BRATTLEBORO — The Circus Spectacular, New England Center for Circus Arts' annual fundraiser, typically features professional performers from around the world who donate their talents to raise money for NECCA's scholarships and outreach programming.
For this ninth year of the event, the line-up honors the historical traditions of circus as well as the breadth of what modern circus art brings to entertainment.
From Charlie Chaplin to spoken word aerials, from vaudeville exuberance to storytelling through high-flying aerials, this is a family-friendly show that spans the ages of circus.
For the first time ever, the show will include an animal act, a dog and her human, presented by award winning clown Diane Wasnak. Wasnak's resume includes featured clown for Cirque du Soleil's Mystere, acrobatics and mayhem for the Pickle Family Circus, and various TV appearances, films, stunts, and international tours.
The 2019 Celebrity host Ringmaster is Michael Trautman. Variously identified as a visual comic, performance artist, new vaudevillian, mime, physical comedian, storyteller, magician, and fool, he claims only to be a clown ... and not a very traditional clown at that.
Trautman was the star clown in the national tour of OOPS! The Big Apple Circus Stage Show and his resumé includes Broadway and TV and his own solo touring shows. Trautman will add wit and wackiness to the Circus Spectacular as the connective entertainment between the acts.
From Canada, joining the lineup is LEGacy Circus, a contemporary circus arts duo featuring artists Erin Ball and Vanessa Furlong.
Ball, a professional acrobat and aerialist, is a double below knee amputee who uses various leg attachments on the floor and in the air. Furlong is a professional acrobat and aerialist who experiments in these fields using stilts. Together, they will present a duo trapeze act that challenges the perceptions of disability.
Other performers include:
• Jan Damm: Most recently lead act with the Big Apple Circus, he will perform a high-energy, vaudeville-style diabolo act.
• Eric Allen: From acrobatics with Circus Smirkus to clowning with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey to tight wire with the famous Wallendas of the Big Apple Circus, Allen has performed many variations of circus on stages, in arenas and under tents.
• Susan Murphy is one of the original devisers of low-to-the-floor dance trapeze, an art form that began with Terry Sendgraff in Berkeley, Calif., in 1978. Murphy holds a Master's degree in modern dance and is a Certified Movement Analyst from the Laban Institute for Movement. Performance highlights include Lincoln Center and the Skirball Center of the Performing Arts.
• Lindsey Culbert-Olds started at Circus Smirkus with her aerial straps and now returns to the NECCA stage between a contract with Cirque du Soleil and an upcoming tour with Switzerland's Circus Monti.
• NECCA founders Elsie Smith & Serenity Smith Forchion will present their unique, award-winning duo trapeze act, built in a barn in Brattleboro after years of touring other acts with Cirque du Soleil, Ringling Bros. and the Pickle Family Circus.
• And returning is audience favorite Montreal-based mime Mario Diamond, who will in turn bring Charlie Chaplin to life as he is one of the only performers in the world authorized by the Chaplin family to perform as him.
The Circus Spectacular raises funds to support NECCA's outreach programming and scholarships.