The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Bridgewater, NJ- Big Apple Circus returns to Bridgewater, New Jersey for the company’s 38th season with the New Jersey Premiere of The Grand Tour! Tickets start at $25, and the show runs from February 12 – March 13, 2016 under the Big Top at TD Bank Ballpark, 1 Patriots Park (GPS: 860 East Main Street) Bridgewater, NJ. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.bigapplecircus.org.
The Grand Tour transports audiences to the Roaring 1920s, the advent of the modern travel era, when the most adventuresome began touring the world in ships, planes, trains, and automobiles. With every seat less than 50 feet from the stage, audiences will be awed by the world-class entertainers as they perform breathtaking acts from the four corners of the globe. Clowns, jugglers, acrobats, and aerialists from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America appear with ponies, puppies and more; the troupe sets off on a whirlwind adventure, accompanied by the live, seven-piece Big Apple Circus Band at each performance.
“The Grand Tour is a first-class jaunt.” – The New York Times
“A class act … Sophisticated and beautiful.” – The Village Voice
“Language can’t do justice to the visual and kinetic thrills of the Big Apple Circus. Just go!”
– Time Out New York
“Polished and fun.” – Daily News
“The Finest Up-Close Circus in America.” – Variety
“America’s Best Circus for Children.” – Parents Magazine
Four-time Big Apple Circus ringmaster John Kennedy Kane returns to introduce a variety of stunning performers: clowns Joel Jeske and Brent McBeth; third-generation circus animal trainer Jenny Vidbel with her pony and dog acts; aerialist Sergey Akimov; international juggling sensation Alexander Koblikov; ninth-generation circus performer Chiara Anastasini with hula hoops; the Dominguez Brothers defying the law of gravity with their thrill-filled act featuring the Wheel of Wonder; Chinese hand balancers The Energy Trio; the African acrobatic troupe Zuma Zuma; and the Dosov Troupe soaring on the teeterboard.
The Grand Tour, conceived and created by Joel Jeske, is directed by Mark Lonergan (artistic director of Parallel Exit, the three-time Drama Desk Award-nominated physical theater company) with choreographer and associate director Antoinette DiPietropolo. Musical direction by Rob Slowik, with clown material created and directed by Joel Jeske. Set and lighting design by Maruti Evans, costume design by Oana Botez, and props design by Katie Fleming.
The company will present two special performances:
Big Apple Circus Embraces Autism will take place on Wednesday, March 2, 2016 at 11am. Big Apple Circus has joined with world-renowned Autism Spectrum Disorders experts to adapt The Grand Tour for families with members on the spectrum and create a joyful experience for all. The adapted show includes the same world-class artistry as the full performance with a shorter running time, adjusted lights and sound, a calming center, pictorial social narratives, and specially trained staff and volunteers to assure a memorable event for everyone! All tickets to this special performance, a 75-minute abbreviated show, are half price ($12.50–$37.50).
The Grand Tour Family Fun Day performance will take place on Saturday, March 12, 2016 at 4:30pm. Join Big Apple Circus for Family Fun Day with interactive entertainment by our Clown Doctors, a full performance of The Grand Tour, followed by dessert in the Ring with the performers. Plus free popcorn for all and free goody bags for the kids! Tickets start at $30. All proceeds support Big Apple Circus Clown Care® in New Jersey.
As a nonprofit performing arts institution, the Big Apple Circus is committed not only to thrilling audiences in the ring, but also to bringing the joy and wonder of circus into the community. Big Apple Circus creates direct, shared connections inside its one-ring Big Top AND in hospitals, nursing homes, and schools, in its New York City home and in cities across America.
“These performers, many from circus dynasties, preserve an important tradition, reinforced by the nonprofit Big Apple Circus’s commendable community-service activities, notably the
Clown Care program, which entertains hospitalized children. This company … doesn’t only have awe-inspiring acrobatic skills; it has a lot of heart, too.”
– The New York Times, 2014 Critics’ Pick
Big Apple Circus Clown Care® brings the joy of classical circus to hospitalized children at 15 leading pediatric facilities across the United States. Performers collaborate with doctors and staff to design a program to fit the needs of each hospital. Members of the Clown Care team bring the healing power of humor to children with acute and chronic illnesses, visiting nearly 225,000 young patients every year.
Big Apple Circus offers a specially adapted performance of the show, Circus of the Senses, for children and adults with vision or hearing impairments and/or other disabilities. American Sign Language interpreters are positioned in spotlights throughout the tent, and wireless audio headsets transmit a live audio play-by-play description of the action in the ring. Braille or large-print descriptive programs are available for audience members. A “touch session” after the show offers a unique opportunity for pre-selected groups of visually impaired children to go into the ring to meet the artists and literally feel a clown nose, a juggler’s clubs, or the silky coat of a performing dog. Big Apple Circus Embraces Autism provides performances with modified lighting and sound as well as a staffed calming center, to meet the needs of children on the autism spectrum. Inclusion is a core value at Big Apple Circus, which is dedicated to delivering the finest circus entertainment to everyone, regardless of physical or cognitive ability, or economic circumstance.
Circus for All! distributes free and subsidized tickets to schools and nonprofit organizations serving low-income children and families, enabling many of them to experience the excitement and wonder of the circus for the very first time.
Circus After School teaches kids life skills such as teamwork, responsible risk-taking, and perseverance, through a structured program of learning and performing circus arts.
About Big Apple Circus
(Will Maitland Weiss, Executive Director; Guillaume Dufresnoy, Artistic Director)
Conceived and founded by Paul Binder and Michael Christensen to be a leading presenter of live family entertainment and a nonprofit performing arts institution, our nation-wide performances and community programs have made our 38-year history far-reaching and full. It all began in 1974, when American entertainers Binder and Christensen became juggling partners and took to the street corners of Europe. Their comedic juggling act was a hit, and they soon found themselves on the stage of the prestigious Nouveau Cirque de Paris. They returned home to America in 1976 with a vision: to entertain and improve the lives of millions of American children and families. One year later, they found a site for the first tent-raising in Battery Park, New York, and went on to create the award-winning, nonprofit Big Apple Circus. For more information, visit www.bigapplecircus.org.
About TD Bank Ballpark
TD Bank Ballpark is the home of the Somerset Patriots, a member of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. In addition to welcoming its 6,000,000th fan to a Somerset Patriots game during the 2015 season, TD Bank Ballpark was voted the “Best Independent Minor League Ballpark” in the country by Ballpark Digest and the 2015 Atlantic League Ballpark of the Year. Since opening in June of 1999, TD Bank Ballpark has been one of the premier family and community gathering places in New Jersey. Following a championship in 2015, the Somerset Patriots 2016 season kicks off at home on Thursday, April 21st. For more information, visit www.somersetpatriots.com.
