TOWNSHEND — First, Cal Wicker graduated from Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School. Now, the New England Center for Circus Art student is wrapping up the three year ProTrack program.
Previous graduates went on to secure contracts with companies such as Cirque du Soleil, Ringling Bros, The 7 Fingers and Circa, as well as on Broadway and in cabarets around the world.
On Thursday, the eight students wrapping up the program brought their production “Broken Open” to Leland & Gray.
“Doing a show at my high school was very full circle,” said Wicker, who graduated from there in 2023. After seeing a former teacher and some students whom Wicker shared the stage with at Leland Gray, “I felt the pride.”
Wicker relocated to Vermont from Iowa in August 2021. The move meant going from a high school with 3,000 students to one with fewer than 300.
“That was a fun challenge to get around,” Wicker said. “But I had grown up coming to Townshend, Vermont in the summer to see my aunt.”
With an aunt running the Summer Performing Arts Exploration at Leland & Gray, Wicker would participate in the theater camp.
While still living in Iowa, Wicker attended Iowa Circus Arts. When preparing to attend the theater camp in Vermont, Wicker looked up circus programs in Vermont and found NECCA. As a birthday present, Wicker received a lesson at NECCA.
Later, Wicker joined the youth troupe. That’s where Wicker first saw the ProTrack students at work.
“I was automatically in awe,” Wicker said of seeing people training professionally for circus arts. “I knew I wanted to do it. Going into it, I think I was a little under prepared.”
In Iowa, Wicker would work with a variety of circus arts. At NECCA, dance trapeze became Wicker’s “thing.”
“I just like the freedom,” Wicker said, describing a trapeze that hangs at one point so it can swing and act as a dance partner. “There’s so many pathways and so many different things you can do with it.”
Wicker also specializes in acrobatic theater, which involves lip synching while performing acrobatics.
Serenity Smith Forchion, producing director and co-founder of NECCA, said one of the goals of the ProTrack tour is to provide students with experience in different spaces. Shows are modified to fit the venues.
“It’s also really great to perform for middle school and high school kids,” Smith Forchion said.
At Leland & Gray, the class couldn’t perform tightwire or high flying trapeze. Students “got to see what it’s like to modify for the freestanding aerial rig,” Smith Forchion said of the the equipment that looks like a giant swing set and is brought to local events for showcases.
This marks the second year in a row that the ProTrack show has come to Leland & Gray. Smith Forchion said the school really appreciates how it exhibits alternative career opportunities for students.
Many students from the West River Valley participate in NECCA programs, Smith Forchion said. She anticipates the school will remain a regular tour stop.
Schools, Smith Forchion said, “are definitely a way to show the students what we do.” At Leland & Gray, a dancer approached her and asked about taking classes.
Even if the show reaches just one person in the audience, Smith Forchion said, it can lead to opportunities for their career.
“We’re really happy to offer that,” she said.
She noted other performances will be held this spring. The public is invited to come take classes and join camps.
“Broken Open” will be performed at NECCA in Brattleboro at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Friday. Tickets are available for $20 to $40 and can be purchased at circusschool.org.
The show is billed as “a modern circus tale in which a community navigates the trials and tribulations of growing up, growing together, and being torn apart.”
“Told through thrilling acrobatics and impressive feats of circus,” a news release states, “‘Broken Open’ celebrates human ingenuity, pointing towards signs of hope and interdependence during challenging times.”
Marisol Rosa-Shapiro of New York City and Philadelphia is directing the show. Each year, NECCA holds an open application for directors from around the world. Rosa-Shapiro rose to the top due to “her artmaking practice centers play and community building,” according to the news release.
Her collaborations include artist in residence at the family-focused New Victory Theater in New York City, and Clowns Without Borders, an international organization that seeks to bring joy, laughter and connection to children and families in crisis zones.
“Contemporary circus is such an exciting art form to me, not only because it marries poetry and athleticism, but also because it’s an art form so much about making the impossible possible,” Rosa-Shapiro said in a statement. “Circus exemplifies the dreams that we make into reality when we imagine, communicate, practice, and collaborate at the very highest levels of human potential and creative risk taking.”
Smith Forchion said Rosa-Shapiro’s “process evokes metaphors through storytelling, developed with the artists using a structured methodology that helps them feel confident that they can go out on a creative limb.”
“After three weeks of residencies and shows around New England,” Smith Forchion said in a statement, “we are coming back to Brattleboro for the final performances before the students graduate.”
Wicker called the show “magic.” Rosa-Shapiro is “a wonderful woman” whose theater background brought “a very refreshing outside perspective,” Wicker said.
“It was just awesome to see her learn as we were also learning,” Wicker said.
Now living in downtown Brattleboro, Wicker plans to take a rest after graduating from the ProTrack program this month. The class will have a show in New York City on May 18.
“We’ve all been applying for things here and there,” Wicker said. “After that, I guess it gets ‘serious’ and we’ll all start looking for jobs.”
Wicker described being “open to anything and everything.”
“Any opportunity to perform is a good opportunity to me,” said Wicker, who’s reached out to Gallery Walk and farmers market coordinators in hopes of busking this summer. “I have a mime character I’m hoping to bring out to the streets of Brattleboro.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.reformer.com ’
