Finale

The persistent and annoying sound of a blowfly was my first clue that daylight was already here. I pulled a sheet over my head and tried to hit snooze on my flying alarm clock. The minutes passed and gradually my thoughts became more coherent. A whispering thought echoed through my mind - it is the very last show day of tour.

We have been in Parkes since Monday and it has been a long week. HIgh winds slowed Tent-up to almost double the time, we have been busy participating in the local Christmas parade and doing flier handouts on stilts. It is hard to believe that after 30 stands we are rounding up for our finale. What a year!

It is time for me to go and set my props for the last time, set out the seating, hang the backstage curtains and make sure that our sweet stand is clean and ready for customers.. That's right, it is almost SHOWTIME!

The WILDlife on tour

Australia. Land of the dry ground, deadly wildlife, violent birds, and drunken townsfolk - actually, all of these things were a part of our time in the sizable town of Griffith in the heart of New South Wales.

The air was hot and dusty, the ground was hot and dusty, we encountered the most solid rock-like ground for our pegs that we have ever seen - the boys hammered away for hours, struggling and sweating to get the tent up. I had a good go at the pegs, but my tiny girly body didn't even succeed in getting one full peg into the ground, so I set about arranging all of the marking materials for the next stand.

Our kiwis experienced the swooping magpie for the first time this morning. Luke turned around, returned to the caravan and emerged holding a large stick above his head.. Kerry turned to face his feathered opponent and commenced a Haka.

Today it was clear that the time had come to take up arms against the magpies. And by arms, I actually mean legs as we ran back to the caravan, giving up on the hope of bathroom attendance.
The magpies were viscous, violent and aggressive. It was impossible to leave the confines of our fence line without an assault. I think now our two Kiwi boys have a solid Maggie phobia!

Night fell, the only safe time to visit the bathrooms - or was it?

The early sunbeams crossed the caravan and the various phone alarms chorused in the morning light. Kerry emerged from his sleeping quarters and stumbled across to our caravan. We heard a plaintive call from him and opened the door to find him looking woeful and holding up his drink bottle.
Floating in about an inch of water left at the bottom of his bootle was a HUGE dead Red back spider. The redback is a spider that has been responsible for a number of deaths on Australia, and is broadly recognised at the top of the venomous spider lists. Apparently the spider had crawled into the bottle as Kerry, half asleep filled it up in the middle of the night. Through the night he had drunk most of the water, without realising that it housed his deadly friend. "Will it hurt me if I have drunk some spider?" He wailed.

Tent time!

The circus has begun a new tour in our tiny-top circus tent. It is back to caravan life for us and the mercy of weather, wind, ground conditions and wildlife. This week we have two towns of shows, one in Darlington Point and then, the weekend in Griffith.

 Darlington Point is a little one street town of  pub, a fish and chip shop and a little caravan park. We stayed in the caravan park for a week or so while we did the poster runs. The family that ran it are really lovely. The town is hot, dry and there were never many people on the streets.

The tent is going up here, while at the same time, we go ahead to Griffith to visit the schools and shops with posters. Everyone has a million jobs in this circus at the best of times - more so, in a two stand week. It is so exciting to be out of the halls and theatres and back in our little tent. The whole team is buzzing and the lifting of the tent has attracted more than a little attention from the people in town.

Here is a pic of the tent *almost* set up - Luke managed to get basically the entire thing up on his own while we were away for marketing - The whole time being attacked by dangerous swooping wildlife! (Aussies will know exactly what I mean, everyone else can imagine whatever flying beasts you think would be the most terrifying)


:D

Poster day in Orbost

One of the first things that the circus has to do when we come into town, is get the word out that we are here. This is one of my favourite parts of tour as it means *shock horror* we have to find somewhere nice to sit down, write on our posters, sort our fliers and work out the best route of distribution.. That is right folks, it is coffee and muffin time!

It wasn't hard to find a friendly wee bakery in the heart of Orbost, and within a few minutes, we were scribbling away on shiny, bright posters and enthusiastically devising a plan to get them out and about.

