The Cirkus Theatre Project, Author of "Descent" Tim Johnston, and Singer/Songwriter Johnathan Loos

Cirkus Theatre Project

Nisshoku presents a young boy and his escape from the reality of his own broken home. He creates an imaginary world where he's called upon to teach the sun and moon to co-exist in harmony before the earth is destroyed. Red Balloon draws from Japanese Noh theater in showing how an orphan boy rediscovers the beauty of childhood. Cirkus Theatre Project—the  unique collaboration between Cirque du Soleil and their longtime partner University of NC School of the Arts—is now in its fourth season. You see years ago Cirque first visited UNCSA's campus and decided to use it for the site of their international design and production conference. Through that connection they learned what a unique place the school is with five highly specialized schools of art, and they realized that Cirque's future depends on training highly qualified artists now.

So, to keep the Cirque du Soleil pipeline full of young talent, a few years ago, they approached UNCSA and set up the Cirkus Theatre Project. It allows students in all schools: dance, design & production, drama, filmmaking, music, and visual art, to explore their own ideas, and creative processes as a team. After passing through several rounds of auditions called Gateways, each of the all-student run productions go through 9 months of rehearsals, consultations, evaluations, and refinement before becoming ready to share their productions with the world. UNCSA School of Drama student, actor Alex Bodine, and UNCSA School of Dance alumnus, contemporary dancer Emily Chamberlin spoke with me about Cirkus Theatre Project. They were joined by UNCSA Director of Scenic Design, and Cirkus Project Director John Coyne. 

On Friday night, January 23^rd at 10:30 PM you can see and hear exactly what we've been talking about on UNC-TV. The half-hour documentary “The Cirkus Theatre Project: Creativity and Collaboration at UNCSA” will air statewide highlighting the student teams who spent a good part of a year creating these fascinating and thought-provoking productions. 

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Tim Johnston and Descent

Descent landed on Bethany's desk just after the holidays. The day it did, she had an e-mail from a friend asking if she had read it and telling her that Tim Johnston would be in Greensboro soon. The following morning NPR's Alan Cheuse said in his review that "Descent" made Gone Girl seem gimmicky, and he called it a thriller-plus. The positive reviews kept pouring in.