We’ve seen a few dance concerts at Breen Center so we’ve been on the receiving end of this new state-of-the-art performance venue on the St. Ignatius campus. Trolling through the theater’s website, we came upon an upcoming performance called Cleveland Cirque and before we knew it we were visiting Art Thomas, the man behind the curtain at Breen. Officially, Thomas is Fine Arts Department Chairman and Facility Manager for the Breen Center.Cool Cleveland: What was the germ of the idea for Cleveland Cirque?
Art Thomas: For our first series of performing arts events, our Home Grown series, we wanted to celebrate the great artistry of people who live in Cleveland, so we had the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Verb Ballets, and the Singing Angels. But we also decided to put together some shows that had more than one artist, so we did a comedy presentation. Then I said there are so many other people with talents, let’s put them all together in a big cirque-type show. Cleveland Cirque is a way of getting a lot of performing arts in one program.
Cleveland Cirque also owes a lot to your standing interest in vaudeville and circus.
AT: Oh, yes. If I had been alive 100 years ago, I would have been one of those kids who cut school to go to the vaudeville theaters and sit there all day and watch the acts. That was where Harry Houdini got his start and the Three Stooges. Bob Hope got his start in vaudeville when he was living in Cleveland; he was one of those kids who cut school to go to vaudeville theaters. We are keeping alive a tradition that’s 120 years old.
In reading about the history of dance, we have found ourselves learning a lot about vaudeville. American modern dance came “out of the jaws of vaudeville.” Martha Graham, for instance, performed in vaudeville, occupying the ‘art slot,’ both as a member of Denishawn and after she went solo. Jazz choreographer Bob Fosse was greatly influenced by his early experience performing in vaudeville. Who do you have for MC?
AT: Cleveland Cirque is going to have J. R. Grieco, who is an active, professional magician in Cleveland. He works a lot of places around town. I know he appears regularly at Pickwick and Frolic and some other places. He’s also an Ignatius graduate, so it’s kind of neat that he’s coming back. http://www.JRmagic.net
Who else do you have performing?
AT: There’s a distinctly American circus history that started when Buffalo Bill was touring his show, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. So one of the acts we have in Cleveland Cirque is a rope spinning and whip-cracking act, cowboy skills that refer back to that American circus tradition. See video – Black Lightning Wild West Show on http://www.blwildwestshow.com. Then around the turn of the century, we had the beginnings of vaudeville in America with all these touring acts performing several times a day. So we have an excellent juggler, Howard Mincone. He’s a full time professional based in the Pittsburgh area… not quite as local as I’d like.
We noticed on the website http://www.howardmincone.com, there is video of Mincone’s physical comedy and juggling. We learned he started out as a professional breakdancer in the early 80’s.
AT: Acrobatics and gymnastics have always been a part of circus traditions in America and Europe, so we have the Sokol group, a gymnastics team, performing 2 routines. They’re based in Slavic Village at Broadway and Pershing, a beautiful facility where they work out.
We spoke with Kevin Fitzpatrick of Greater Cleveland Sokol, who described the group’s plans for Cleveland Cirque, and the equipment they’ll bring: “We’ll tumble, build human pyramids; we’ll also use a mini-tramp and a springboard; we’ll also bring a trapezoid that we’ll be vaulting over. We also get into some tossing, just like you’d see in cheerleading performances.” The 4 men and 7 women, ages 12 to 38 or so, will wear special cirque-appropriate costumes for the Breen Center performances. There’s a lot more to Sokol than gymnastics, which we learned at http://www.sokolgreatercleveland.org.AT: Cirque du Soleil has popularized another circus tradition with acts that are not just physically impressive, but have artistic considerations. So we have a lady doing a silk act, Leslie Friend. Then, completing the program, is one of our own students, David Mlakar, who won first place at last year’s competition at the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Currently a junior here at St Ignatius, he’ll be performing his award-winning magic and juggling act as part of our show. http://www.magician.com
Quite a show! So the circus and vaudeville lives on!
AT: It sure does. The whole idea of this show is that it will be a little bit of the old and a little bit of the new. It’s going to be a fast moving, 90-minute show with no intermission.
How are ticket sales?
AT: Tickets are selling so well that we’ve added a 2nd show. When we originally conceived this show, I knew a little what it would look like but I didn’t engage any of the performers. So we started promoting this show, part of our Home Grown series, back in August and sold hundreds and hundreds of tickets for a show that did not (then) exist.
But it’s come together very nicely, it seems.
AT: Right, and the setting in the Breen Center puts the audience close to the action.
We know. There’s not a bad seat in the house. Tell us about the ongoing circus education program here.
AT: It’s an extra-curricular program called Circus Company. It’s all guys from St Ignatius who juggle and do magic and ride unicycles. They perform about 200 times a year – at churches, Cub Scout packs, community festivals, and nursing homes, places where we want to do service work.
Hardest working circus in town.
AT: I don’t want to confuse things, but the Circus Company will be doing their own show 2 weeks after the Cirque show.
Cleveland Cirque at Breen Center, West 28th and Lorain. 2pm Sat 4/24 and 3pm Sun 4/25. Tickets $10 for everyone. “A bargain at twice the price,” says Thomas in his P T Barnum mode, “And you will never have to pay to park, because there’s a large, secure parking lot right behind the Center.” The student production, The Circus Company: a new era, will be presented at 7:30 pm Sat 5/8. Purchase tickets for either by phone at 216-961-2560 or on a secure online site, http://www.ignatius.edu/breencenter.
From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas. Elsa and Vic are both longtime Clevelanders. Elsa is a landscape designer. She studied ballet as an avocation for 2 decades. Vic has been a dancer and dance teacher for most of his working life, performing in a number of dance companies in NYC and Cleveland. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.