Cal Performances Presents Cast

Thursday, February 5, 2009, 8pm Friday, February 6, 2009, 8pm Circus Oz Saturday, February 7, 2009, 2pm & 8pm Sunday, February 8, 2009, 3pm Performers Zellerbach Hall Svetlana Bunic Michael Lira Scott Hone Justin McGinley Flip Kammerer Paul O’Keeffe Ben Lewis Rockie Stone Circus Oz Jacqui Levy Julia Watt Michael Ling Nicci Wilks

Production Staff Chad Albinger Rigger Michael Baxter Props Builder & Set Designer Antonella Casella Artistic Associate Tim Coldwell Founding Member, Show Director Joe Ferguson Sound Engineer Mike Finch Artistic Director Laurel Frank Costume Designer Josh Green Touring Production Manager Suzi Hayes Operations & Tour Manager Cath Hedge Stage Manager Derek Ives Touring Show Director Margaret Murray Production Manager Marko Respondeck Lighting Design & Operation Pete Sanders Rigger Emil Wolk Guest Director & Comic Genius

Office Staff Lesley Adeney Administrator Ali Barker Marketing & Communications Director Rob Blackburn Rebecca Czapnick Director of International Market Development Matthew Hughes Programming Director Robyn McGregor Digital Marketing Manager Linda Mickleborough General Manager 30th Birthday Bash! Tara Sanders Classes Coordinator Annie Stephens Community & Corporate Programs Coordinator Nhi Tran Finance Administrator Dani Venn Marketing & Communications Coordinator

Please do not take flash photos or film during the show, as it is dangerous and the performers may fall down and Cal Performances’ 2008–2009 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank. ruin your picture. We may need to make a change to the cast in the event of illness or other unavoidable cause.

12 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 13 Program Notes Program Notes

Program Act Descriptions

Sway Pole: Well, it’s a pole, eight meters tall, and it Pole: A skill we mostly learnt from a Chinese genius Hula Hoops: Circus Oz takes the humble hula sways. Sound simple? Of course, you have to get up called Lu Guang Rong, the pole is a spectacular act hoop to a whole new level—spinning more then first…try wobbling on one of these for 10 minutes. which can be performed solo, duo or in groups. one at a time is a skill that takes hours of practice Then try it while doing a handstand. Circus Oz Debut: Leapers in 1984. every day for years, and requires incredible Circus Oz Debut: Lingy in 2004. Danger Factor: Landing on your head. muscle control. Danger Factor: Gravity, the dreaded wobbles Circus Oz Debut: Karina in 1999. and motion sickness. Rim: Imagine using your body to keep a Danger Factor: Ever smack yourself on the nose giant spinning top continuously spinning…by with one of these? They’re also hard to manage as Aerial Straps: Aerial Straps are strips of canvas performing acrobatics inside it. carry-on luggage. hung from the ceiling. To perform on them Circus Oz Debut: Nicci Wilks in 2008. requires tremendous upper-body strength and Danger Factor: Rolling off the stage…or over Touring: It takes enormous fortitude to stay calloused hands. your foot. on the road, and in the air, for most of the year. Circus Oz Debut: Ben Lewis in 2006. There’s the horrible food, the dehydration, the little Teeterboard: This act is acrobatics on hyperdrive. bottles of gin.... Aerial Tissu: Aerial Tissu is a curtain of silken A giant see-saw propels acrobats high into the air First Circus Oz tour: In 1980, Circus Oz set off material, which requires the ability to transform with enormous force, and they still manage to to Sydney, Papua New Guinea and Europe for the acts of great strength into graceful movement. twist in all sorts of carefully judged, spectacular first time. Circus Oz Debut: Flea in 2002. directions. Danger Factor: Let’s not even go there! Danger Factor: Self-preservation depends on Circus Oz Debut: Leapers in 1984. complicated wrapping techniques and a strong set Danger Factor: Gravity and sweaty palms. Musicians: The music is the colourful heart of the of shoulder muscles. show. Everyone plays at least a little bit. The band Hoop Diving: This is acrobatics with precision at its core has no limits. All music is originally Inline Skating: This year, Circus Oz expands hyperdrive. Precariously balanced bamboo hoops composed individually and collectively by the band its repertoire to include something new from sit atop each other as acrobats dive through them and is created to fit the acts, sometimes following the streets of Melbourne (and Albury, home of in an array of increasingly implausible moves the the mood, sometimes driving it along. our brand-new skater girl). We can verify that hoops are gradually stacked higher and higher.... Circus Oz Debut: The original mob in 1978. somersaults in skates are not impossible. Circus Oz Debut: Leapers in 1984. Danger Factor: Daredevil drum sticks flying in Circus Oz Debut: Flip in 2008. Danger Factor: Bruises and fallen hoops. the eyes. Danger Factor: All that safety gear is not for show. Group Bike: Get someone fairly brave to ride a very strong bike around and around in a circle. Trapeze: Trapezes, and the trapeze act, come in Stacks on! all shapes and sizes. Circus Oz has done everything Circus Oz Debut: Men’s bicycle brigade from flying trapeze, which involved flying through in 1980. space from a trapeze to a catcher, to static doubles, Danger Factor: Getting your pants caught in which usually sees a combination of grace and the chain. strength as two people climb around each other and their apparatus. The classic modern trapeze Juggling: Juggling presents many possibilities. act is the swinging trapeze. A more recent version From bouncing seven tiny white balls on a small is called cloudswing, which is an elegantly slung piece of marble, to tossing clubs in the air while rope. Sometimes they can be seen hanging from executing back somersaults, to tossing an array the rope by their toes. clubs between an array of people in lots and lots of Circus Oz Debut: Jane Mullet with Stephen different patterns. Champion in 1979; Solo: Gail Coulton in 1984. Circus Oz Debut: The original mob in 1978. Danger Factor: Missing the bar can leave an Danger Factor: Losing count, or losing a club aerialist very highly strung. and watching it fly towards your partner’s head.

