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Home > Suitcase Circus
Suitcase Circus
is our company that has been performing and teaching
Dr. Reg Bolton's Unique Festival Entertainment STAGE 1 (20-30 min) Arrival and set-up. We unload from the car all the unicycles, stilts and other fascinating gear. This draws a crowd of inquisitive kids. With the help of kids and parents, we erect the open-sided Big Top, which provides shade, and a focal point of the rehearsal and show. We set up the drum kit and connect and test the PA. This also draws more curious audience.
STAGE 2 (1-2 hours) STILTS, HORSES, CLOWNS, JUGGLERS, UNICYCLES, BALANCES, PLATE-SPINNERS, ACROBATS Just before the show, we give out costumes, and do the necessary make-up on clowns etc. STAGE 3 (30-50 min)
The Big
Show. Announcements by kids on the PA, a parade of stars and drum-rolls
summon the audience. Several hundred people can sit or stand around
our 'tent' and see well. Naturally the families of the kids involved
will be there, plus the kids who decided not to be in it, plus any number
of passers-by. I serve as ringmaster, and also assure that everything in the ring is done safely. I can cover for gaps and pauses, and when things do go 'wrong', e.g. when the pantomime horses can't see where they are going, it's even funnier. The acts vary from pure kids, to pure adult, including acts like the clowns, where the kids get the better of the ringmaster. The show is full of laughter and REAL achievement by the kids, so we all enjoy it. At
the end of the show, some kids always wait around to help pack up and
take the tent down. They have taken part in a 2-3 hour process of creating
a great show from scratch, performing it and seeing it all packed up
again. Others have played just a small part, but all have been made
welcome, and feel part of something magical and successful. Requirements. Circular area, 12m diameter, preferably grass. ·
Power supply
We work with students of any grade, with one class (maximum two classes) at a time.
The accent is on achievement of circus skills including juggling, manipulation, twirling, stilts, unicycling, safe acrobatics and pyramids, and clowning.
The course can be tailored to fit your needs, eg.
Circus skills are a welcome addition to the Phys Ed or Performing Arts curricula. The one-off workshop is also frequently booked for camps, eg. Year 8 or 9 camps, or for after-school activities for special interest groups.
Satisfied clients include: MLC, PLC, Hale School, Corpus Christi College, Chisolm College, Balga Senior High School, Cecil Andrew Senior High School, John Forrest Senior High School, City Beach Senior High School, Como Secondary College, Forrestfield SHS, Guildford Grammar School, John Curtin College of the Arts, Kent Street Senior High School, Perth Modern Senior High School, Helena College, Lake Toadaly Baptist College, Newman College, Peter Moyes Anglican Community School.
School Residences – with the Big Show
One Term (Primary Schools)
We work, if possible, with every class in the school, weekly for ten weeks.
Weeks 1-5: Skill development, following the grades of the Circus Success Certificateã, each student finds his/her specialty, while also learning the circus value of cooperation, aspiration and hard work.
Weeks 5-9: Training and rehearsal. Each class develops a separate act, and each class has a ‘backstage crew’ coordinating props, costumes, music etc.
Week 10: The Big Show. Usually, we have to hire the biggest venue in the neighbourhood, as the whole school community, plus friends and neighbours want to watch the show. Its always better than anyone expects. We coordinate staging, sound and lights, leaving the whole logistics of seating, tickets and refreshments to the school or PC.
Satisfied clients in the Perth area include:
Cottesloe Primary School, Kalamunda Primary School, Queens Park Primary School, Hilton Primary School (x2), Maddington Primary School (x2), Seaforth Primary School, Padbury Primary School, Maylands Primary School, Coolbina Primary School, Belmay Primary School, Fremantle Primary School, Gwynne Park Primary School, Mt Hawthorn Primary School, Lancelin Primary School, Spearwood Alternative Primary School and Windowie Primary School.
2. Short Residency - from one day to two weeks
Rather than one day a week, the school becomes a ‘Circus School’ for an intense period, inspiring teachers and children to circus activities ‘across the board’.
Every student gets the circus experience, then a large group – drawn from all grades, presents a big in-school show to all students (and parents). Suitcase Circus brings everything – equipment, flags, music, costumes, face paint etc. The school provides the space, the enthusiastic students, and the happy teachers. (Happy to see someone else working with their students, and getting the best out of them).
