Circus for Fragile Planet Performance & Workshop

ARTFARM’s Circus for a Fragile Planet announces the hometown premiere of its new show, SUBMERGED! on Saturday, September 24 at 7:30 pm at Oddfellows Playhouse, 128 Washington Street, Middletown.

SUBMERGED! is a unique, provocative and educational circus which addresses environmental issues involving Water. This performance is being presented as part of 350.org’s global Moving Planet Event, and will include a movement theater workshop at 4 pm entitled “Moving Planet, Moving People.”

Suitable for all ages, Circus for a Fragile Planet SUBMERGED! features five multi-talented professional circus performers who take the audience on a journey from our kitchen sink to the Pacific Ocean through juggling, acrobatics, balancing, comedy, stilt dancing and slapstick science. The hour-long circus combines breathtaking artistry with hard science and environmental advocacy. Lobsters dance in nets tangled with plastics, fish juggle shampoo bottles, water-bottle wielding clowns chase polluting unicyclists, and sea nymphs on stilts dance as the sea level rises around them.

SUBMERGED! features Dic Wheeler, Megan Berritta, Maegan Fuller, Allison McDermott and Joel Melendez. From our own backyards to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Circus for a Fragile Planet SUBMERGED! raises many important questions about how our actions effect rivers, lakes and oceans while also helping individuals identify ways that we each can contribute to the well-being of the planet's water-based resources.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for kids, and $35 for families, with $5 discounts for anyone bicycling, walking, using public transportation or car pooling to the show.

"Moving Planet, Moving People" is a movement theater workshop with ARTFARM Artistic Director Marcella Trowbridge which will precede the circus performance from 4 - 5:30 pm. This workshop is open to adults ages 18 and up and no movement experience is necessary. Participants should just bring a free spirit and dress to move. Fee for the workshop is $10; workshop and performance packet is $20.

For more information, or to register, call ARTFARM at (860) 346-4390, email info@art-farm.org or go to www.art-farm.org

5K Charity Run Downtown Wednesday!

Wednesday Evening
July 20

Citizens Bank, The Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Business District, YMCA and Oddfellows Playhouse are sponsoring a unique family oriented festival and road race. The festival features Oddfellows street performers, ARTFARM’s Circus for a Fragile Planet, moonwalk, giant slide and extended hours at Kidcity Children’s Museum. Throughout the event, music and dancing entertainment will be provided.

Race Day Schedule: Citizens Bank, Main St.

4:30 p.m. Packet Pickup & Race Day Registration

6:30 p.m. ½ Mile Kid’s Fun Run

6:45 p.m. 5K Road Race

7:00-8:00 p.m. Post Race Celebration

7:30 p.m. Awards

Tech T-shirts to the first 500 5K entrants. The first 150 participants in the Kids Run will receive t-shirts. Showers will be available after the race at the Middlesex County YMCA. All participants are invited to enjoy our post race snack, live music, street performers and awards ceremony.

Corporate Team Competition Winning team gets to display the Pratt & Whitney Team Trophy until next year’s race. Teams can be of unlimited size – three fastest runners determine team time. Fastest team time wins. Companies can enter an unlimited number of teams. Team members must work for the organization. Applications must be sent together with a team roster. Prize for fastest team.

Awards Top three male & female finishers: 12 & under, 13-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80+ and Wheelchair. The first male & female Middletown resident also receive awards. All finishers of the Kids Run receive ribbons.

Race Benefits
Receiving donations from recent races were the Northern Middlesex Habitat for Humanity, the YMCA of Northern Middlesex County, Middlesex Chamber of Commerce Mentor Program, Amazing Grace, Art Farm, Middlesex Bike Club, Kiwanis Club, Oddfellows Playhouse, Warm the Children and the Ed Gorecki Memorial Fund.
Volunteers: Middletow Republican Town Committee & Kiwanis Club of Middletown will be among many other groups volunteering to provide support to runners.

Artswalk Update

ARTFARM will be at Riverview Plaza on Main Street from 1 - 6 pm this afternoon. There are a few schedule updates due to Friday evening being rained out.
This afternoon at 3 pm, ARTFARM Ensemble member Jackie Coleman (whom you may have seen as Rosalind in As You Like It, or Viola in Twelfth Night) will be reading Shakespeare Stories. Following that from 4 - 6 pm circus artists Joel Melendez and Heidi Kirchofer will be presenting interactive circus performance. So stop by for a little fun on Main Street courtesy of ARTFARM and the Middletown Commission on the Arts, and we'll see you all next week for Shakespeare's Argument at Middlesex Community College. That's July 14 - 17 and 21 - 24 at 7p in the Grove at MxCC; live music starts at 6 pm each night.