I don't know if I have ever yet encountered a town where people are so eager to receive us. As a result, we are all itching to get the tent up - we can't wait to do a show!

With the council being a little difficult, and our grounds now being a swamp - we have made a back up plan to do our show at the North Orbost Primary school if need be.. stay tuned!

Our first day in Victoria..

 

 We have just crossed the border into Victoria and will be setting up over the next week here in Orbost. So far it has been an exciting couple of days.. welcomed by hail, drowned in drizzle, and then nearly arrested as it seems that the council forgot to alert the rangers in the area that a circus was arriving! They turned up with the police and threatened us with $12,000 fines for 'camping' until we waved paperwork in their face. Hopefully things get a little better from here!

Our new show dates and times have been announced.. Wish us luck everyone, I think we need it!!

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Orbost, Vic

Forest Park

Friday 4th May - 6:30pm

Sat 5th May - 2pm

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Bairnsdale, Vic

Howitt Park

Friday 11th May - 6:30pm

Sat 12th - 2pm AND 6:30pm

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Sale, Vic

Scout Hall oval

Fri 18th May - 7pm

Sat 19th - 2pm and 7pm

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Traralgon: Venue TBA

Morwell: Venue TBA

 

A happy hoopy Eve - Photos from my hula hoop routine

I love my circus boys but can someone please donate a sense of direction or maybe a GPS?!

It was a fine evening at the Cooma showground. I had been left to mind the first load of circus stuff - the caravan, the circus toys and the food.. really, it is all of the good things :)
I was just sitting down to drink some peppermint tea when I received a phone call  form the two boys with the tent trailer..

It seemed that instead of following the MAP in the guys ipod, (or ya know, consulting their memory from the previous two trips down the same road) they thought it would be a better idea to just tootle on down the same long road for ever and ever into the darkness.. past all the street lights.. out of the city.. down long windey roads to the farms of yonder. Only when they arrived at a tiny one lane bridge did they think that maybe.. just maybe they ought to re-evaluate their route.
hmm

boys!
I say all of this with love, but I have never come across two people so able to get lost! They are fine if it is just one of them, but put them together and it is one big magic mess of wrong direction!

I might just add that two hours later I heard from them again.. the car was on on empty and they still had 15km to go.. oops.

The high life..

An evening off at the circus.. fireworks over head and the best seat in the house..

The Canberra Times Today!

Our cast were out and about promoting the show this morning, when a lady from a near-by shop bustled out, newspaper in hand and held it up to us - Would you look at that, a huge 2 page spread about our little circus!

Sold out tickets!

The circus is back at home base for a few days collecting ourselves after the huge week in Braidwood NSW. We were hosting a show as a fundraiser for the Braidwood Central school P&C and at the same time doing a preview performance of the show that we are touring.

I can not explain my amazement when, after loaning an extra 100 seats from the school - we heard the news that the show had fully booked out with standing room only by 2pm on the show day.

By the time we opened the doors, we had a queue of people waiting on stand-by tickets and the tent packed to the rafters!

The show was intense, it was the first time we had run it with an audience, and to do so with such a huge turn out was a massive treat. I was told the following morning that the applause and the roar of the kids cheer was heard several blocks away.

Thanks to the school for having us - now it is time to set up in Canberra!

Local fame for the little circus..

We have had an epic couple of weeks, with our international artists flying in, our first tent-up as a group and the final development session for the show. Over the week we had numerous interviews with press and now some of those have gone to print.. just thought I'd share

BMA Magazine This is a local arts mag, gig guide and local news magazine - free around Canberra

The Canberra Times - 17th Feb 2012
The Canberra times will be following us a bit over the next month, so check out what has been written so far, and stay tuned for updates.

The Canberra times have made us a little photo gallery :)

Konrad Lens, dropped by and took a few photos..

Imagin-eering at the house of circus

It is Saturday morning and things are heating up in the house of the circus. Luke is visiting family across the ditch for a bit, so Sharon, Jerry and I are rushing around trying to complete the last few tasks before he gets back. We have less than two weeks now until the rest of our cast fly in from New Zealand and the final rehearsal stage begins. 

