Youth Circus holds Auditions for Circus in Wonderland

Oddfellows Playhouse and ARTFARM announce auditions for the 2013-14 cast of Circophony, a touring youth circus company co-sponsored by the two Middletown-based theater groups. Young people ages twelve to eighteen are invited to audition to join the cast of this year’s show, Circus in Wonderland.

Auditions will be held Tuesday, September 10, 6 – 8 pm at Oddfellows Playhouse at 128 Washington Street in Middletown.
 
Circophony is a select youth circus company committed to providing first class training to aspiring circus artists while creating exciting new performances which will tour to schools, clubs, fairs, corporate events and festivals. Young people selected for the Company will receive a rigorous combination of circus training, physical conditioning and rehearsal/production experience. Members are expected to arrive punctually, attend all rehearsals and performances, work hard, be strong team players, and train independently outside of rehearsals.
 
Circophony is open to young people ages twelve to eighteen. Prior circus experience is not required. If you do not have circus experience, a background in dance, gymnastics, theater, cheerleading, parkour, hooping, magic or serious physical activity is helpful. The show is directed by ARTFARM’s Executive Director Dic Wheeler, who has been performing, directing and teaching circus in the United States and Europe for thirty years. Dic is the founder of the Children’s Circus of Middletown and ARTFARM’s Circus for a Fragile Planet, and is a charter member of the American Youth Circus Organization. Lead Trainer is circus performer and teacher Allison McDermott, an acrobat, aerialist, and graduate of the Professional Track Program at the New England Center for Circus Arts in Vermont.
 
Rehearsals will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6 – 9 pm at Oddfellows starting Tuesday, September 17.  Attendance at rehearsals is compulsory – if you cannot commit to the rehearsal schedule you should not apply to join Circophony.

The opening of this year’s show will be January 17 & 18 at Oddfellows Playhouse. There will be rehearsals every evening January 13 – 16. Circophony’s Circus in Wonderland will be an original, main stage circus production loosely based on the characters and scenes from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, incorporating juggling, acrobatics, balancing, clowning, physical comedy and other skills developed by the company members.

The show will be available for touring throughout the school year, and Circophony members will be expected to be available for touring performances between January and May. Performers and their parents will be given adequate notice about show times and dates. We may also travel to regional youth circus festivals during the year.

Tuition for Circophony, which includes over thirty rehearsals plus the performances and tour, is $250. Some financial assistance is available.

To register for the audition, or if you have questions, email info@art-farm.org or call (860)346-4390

Local Youth Dies

I write this, knowing that many of the Middletown Eye readers are unaware of a recent loss in our community. On the first day of the last semester of his senior year, a young man, attending our local high school, came home from school, went into the bathroom, took a dose of heroin... and died. He was 17 years old. This was Thursday, September 4th, 2008. It is not in any of our news papers and they are barely speaking it above a whisper at our new high school. My grasp to understand this, and why I do not mention this young man's name, is out of respect to the unimaginable suffering of this boy's family.
I hope, frankly, to never truly understand where this family sits presently.
I share this not to sensationalize something so incredibly personal and unbearable, but, well, because my child knew this boy. My child was friends with this boy, and while his stupid, foolish, wasteful choice does not warrant celebrity, there are two things that I feel very strongly about;
One: he was a child. He was a baby once. He learned to walk, and ride a bike and spell 'cat', and write stories and laugh and love -and he was just a kid. He could have been mine. He could have been yours. He deserves not to be forgotten and brushed aside as if he had never been.
Two: Our children - the young people at our high school - could learn from this unthinkable, but real tragedy.
There are BAD drugs out there, folks, and they are really a whole heck of a lot closer and easier to get than any of us would like to think. The sadness and self loathing combined with feelings of invincibility could be found in any number of teens in Middletown.
This kid came from an educated, cultured, loving family - not unlike a lot of ours.
If this boy had died in a car accident, the counselors would be being brought in from other districts. Are we keeping his rotten choice from making him famous by keeping it under wraps, or are we dropping the ball and reinforcing a sense that life has minimal value and there aren't really any adults around who can be counted on for a shoulder and trust, honesty and wisdom -when you truly need them?
Again, I mean absolutely no disrespect to the privacy of this family whose loss is incomprehensible. I cannot even begin to imagine what I would want or how I would navigate if he had been my child.
So, I write...
In memoriam to a boy. A boy who thought he was all grown up, and wasn't ... and, sadly, never will be.
In hope. In hope that this family, one of our own, will find their way with love and support and grace -and that none of the rest of our children ever end up where this boy lay.
He was a Middletown kid. You've probably passed him on the street.
In memoriam. In sorrow. In anger. In frustration and confusion. In hope.