ARTFARM to kick off MCA’s Artswalk July 8 - 10

Riverview Plaza on Main Street in Middletown will be buzzing with life all weekend as the local theater company ARTFARM kicks off the Middletown Commission on the Arts’ ArtsWalk. The company, in preparation for its upcoming two week run of Shakespeare’s Argument, will be animating the courtyard between Amici’s and the Police Station with music, Shakespeare, circus and fun activities for young and old.

ArtsWalk, the brainchild of Middletown Arts Commission Chair Lee Godburn, is intended to make every weekend on Middletown’s Main Street rich with the Arts. Riverview Plaza is located in the heart of Middletown’s restaurant district.

ARTFARM will be in front of Coldstone Creamery at Riverview Plaza 6 – 9 pm Friday, July 8; 1 – 9 pm on Saturday, July 9; and 1 – 6 pm on Sunday, July 10. Throughout the weekend the public are invited to learn circus skills, watch video of previous ARTFARM Shakespeare and circus productions, listen to music, engage in interactive Shakespeare trivia games, enjoy Shakespeare stories with ARTFARM actresses Jackie Coleman and Joni Weisfeld, and dress up in festive costumes to have their photos taken.

Several special events will take place throughout the weekend, and families are encouraged to plan their visits around these events:

Friday, July 8: ARTFARM circus artists Joel Melendez and Heidi Kirchofer will be performing circus on the streets from 6 to 8 pm, followed by Shakespeare stories with Joni Weisfeld at 8 pm.

Saturday, July 9: ARTFARM circus performer Meg Berritta will be stilting from 6:30 – 7:30 pm.

Sunday, July 10: Shakespeare stories with Jackie Coleman from 3 – 4 pm.

ARTFARM’s Shakespeare in the Grove 2011 production of Shakespeare’s Argument will take place July 14 – 17 and 21 – 24 at Middlesex Community College. Live music starts at 6 pm each evening and the seventy minute play begins at 7 pm. ARTFARM is a non-profit professional theater company, founded in 2001, which cultivates high-quality theater with a commitment to simple living, environmental sustainability and social justice.

ARTFARM’s participation in ArtsWalk is made possible by a generous grant from the Middletown Commission on the Arts. For more information about this weekend and ARTFARM’s Shakespeare in the Grove, call (860) 346-4390, email info@art-farm.org or scroll to www.art-farm.org.

Photos show ARTFARM Ensemble actresses Joni Weisfeld and Jackie Coleman in last summer's production of "As You Like It" (photo by Bill DeKine) and Joel Melendez in ARTFARM's "Circus for a Fragile Planet Submerged" (photo by Heidi Kirchofer).

The Latest from Artfarm: Submerged!

ARTFARM’s Circus for a a new educational circus exploring local and global issues involving water. Circus for a Fragile Planet SUBMERGED! will premiere on April 7 , 2011 at 10:30 at Central Connecticut State University’s Global Sustainability Conference. See the premiere FOR FREE and join this great SYMPOSIUM! http://www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=8099

NOW BOOKING INTO 2012! , go to the Circus for a Fragile Planet page for more performance dates and info

CFP SUBMERGED! uses the spectacle and excitement of circus to convey a powerful message about Earth’s endangered hydrosphere, how it affects us and what we can do to alleviate the situation. From local issues involving the Connecticut River Watershed and the Long Island Sound, to global concerns such as rising sea levels, pollution and over fishing, this five person circus explores the threats that the Earth’s waters face, raises some questions, and offers some tangible actions that each of us can take. The science and environmental messages of the performance are conveyed through juggling, acrobatics, dance, balance, stilting, physical comedy and music. CFP SUBMERGED! can be performed in any space with at least eleven foot ceilings and a twenty five foot square open space for the performers. This educational extravaganza is certain not only to amaze and entertain audiences of all ages, but also inspire them to take personal responsibility for the future of our common home. ARTFARM is a Middletown based non-profit organization which cultivates high-quality theater with a commitment to simple living, environmental sustainability and social justice. Since 2007 ARTFARM’s circus ensemble has been bringing Circus for a Fragile Planet to schools, universities, festivals, museums and conferences throughout the northeast. Over 10,000 people have experienced this blend of circus and science in which actors juggle bottled water, polar bears dance on melting ice floes, the props and set are recycled, and the core of clowns are called the Fossil Fools. The success of Circus for a Fragile Planet, a circus which focuses primarily on climate change and human behavior, has inspired ARTFARM’s Circus Ensemble to develop this new show which uses circus to educate about the importance of the Earth’s water to the survival of our species and the health of our planet.

