Hi my name is Lindsey, and this is my first year touring with Cirque Us. I am clowning and hand balancing in this year’s production of StarStruck: A Cosmic Circus. We’ve been touring for about one week and have thus far been to Brattleboro, White River Junction, Hartford, Brooklyn, Trenton, and Philadelphia.
The structure of our lives has altered dramatically since creation. Where before we had an intensive 9AM to 9PM training, rehearsing, and rewriting schedule, we now are in an exhaustive cycle of performing and traveling. The Hartford, Brooklyn, and Trenton shows were on consecutive days, meaning that for three days we were on a set-up-show-teardown-go schedule. It’s amazing how the actual circus part is no longer the aspect of this process that saps our energy, but that the seemingly cyclic car travels, bag draggings, and ambiguous meal opportunities is now what weighs us down.
However, once away from the woes of travel, we find ourselves in striking new locations and surrounded by diverse crowds of people with whom we can share our art. One of the highlights from the past few days was teaching a juggling workshop in White River Junction. The whole cast was burnt out from a dense training-creation process, and our first weekend featured back to back two show a day show days. On the second day of the site, we were scheduled to lead a free juggling workshop for folks from the area. Most of the attendees of the workshop ended up coming to the show, but one girl in particular who came to DreamCycle, last year’s production, had collected all the performers’ signatures, and had come back to retrieve this years’ cast autograph. She told us that she eventually dreamed of being on tour with Cirque Us. Regardless of how many tricks we may have missed or the number of people in the crowd, what she took away from the show was that we were all working hard to make our dreams a reality.
At the end of the day, we’re doing all this work to spread our love of circus around our communities. We all start in small places, and inspiring just one kid to try circus makes up for all the travail of travel.
Photos by Steve Sarafian
