Youthful Circus Smirkus Comes To Western Massachusetts

July 01, 2011 at 10:00 AM

By JACKIE CLARKE
Turley Publications Correspondent

Circus Smirkus, Vermont’s award-winning international youth circus, will make a stop in Western Massachusetts this summer at Post Offi ce Park on Boston Road (Route 20) in Wilbraham. The theme of this year’s performances is "Smirkus: Front Page Follies: Big Top News."

The Big Top will be set up for performances on Friday, July 22 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Saturday, July 23 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Circus Smirkus is Vermont’s award-winning international youth circus that has been touring for 24 years starring 30 youth circus stars between ages 10 to 18 from all parts of the world. The 2011 Big Top Tour will travel to 14 states, including Massachusetts, beginning in early July through mid-August. The show features aerials, acrobatics, high wire, juggling, trapeze, clowning, live music and colorful costumes.

"The event is theme based every year and this year’s Front Page Follies celebrates old fashioned journalism," said Kevin Giordano, president of the Wilbraham-Hampden Academic Trust, the nonprofit group sponsoring the circus along with Turley Publications.

"Creators spend time in the fall putting together a particular theme and create a storyline for it that will display the various talents of the performers while weaving the theme throughout the performance."

Circus Smirkus is the only American youth circus that puts on a full-season tour under its own big tent that is a 750-seat, one-ring, European-styled event.

The touring company consists of around 80 people, including performers, coaches, counselors, costumers, tech crew, roustabouts, circus chefs, and a live circus band. A caravan of 23 support vehicles is also included and setup takes eight hours. The troupers are selected based on their skill, character, and personality through an audition process each fall and the show is put together in the winter.

For three weeks in early June, the troupers arrive and rehearse the show at Smirkus headquarters in Greensboro, Vermont with coaches, a choreographer, composer and customer. They hit the road for a seven week tour, enduring hours of practice, performing full two-hour shows twice a day and loading the show props when they arrive and leave. The group learns about teamwork and community by giving back to the larger community through free performances at children’s hospitals and nursing homes.

All proceeds will go towards the Wilbraham-Hampden Academic Trust to benefi t enrichment programs in Wilbraham and Hampden. "The Trust uses the money, earned through fundraisers like Circus Smirkus, to fund the educational enrichment programs in the two towns," said Giordano. “It’s not just an entertainment event, but fun and exciting because it is enriching for families and kids to see what other kids can do with different, unique talents and use them to put on an event to bring educational enrichment to the towns, primarily through the schools themselves."

Tickets for the circus shows are $19 for adults 13 years or older, $16 for children between the ages of 2-12, and children under 2 are free. Tickets are available in advance at the Scantic Valley YMCA, 45 Post Office Park; and at Eastfield Mall, 1655 Boston Road in Springfield. Tickets will be available at the door starting one hour before show time. For more information, call 1-877-SMIRKUS toll-free or visit smirkus.org.

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