Renowned Circus Performer Rob Mermin kicks off national tour in Middletown

Oddfellows Playhouse and ARTFARM collaborate on event about the history of the circus

Oddfellows Playhouse and ARTFARM are pleased to announce Rob Mermin, founder of the international youth company Circus Smirkus, will kick off his national speaking tour with an evening of personal anecdotes and film clips on circus history on Monday January 31 at Oddfellows Playhouse located at 128 Washington St. in Middletown.

The lecture, filled with clips from Hollywood circus feature films and personal stories, will begin at 7 p.m. and is made possible by a grant from the Middletown Commission of the Arts.

"It is great that the Middletown Commission on the Arts is making it possible for Rob to come here,” said Jeffery Allen, Producing Artistic Director for Oddfellows Playouse. “The MCA is the sponsor of our Children's Circus of Middletown, in its 23rd year this summer, and ARTFARM's Circus for a Fragile Planet. Rob is kicking off his national tour to raise awareness for youth circus here in Middletown - which shows just how important these programs are. Rob is also leading a workshop with the students of the CT School of Circus Arts - a premiere youth circus program led by artists from ARTFARM and Matica Arts. There is an amazing amount of circus right here in Middletown."

Mermin is an award-winning performer with Copenhagen’s Gold Clown. He has also been awarded Russia’s Best Director Prize and the Governor’s Award of Excellence, Vermont’s highest honor in the arts.

Mermin trained with the renowned mimes Marcel Marceau and Etienne Decroux, and is also a former Dean of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College.

Mermin will delight the audience with stories of running off to join the circus as a teen in the late 60’s. During the next forty years his circus adventures took him clowning with tent shows in Wales, mule wrangling in Lapland with Sweden’s Circus Scott, riding with the Magyars in the Hungarian State Cirkusz, three years with the famous Benneweis Circus Building in Copenhagen, and entertaining royalty in the circus palaces of Europe and Russia.

In 1987, he founded Circus Smirkus, which The Boston Globe called “one of New England’s most treasured cultural and educational resources.”

Tickets are $5.00 and can be purchased by calling the box office at (860) 347-6143, by e-mail at tickets@oddfellows.org or online at oddfellows.org. Ticket sales will benefit Oddfellows' Children's Circus and ARTFARM'S Circus for a Fragile Planet.

The CT School of Circus Arts is a circus training program for students ages 12-18. Students meet on Monday evenings and build skills as jugglers, unicyclists, acrobats, clowns and stilters. The program is led by creative artists of ARTFARM and Matica Arts. This is the only year-round structured circus training program in Connecticut and is designed to serve both beginning and experienced performers. Interested students can visit www.oddfellows.org for more information.

ARTFARM offers INSTANT CIRCUS workshop for kids and Environmental Circus performance at December 12 Circus celebration

Imagine a circus in which actors juggle bottled water, polar bears dance on melting ice floes, the props and set are recycled, and the core of clowns are called the Fossil Fools. That’s part of what you get in ARTFARM’s Circus for a Fragile Planet, an hour-long circus performance featuring juggling, clowning, physical comedy, acrobatics, unicycling, stilt dancing and other circus arts built around a strong environmental message.

On Saturday, December 12 at 7 pm Circus for a Fragile Planet will give a rare public performance in Middletown. This family-friendly blend of Circus and Science is part of ARTFARM’s Very Merry Solstice Circus Celebration, which will be held at the First United Methodist Church, 24 Old Church Street in Middletown.

The performance will be preceded from 1 – 4 pm pm by a Circus Arts Class for ages six to fourteen led by ARTFARM Circus Director Dic Wheeler and ARTFARM circus artists. Parents can drop off their children at 1 pm and come back at 4 pm to witness an INSTANT CIRCUS! performance by the students. Young people will be divided by age and learn skills in juggling, balancing, acrobatics, plate spinning and physical comedy. No experience is necessary, but students with some circus experience will be challenged at their own level. Enrollment in the INSTANT CIRCUS! class and performance is limited; please register early to reserve your place.

