Sarah Tiffin (engineer), Liam Gundlach (time traveler), and Maia Gawor-Sloane (soldier) and each is working hard to stay in character and remember the “beats” and…
Halfway
Our stop in Waltham marks the halfway point of the 2012 Big Top Tour and that means many things depending on whom you ask. Yesterday evening, before the seven o’clock show, I wandered the back lot with my cheap yet trusty voice recorder from Rite Aid and asked Smirkus folks how it felt to stand right in the middle. I exited the back lot cluster of sleeper trailers affectionately named Trailer-Ville and met our composer and keyboardist, Tristan Moore. In the weeks before the tour left Greensboro Tristan composed the entire score for Topsy Turvy Time Travel. Tristan worked non-stop…