14 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 15 About the Artists About the Artists

Performers Flip Kammerer (per- former) is a born and bread bush baby from Albury, Ben Lewis (performer) were she began her circus began his career in the career with the Flying Fruit circus at the tender age Circus. She is a multi- of seven, when he walked skilled acrobat, tumbler, through the doors of the circus trainer, performer, Flying Fruit Fly Circus musician, skater and break- based in his hometown of dancer. Flip has been for- Albury. Ben took to hard tunate to have experienced a great deal, from per- training and practice with forming on Broadway, New York, to competing in

Rob Blackburn great enthusiasm and went extreme sports. on to complete 10 years Circus Oz Debut: Melbourne, 2008. with the company. Since graduating from NICA Favorite Circus Moment: The rush of flying off Introduction in 2004, Ben has been working as a freelance the teeterboard and watching the sunset on top of performer in circus companies around Australia the Big Top after a season wraps up. When Soapbox Circus and the New Ensemble of semi-trailers when they travel overland, is also and abroad. Circus merged in 1978, Circus Oz was born. As the guy with the Laughing Clowns in the front-of- Circus Oz Debut: Hobart, 2006. A fter completing an appren- one of the world’s very first full-scale contempo- house tent. Matt, who programs tours, is always a Favorite Circus Moment: Riding around New ticeship in carpentry and rary circuses, all the animals involved were hu- dab hand at turning somersaults on the trampoline York City in limousines on my 16th birthday after an honors degree in psy- man (although suspicious kangaroos and flocks of if called upon. opening night with the Flying Fruit Fly Circus at chology, Justin McGinley flying cockatoos have been sighted on stage from Circus Oz has struck an acrobatic chord the New Victory 1999. (performer) began his career time to time). The show grabbed traditional circus with audiences from Hobart to Arnhem Land, as a street performer. Since skills, like trapeze, juggling and high wire, and from Fremantle to the Sydney Opera House and Julia Watt (musician) has then he has performed at flung them together with live music and a blatant all points in between. And since 1980 they have always enjoyed hitting festivals, cabaret and stand disregard for the impossible—to create something toured to 26 countries across five continents, where things, but no one ever up venues throughout the entirely original. The critics called it post-modern. in each place, inevitably, audiences have never seen believed she would make world and has written, di- The performers kept their tongues firmly jammed anything quite like it before. They have played sell a career out of it. Since her rected and produced Am Dilemma. Justin recently in cheeks. Circus Oz, in its combination of hilarity out seasons on 42nd Street in New York, one-off first drum lesson in 1995, finished touring with Circus Royale. and intelligence, spectacle, irony, beauty and—yes, gigs at refugee camps on the West Bank; they have Julia has been on many Circus Oz Debut: Wujal Wujal, 2008. occasionally dagginess—could only come from performed at the Royal Festival Hall in London, musical adventures, in- Favorite Circus Moment : Looking through the Australia. It wears its collective heart on its sleeve, the Tivoli in Copenhagen, in a tent erected in the cluding a four months tour curtains, just moments before the show begins, to passionately supporting gender equity and social Plaza de Toros Monumental in Barcelona and an- of the Middle East with an find a full house and electrifying energy. justice but always combined with a good pratfall. other in a walled compound in Bogota where the all-girl cover band. In the beginning they were a collective and crowds almost rioted to get in, even, like a scene Circus Oz Debut: Newman, 2007. Scott Hone (performer) the company did everything, fixing up the bat- from a magic realist novel, in a glass opera house in Favorite Circus Moment: Auditioning for started doing sweet tricks tered old trucks they toured in and sitting down the Brazilian rainforest. As they say, people seemed Circus Oz in February 2007 and then being of- on his BMX when he was between shows to sew their first canvas tent on to like it and one thing led to another.... fered the job! 14. On his way to becoming borrowed sewing machines. Now they tour with This show, like every Circus Oz performance a self proclaimed all-round shipping containers, a gang of highly skilled sup- in 30 years, will be a once off. When the perform- nice guy and chick magnet, porting crew and a state of the art tent (the one ers meet the audience and the band kicks into gear, he finished his degree in you might be sitting in). But they have never lost you never know exactly what will happen…that’s computing science, taught their commitment to that original spirit of multi- the sheer joy of it. Happy Birthday, Circus Oz! high-school mathematics, skilling and anarchic but disciplined creativity. moved to the big city and Lynden, their resident truckie who leads the fleet David Carlin had his bike nicked. Scott is a performer from way back. He did his first standup routine in front of a public audience aged 11. He has done a lot of stuff