ARTFARM is a Middletown-based non-profit organization which cultivates high-quality theater with a commitment to simple living, environmental sustainability and social justice. In addition to Circus for a Fragile Planet, which tours schools, colleges, festivals and arts centers throughout New England and New York, ARTFARM annually mounts free Shakespeare in the Grove in Middletown every July. Additionally the company collaborates with schools, colleges and arts organizations on projects involving Shakespeare, Circus and Sustainable Living.

Tickets for the Circus for a Fragile Planet performance are $10 for adults and $5 for students and children. The fee for the three hour Instant Circus! workshop is $45 per student or $75 for two students from the same family. The fee includes FREE ADMISSION to the Circus for a Fragile Planet performance at 7 pm.INFO and registration: (860) 346-4390; info@art-farm.org; http://www.art-farm.org/All events are at First United Methodist Church, 24 Old Church Street in Middletown.

Food On A Stick, 4-Ring Circus, and a Fragile Planet

ARTFARM's Circus For A Fragile Planet is billed as the "Keynote Performance" for the 43rd Annual New England Environmental Education Alliance Annual Conference to be held in late September at the Incarnation Center in Ivoryton CT. Environmental Educators from all over New England and the Northeast and even a few from Canada will be attending. The conference theme is: Arena of Issues and Solutions in a Changing World and has Four Rings of Focus:
• Cultural Diversity
• Environmental Literacy
• Professional Development and Leadership
• Model Programs that Work
Sue Quincy, the conference organizer, invites any and all interested parties to attend and seek registration information at the NEEEA conference website.

Dic Wheeler, the Director of Art-Farm, says that this is an exciting show for the Circus. Wheeler says, "I particularly enjoy performing for predominantly adult audiences as I can go a little deeper with the science. The most challenging are the audiences that include [a wide age range of] 2 and 3 year olds, teenagers and adults -- who do we target? The circus act appeals to everyone, but the science has to be presented at a certain level so that it doesn't make the littlest ones tune out or seem patronizing to the adults."

The Circus has done performances at several colleges over the past 18 months, including Wesleyan, Central CT, and SUNY Cobbleskill, which is how the NEEEA Conference organizers became aware of the Circus. Wheeler expects the NEEEA conference will be a very positive experience because the audience will appreciate the fun approach to environmental education, agree with the message, and probabaly have some useful feedback to offer, with a sharp eye on the content of the Circus.

Ms. Quincy has related that this is a very fun and effective conference full of camraderie and community in which educators exchange ideas and information and infuse each other's viewpoints by sharing success stories from their states and participating in interactive and hands-on sessions. At this conference, educators obtain materials and resources that they take back to their areas where they can directly apply and turn into solutions.

Because the economy is a big challenge these days and budgets are strapped, many of the educators who count on attending this conference every year are using their own personal time and funds to be there. Some of those attendees will turn the conference into a family vacation of sorts, combining the travel into both work and fun. With that in consideration, the conference is a family friendly event with events and outings incorporated. In keeping with the fun and showcasing the Circus for a Fragile Planet as the keynote performance, the food offerings this year will be "food on a stick" items. Yum!

A new feature of the conference this year is the Richard Haley Memorial Quilt Auction. Richard Haley was a true environmental leader in the state and a unique individual. The quilt auction will benefit environmental educators who wish to attend a conference or training seminar. The quilts are all hand made locally - more information can be found at the web site of the CT Outdoor & Environmental Education Association

Circus for a Fragile Planet Returns to Town

One circus is thankfully over and it's already time for another. (This one will be more fun and cause less strain on the blood pressure.)

ARTFARM presents "Circus for a Fragile Planet" this Friday and Saturday (November 7 & 8) at 7 p.m. in the First United Methodist Church, 24 Old Church Street.

The is the new, streamlined, version of the educational "clown" troupe. Artistic Director Dic Wheeler welcomes new member Joel Melendez to work and play alongside Maegan Fuller and Eve Pappalardo (pictured.) Melendez is a veteran performer, one-half of the Connecticut-based duo Matica (along with Heidi Kirchofer) and teaches circus arts at the Children's Circus of Middletown.

Though the troupe is different, the story remains the same. The performers utilize acrobatics, physical comedy, juggling, unicycling and more, not only to entertain but also to remind audiences that we must be careful with our natural resources, be smarter in how we use the earth, and be vigilant in making sure that the situation (global warming, wide-spread destruction of arable land, etc) does not get worse. Sounds like a "heavy"topic; it is, yet the performers handle the story in a light-hearted manner.

For more information and tickets, call 346-4390 or go to www.art-farm.org.