There is still so much to do, Sharon is designing a new and better web site, I am working on the sound track, and Jerry Is busy 'Imagin-eering' the ultimate tent-tetris trailer of glory.. Here is his challenge.. Fit one big top circus tent, King poles, side poles, pegs and all as well as foam matting, a ladder or two, 30 hula hoops, 3 pairs of stilts, a unicycle, 18m of carpet ring mat, 14 small ring boxes and our fence on ONE 6x4.. 

And I think he has done it folks! Photos coming soon!

 

Waltzing with sledgehammers

 

It is a delicate form of dance that one invents when a sledgehammer meets the gentle flesh of fingers.. It involves a complex series of steps, leaps, aggressive marching, and grabbing at ones hand.. It also has an expressive facial distortion and sometimes  even a vocal element. This, my friends, is the Sledgehammer waltz.

 

Jerry helps with laying out and lacing up the big top

 

Luke battles the rock hard ground to beat in our peg-line

I must admit, that like most of the gender stereotypes might suggest - I am somewhat more familiar with the stardust of the show than the sledgehammers. In the last two circus jobs, I was assigned to marketing and performance for the majority of the time, and although enjoyed pulling the big top down after the show, had done a very limited number of put-ups.
Needless to say, although it was super exciting to be putting up our own circus tent - I think my talents are a little more suited to sewing on fringing and sequins!

 

Lacing the top of the tent together

 

Jerry tensioning the ropes

 

 

Heaving tent skins into position

 

The day was highly successful, despite the brief 'sledgehammer dance' interludes. The big top went up ok, and it was a great feeling to see it standing. We only had the field for a day, and a storm was threatening overhead - so we didn't put up the blue and white striped walls which will really finish off the look of the tent, but you can imagine what it will look like from some of the photos here.

Five weeks until we launch!

Six weeks out!

The count down has really started now with only six weeks until we put up the tent for the development and preview show in Braidwood NSW.

Luke has been beavering away with the business plan, and I have been up to my elbows in thread and fabric, making our costumes.

This has been the busiest Christmas and New year period ever, but things are starting to come together.

Here is a sneak peak of the colours, stripes and laces that will be making our performers pretty this season :) I will be spending the next couple of weeks making a music box ballerina costume, a tin soldier costume and a Jack in the box - that's right folks, a circus toybox!

Web site updates

The web site for the circus is gradually taking form. More photos are going up each day, and behind the site, the show is starting to progress too. We are two weeks into our residency and acts are really starting to come together.. No time to chat now though! Visit the site and see for yourself.. http://www.bitesizedcircus.com We'd love to link exchange with you too, so feel free to email me if you are interested. :)

Artist Residency

So..... The project is well and truly underway. The tent has been shipped, the vehicles have been bought, the cast have been chosen and the pre production admin is well and truly a major part of every day. The new web site was launched last night - so feel free to check it out here: The Great Australian Bite-sized Circus The other exciting news to do with the show, is that this morning, Luke and I were offered a residency at the major circus space here in Brisbane to develop the first core acts of the show.

One of the struggles of being a performing artist is finding the aerial rigging space, crash mats, stage space and indoor juggling space that can be used to develop new work - for us, today this was solved! Flipside circus offer the residency and it just so happens that there could be no better place to develop the show - we paced out the performance space.. and what do ya know- it is EXACTLY the same size as our ring, and the rigging point is at EXACTLY the same height as the top of our tent!
Another nice touch to the residency is that it was named after one of Australia's most inspiring circus people - Reg Bolton.. He also happened to be my very first circus trainer.

I can't wait to start working on the show, but first, we have to take a wee detour via a festival fire show with Will-o'-the-Wisp! Later this week we fly away for a few days to revisit a lovely little festival near Braidwood, NSW. I will be sure to put up photos after the gig :)

Onwards and upwards

I have something super special to announce today. This week marks the new beginning of a project that has been cooking for some years now.. Luke and I have ordered our very own big top tent from the USA and will be launching a new Australian circus early next year. We received confirmation this morning that the tent has been made and shipped, so the project is finally all systems go! Web site and cast announced later this week.. stay tuned!