Satisfied clients include:
Allinjarra Primary School, Grovelands Primary School (with Jo Bolton), Leeming Primary School, Hillcrest Primary School and Clarkson Primary School.
The Circus Man
An interactive school show for K-2’s.
Dr. Reg arrives at your school with a fascinating collection of circus props and costumes.
With the help of your students, he figures out what it’s all for. In a 70 minute show he explores and discovers the tent, the circus drum kit, stilts, a horse!, juggling (everything), tightrope walking, a unicycle and a mini bike, and clowns.
Your students, even the pre-schoolers, will be fascinated, amused and actually involved with this visit.
Satisfied clients include: PLC Primary School, Kyilla Primary School, South Lake Child Care Centre, Wanneroo Pre-Primary, Our Lady of Fatima Primary School, Mater Christi Primary School, May McKillup Primary School, St Denis Primary School and many others.
Sawdust Superstars – the ½ day show
This unique show has been performed in more West Australian schools than any other. (Also toured in UK, USA and Tasmania).
It is unique because, in half-a-day, Dr. Reg meets a group of your students (12 from various grades), trains and rehearses them, then presents a 65 minute show to the whole school, as good and as funny as any professional company.
The cast includes the world’s greatest Rock n Roll drummer, Gargantua the Gorilla, Spotty the wonder-horse, the tallest girl in the world, Coco the clown, Con Colleano, the world famous tight wire walker, and various acrobats, jugglers etc.
All students learn a lot about circus, but also about their own potential to learn fast, to perform confidently, to cooperate and to enjoy entertaining the whole school.
Satisfied clients include:
Almost all schools in the Kimberly, Pilbara, Gascoyne, Great Southern, Wheatbelt, Goldfields (we’ve been everywhere, man) plus dozens of schools throughout the metro area.
Include administration, and use of $1-3000 worth of equipment. Please contact us for current fees.
In 1975, in a little cottage at Long Green, West Lothian, Scotland, Suitcase Circus was born. It started as an informal association of support for the work of Reg Bolton, introducing Circus Skills into the streets and housing estates of Edinburgh.
Reg spent a short time studying at L'Ecole Nationale du Cirque, Annie Fratellini's Circus School in Paris. It was clear that Reg was not cut out to be a great Circus Star; his orangutan arms would never straighten into an elegant handstand, but had stayed long enough to make a great decision. He would start his own Circus School, where elegance and perfection would not be the only criteria. The Edinburgh Summer Circus School, in 1977 attracted 30 students; 10 from Scotland, 10 from England, and 10 from overseas. The teachers included Annie Stainer, Emil Wolk, Frankie Anderson, Toby Philpott and Paula Melbourne, who was undoubtedly a pioneer of the new aerialists.
Over the three seasons of the school, the concept of Community Circus had started to develop, and both Craigmillar and Pilton, infamous Edinburgh housing estates, had their own Children's Circuses, later to combine for legendary tour of the Western Isles.
In 1981, Suitcase Circus organised the first ever Community Circus Festival, in Manchester, featuring performances from 6 or 7 groups from various parts of England and Scotland. Among the team involved in that first festival were Pauline Peel, Tina Glover, Andy Webster, Danny Hignett and Linda Chase Broda. The next few years saw similar events in Edinburgh, Palenville (USA), Rochester (England), and Brisbane (Australia). Then, in 1985, the Bolton family moved to Perth, Western Australia, and a new phase began. The land of the big sky also offered unlimited horizons. Suitcase Circus began to work with Sports Clubs, with Corporations, in Shopping Centres, with Aboriginal and other cultural groups, with special interest medical groups, at rural Agricultural shows and at pre-schools and Universities. Reg, a qualified teacher who had somehow not got around to getting a real job, embraced opportunities to work on Circus in Education. Jo Bolton, his son, also found he had real talent and enthusiasm for teaching, and this gradually became the main focus of Suitcase Circus.
Now Reg Bolton is committed to his PhD studies, he is accepting fewer invitations to work, generally limiting himself to one school per term, and only work which is either a new challenge or involves communities who seem to need something special.
Our primary aim is always that children should achieve success. We are also entertainers, and we value the power of 'The Show' as a deep means of communication and learning.
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