OLD IS NEW AS CIRCUS TELLS A STORY OF PAST WITH SOME THEMES OF TODAY
“Stars Above” revives acts from 200 years ago
Acontemporary circus looks to the past in "Stars Above," being presented Thursday through Saturday, Aug. 19 to 21, in Prospect Park as part of the Circus in the Park series. It also has three performances scheduled at Lumberyard Center for Film and Performing Arts in Catskill next week.
Founded in 2019 by the Troy-based Contemporary Circus & Immersive Arts Center, the Circus in the Park series hosts performances by artists working in the style and traditions of the contemporary circus. Think Cirque du Soloeil, not Ringling Bros.
"Stars Above" is the latest production by Hideaway Circus, a Brooklyn ensemble that created the show this summer while the resident company at the New England Center for Circus Arts in Brattleboro, Vt. The Troy stop is part of a seven-city tour of Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont.
"It's basically a day in the life of a circus from 200 years ago," said Josh Aviner, who founded and runs Hideaway Circus with his wife, Lyndsay. He also wrote and produces the show, Lyndsay directs, and Aviner's brother, Jacob, is a multi-instrumentalist providing the original music and cover songs used in the show.
"We literally are a family circus," joked Aviner, though the cast has nine other circus artists whose talents include clowning, aerial work and a sixth-generation performer who in the show shoots an apple off his wife's head with a crossbow. One of the cast members, Delaney Bayles, is "basically the number-one juggler in the world," said Aviner. "She holds all of the records for women." Among the titles currently held by Bayles, according to online listings with video proof, are for juggling seven rings and for juggling three rings with one hand and one foot.
The narrative in "Stars Above" covers
life backstage before and after a performance as well as the show in between for a circus company circa 1820, according Aviner. A devotee of circus history, he said his research turned up a fun fact about Albany: "It was the town that had the most circuses play in it in 1821. Albany was the most popular stop that year."
At the time, circuses were performed outdoors, not in tents, and bleacher seating hadn't yet been invented, Aviner said. The first person commonly accepted as a performing wild-animal trainer, who went by I.A. Van Amburgh, didn't get into a cage with big cats until 1833, according to "The American Circus," a 1990 book by John Culhane.
Aviner compared the all-ages appeal of "Stars Above" to one of the Pixar studio's animated films.
"Adults and teens will pick up on some
of the themes," Aviner said, "but 5- and 6-year-olds will just like watching a guy shoot and apple off his wife's head with a crossbow."
Without giving away much of the story, Aviner said "Stars Above," like past productions by Hideaway Circus, has contemporary relevance. In this case, as he put it, with a nod toward the disruptions of coronavirus pandemic, "How do you cope with the unexpected? How do you act, and how do you find a way to move forward?"
Contemporary Circus & Immersive Arts Center, founded by Troy resident Aaron Marquise, launched the Circus in the Park series in 2019 but had to skip last year, for obvious reasons. In addition to bringing contemporary circuses to town, CCIAC also has a mission to foster new work by raising money to support
Troy residencies for ensembles that need space and funding to develop their shows.
Speaking of Hideaway, Marquise said, "These are artists I know, and I've worked with some of them. I think their show will be great to bring to our community."
"Stars Above" is also the first step toward a refined and expanded mission for CCIAC, Marquise said, noting that his company recently launched the inaugural International Circus Awards, intended to be the Oscars of the field.
He said, "Beyond just putting on shows, we want to create an institution that will have a long history of supporting artists and companies, and we want to turn Troy into a Northeast hub or even a U.S. hub for contemporary circus."