A bit about behind the scenes at the BoomTown Games!
Welcome to a bit about behind the scenes at the BoomTown Games
A special commission from Boomtown Festival, and supported by Arts Council England. The BoomTown Games was the second incarnation of circus theatre production 'Athletes of The Night' which is the creative brainchild of circus director Bex Anson and Contemporary Circus Company Bassline Circus.
The Boomtown games is a tale of gang rivalry and the battle for the top spot in a series of favela style 'street battles' The show was created and performed on a bespoke set which was built into the design of 'Barrio Loco' A large area that makes up one of 'BoomTown Festivals many zones. It was performed outside and all around audiences that were in the Barrio Loco arena.
The Bandits on set in Barrio Loco
The show featured some of the UK's most accomplished circus performers as well as starring Eva Lazarus as The Bandit Queen on team Bandit. Eva Lazarus is a Bristol based rising star in hip hop music and we (us circus performer types) were all enormously excited to be working with her in the intimate process of making a show.
Eva Lazarus on the set in Barrio Loco
The Bassline Circus family have had a presence at many a BoomTown for nearly as far as i can remember. Where what started out as a local grown festival that predominately was a bit of a party with our mates from Bristol has grown over the years its been running into one of the most epic critically acclaimed mind blowing large-scale festival gatherings in the UK/worldwide... to put it simply quite possibly one of the greatest shows on earth!!!
BoomTown festival itself is a twisting sprawling city of surprises. Set design and build crews arrive months before the event begins to build the expansive happening. Turning fields into micro economies and other worlds born of the human imagination. Some of the larger venues in the boomtown city include an Aztec themed reggae stage in a natural amphitheatre basin called 'the lions den' that looks like some thing straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. Bang Hai Palace, an epic rave temple neighbouring Chinatown (does what it says on the tin). Sector 6, a post apocalyptic nuclear power station, and an old town complete with a life size pirate ship 'The jolly Dodger'. Plus too much more to mention - including many micro venues containing unexpected intimate theatrical immersive experiences for audiences to enjoy.
It's always exciting to be involved in BoomTown festival and this year I had the amusing role of Zip line Mistress for the production of the Boomtown Games. This job basically involved a lot of rigging and the designing of some flying systems to fly characters from the show out over the audiences and onto the stage where they would then battle for the approval of Comrade Jose (the leader of BoomTown)
It was the first time I had been away on a festival job with my little boy around. My Sister Holly came to look after Aaron as Cihan was also working with the fabulous Bullzini Family, hire wire walking funambulists, in another part of the site. We were also both needed for the show nights of the BoomTown Games. BoomTown isn't the most child friendly affair particularly in the area of the festival where we were working so, just before the event opened to the public, i moved my caravan into a cosy little spot in the children's area and that made the show dates much easier for us all.
Here is a showreel with a pretty accurate account of the show, otherwise enjoy some of my behind the scenes snaps, followed by a few from the shows Rx
Lovely Claire Crook
Me Holly and Aaron
Naughty Matt
The Set from my little perch
Lots of making and sewing
Jo Moss as The Joker
Zephyr our Stage Manager and Saul our Head Rigger
Seren, Cihan and I
'Lil Rice
Aedin Walsh as Firebird with a BangHai Palace backdrop
Performing with Incandescence Circus Theatre in 'Cirque Elemental' - South Korea 2012
So many exciting things happened to me during the summer of 2012, but perhaps the most exciting was performing 'Cirque Elemental' with the international adventurers of the circus theatre community Incandescence Circus Cirque Elemental was originally created several years ago and toured internationally, it was also presented for one of Incandescence's only 'home runs' In a circus Big Top by the sea in Cornwall. The 'Elemental' show was gloriously resurrected, with an all new cast and crew especially for the Gwanyang International Circus Festival of South Korea. Alongside re-devising and recreating the show with Artistic Director Satya Lapham and Theatre Director Bex Appelby of Knee High Theatre earlier on in May (you can see snaps of rehearsals from my previous blog post here) The company also re-made most of the props and costumes needed for the show. With twenty performers each wearing an average of five different costumes this was by no means a small task! The cast was made up of an extreemly diverse and talented bunch of performers with specialist skills in acrobalance, contemporary dance, ballet, pointe, fire juggling, stiltwalking, aerial hoop, cloudswing, aerial silks, and last but not least clowns! It was a pleasure working with everybody on the tour, and there was never a dull moment. The show was a colurful plethora of spectaular skills, intimate moments, high octane circus, and beautiful dance, all dressed in the most glamourous costumes you have ever seen and sculpted with lighting and special effects. Throughout the show i played one of two toybox characters that came to life, assisting the journey of Mei Mei, played by the talented Charlie Buckley, as she explored the world of 'Elemental' In the story Mei Mei travels through the enchanting worlds of water, fire, air, and earth all the while being guided by her clown friends Ro Ro and Ru Ru and under the watchful eye of queen Fi Fi. Photography by the talented Liam Norris
Mei Mei before her new friends magically come to life
Well for the last few days i have been indulging in some 'flying fun' with the accomplished aerial trainer Mike Wright. Amongst other fun flying skills, we have been working on the petite volant, AKA mini flying, which is pretty much the same principals as flying trapeze only with a smaller rig, where instead of a net we use crash mats for safe landings. Flying of any sort is a thrilling experience and i cannot even begin to describe the amount of enjoyment and pleasure i feel when i am participating in such activities.
Mike Wright is a full time aerial tutor at Circomedia, Bristol's centre for contemporary circus and physical theatre, where i began my circus training in 2004. Circomedia is one of the UKs leading institutions for the study of circus arts and my time there was instrumental in setting me on the career trajectory which i am still following today. To find out more about circomedia see HERE where incidentally you will stumble upon an image of me on the homepage, dangling in the air, with my legs spread, in some purple tartain trousers.
Circomedia was one of several centres where i trained in performance and circus theatre (back in the day) and it is very much due to the comforting support of Mike Wright that i got anywhere at all within that particular institution. He was a great inspiration and his loving and gentle teaching method (a mixture of cajouling and compliments ) led me to all the various flighty experiences i have encountered over the subsequent years since my training. So it goes without saying, that it has been a pleasure being under his instruction once again.
More importantly, Mike also runs Above and Beyond, the only grande volant (big flying) troupe in the UK, which has been running for over 15 years, and engages some of the countries toughest aerial artists. Performing all around the UK and internationally at festivals and events, Above and Beyond's aerial shows truely are a demonstration skill and hardwork, combined with incredible performance capabilitis. To find out more about Above and Beyond, and to see some of the artists in action, see HERE
So here is Mike, the gloriously camp purveyor of all circus wisdoms!
And here he is again, in action, during his days of travelling the globe as part of a flying trapeze troupe, as i said before gloriously camp!
Wow!!! what a dude...
And here is a little clip of me working on a layout to catch on the petit volant, the next thing will be to master the return, that means getting back from the catcher to the platform where i started.
Here are some pictures from our session, strating with Niels, he was the guy responsible for catching us, one after the other...again and again and again.
Niels
Me working on my Handstand
various configurations
Our safety belts, all lined up and ready to go.
Shveta and Seamus hanging out on the Cradle
And lastly here is a little video of the girls workin out their abs!
