How to put on a show

Backstage.  Stretching, checking costumes, waiting.

The trio trapeze act I did with Ceri and Tam (me on a corde lisse rope, Tam on the static trapeze and Ceri on the silks) was performed for the first time on the day of the show.   Just 24 hours before we went up I was anxiously trawling through lastfm, spotify and youtube looking for a track to accompany my piece. My diva character didn’t really appear until about six hours before the performance.  (This is part of the reason my ambitious dream of live blogging from the circus was foiled.)

When I explained this to a friend, she was surprised: ‘But didn’t you have two weeks of rehearsals to work these things out?’  We did. Sort of.  Two weeks, 14 days straight of preparing for the show, but there wasn’t anywhere near as much time to work on our individual acts as we might have expected.

Rigging: tying the trapeze close to the ceiling when it's not in use

Over the two weeks we learnt everything about putting a show together: how to arrange the rigging (hanging the trapezes, silks and ropes from the ceiling in the right place); what a technical rehearsal feels like; and everything to do with making the show go smoothly, such as interlude pieces between acts and allocating roles for rigging (i.e. letting down trapezes before an act and tying them back up again afterwards.)

Director, Gerry Flanagan, watches an aerial rehearsal

We also learnt that we all handle stress differently. There were tears.  There were raised words. Frequent use of words your mother wouldn’t approve of.   Migraines and stomach aches.  I was reminded of an avoidance strategy I developed a long time ago: getting tired.  I also may have sworn.

Studiously taking notes: which props to take on stage, which trapeze to rig up or down.

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