16 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 17 About the Artists About the Artists since then. His preferred mode of transport is his Beginning her performing Rockie Stone (performer) Giving the piano accor- beloved scooter. He can go really fast on it. career with the Flying Fruit began her performance dion a good name since Circus Oz Debut: Sydney, 2003. Fly Circus, Nicci Wilks career at age four with a 1993, Svetlana Bunic Favorite Circus moment: That time in the show (performer) has since pair of ballet shoes and (music director, composer) when the audience is entering the tent—full of strutted her skills around a poodle costume. After has been squeezing life into excitement and anticipation—and knowing that the world, performing in completing a zoological a treasury of musical styles. they do not know what to expect. nine different languages. science degree, Rockie be- Recognized for her ongo- Companies she has gan exploring the realm of ing work with the multi- Michael Ling (perform- worked with include circus and quickly moved ARIA-winning group er), known as “Lingy,” Melbourne Theatre to performing freelance. A Monsieur Camembert, started young, joining the Company, Circa, Dislocate, Circus Monoxide, graduate of the National Christa Hughes (Sleepless Beauty, Temptation, Go- Flying Fruit Fly Circus at Hothouse Theatre, Born in a Taxi and The Institute of Circus Arts, Rockie has worked as a Go Burlesco), Darth Vegas and Ukes of Hazzard, the age of nine. He has Humour Foundation. Training in Paris, Montreal, core ensemble member of Circa in Brisbane and Svetlana is now pursuing her musical magic with spent the past 20 years Germany and Norway, Nicci is/has been a circus performed at festivals throughout Australia and in Circus Oz. performing all over the artiste, clown doctor, wheel enthusiast, drag king, Shanghai. First Gig with Circus Oz: Cardiff, 2005. world with Circus Oz, tent boss, Shakespearean actor, singer in a band Circus Oz Debut: Hong Kong, 2007. Favorite Circus Moment: Performing, playing with the odd break to and a musical, stage manager, production manager, Favorite Circus Moment: Watching people press and jamming with the kids in remote Aboriginal renovate his house and try tour manager.... up into a handstand for the first time—reminding communities around Australia and doing the same his hand at rigging. Circus Oz Debut: Sydney, 1988. me of my first press handstand. A magical thing to with the urban mob in Mexico in 2007. Circus Oz Debut: Melbourne, 1986. learn to do! Favorite Circus Moment: In New York, after Performing since age 11, being told we had to do the show without Tim Paul O’Keeffe (performer) Jacqui Levy’s (performer) Coldwell as his visa was delayed. At a critical mo- has toured the world per- love of performance began ment, in walked Tim. Hooray! forming in theatre, circus, when she was a child, dance and puppetry. Paul is traveling with her family Heavily inspired by a co-creator of extreme cir- in an old Bedford bus, and B-grade horror and early cus company KRONIK that completing her schooling cartoon music, Michael blends the traditional format via correspondence. It was Lira (multi-instrumen- of circus with hip-hop beats, during this time that she talist, composer) has MC-ing and skate culture began learning traditional developed a unique style and has graduated from the National Institute of bush poetry and busking on of composition that has Circus Arts. the dusty streets at folk festivals. In 2002, Jacqui led to a wide array of work Circus Oz Debut: Wujal Wujal, 2008. completed a Bachelor of Arts in drama and a across various mediums Favorite Circus Moment: Watching a tradi- Bachelor of Secondary Education at Queensland including circus, theatre, tional circus show at age nine, when the elephant University of Technology in Brisbane. Jacqui feature films and decided not to perform and after seeing a gap in later graduated from the National Institute of television shows. the tent made his way out, roaming the streets of Circus Arts (NICA) in 2006. Since graduating Circus Oz Debut: Melbourne, 2008. Canberra. The show went on. from NICA, Jacqui has performed around the Favorite Circus Moment: The time when world from the La Piste Festival in Belgium to a Celia Curtis, ring master of Circus Bizarre, while London-based circus musical funded by the British performing at the Enmore theatre, summoned Arts Council. a heckler onto the stage, slapped him in the face Circus Oz Debut: Hong Kong, 2007. and then made him publicly apologize for his rude Favorite Circus Moment: Watching Sosi (Circus comments in front of 600 people. Oz performer Sosina Wogayehu) perform bounce- ball juggling when I was a school teacher with the Fruit Fly school, as it inspired me to pursue a whole new career.

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