Hi, I'm Miss Penny from Kid Vision Pre-K and we are so excited to spend the day with a circus coach.

Hi, Miss Penny.

I'm Miss Melissa and I work as the circus coach here at Florida Children's Theater.

I started when I was very young doing gymnastics, and then I grew up doing gymnastics and musical theater, and then I kind of combined the two and now I run a youth circus program and we're so excited to share it with you.

I want to see the rehearsal and what happens behind the scenes.

And then we get to watch the whole performance, which I'm extremely excited about.

Yes, there's so much that goes on and it's never a dull moment on stage and backstage.

So what would your definition of a circus be?

A circus would be a theatrical performance that involves acrobatics and aerial elements.

And along with acting and sometimes singing too.

A circus coach is someone who teaches all of the acrobatic elements as well as acting and clowning, and juggling, and basically keeps everybody safe and puts together, sometimes we put together a whole show.

What's the name of the show?

It is the Greatest Show.

The Greatest Show.

It's a good name.

What is your definition of a theater?

A theater is a place where people get to come watch a performance.

It can be a circus performance.

It can be a musical theater performance.

It can be a play or an opera.

There's room for the audience and room for the performers.

What inspired you to particularly choose the circuit?

Circus is really cool because there are so many different things that the kids can be a part of.

We have kids that do the aerial silks.

We have kids that are really advanced tumblers.

We have kids that came to us this summer and learned how to do a cartwheel and learn how to do a forward roll, and learn how to do a handstand.

And there's so many different moving pieces, and there's so much fun, different show elements that everybody can have a job and feel special and have their little moment to shine.

How would you define a circus troupe?

A circus troupe would be a group of students or professionals that are working together.

And our circus troupe is really special because you have to have a very close knit group.

So we have some kids that came in with minimal skills, but they had a drive and they wanted to learn so badly.

And we have our older kids who have been around for a little bit longer, but they came together and created this family and they have to trust each other because in a circus you're literally hanging by someone's feet.

Some of them are best, best friends.

Some of them kind of have just met each other, there's different ages, but they all really are this family that gets to trust each other and learn together and work together.

And really have a lot of faith in the person that is throwing them and catching them.

So it's like a community.

It is a very special community.

So rehearsals are very important.

We started our rehearsals at the beginning of our camp program and they practice every day.

So that part of the rehearsal process for circus is learning new tricks and learning tricks with new people.

For circus, we have to make sure our bodies are conditioned to do it over and over again because circus has a lot of physical requirements.

So your body has to be in shape.

You have to be able to have the stamina to run through things very quickly and go from one thing to the next.

It's been great Melissa, talking to you and finding out what inspired you to be a circus coach.

And I am so excited to see the magic happen, to see the rehearsal and then see what happens backstage and see the performance.

We're so excited to have you and let's go get started.

Let's do it.

And now let's show you the other side of the show.

The technical side.

We have our technical director, Sean.

Hi.

Hello.

Who can show you up in booth.

Come on.

I'll show you the technical booth.

I'd love to see it.

It's nice to meet you, Sean.

And we are in the technical booth.

Can you please tell us what a technical booth is?

Sure.

The tech booth is a room at the back of the theater, usually the back of the audience overlooking the stage.

And it's where all of the sound and lighting equipment for the show live.

And it's where we control all the lights and sound for the performance.

Wow.

So it has a really important part to do.

Oh yeah.

You couldn't do a show without it.

We play all the music on this iPad.

And then all of the microphones.

See, the actors and the performers who are singing all wear microphones and they put them over their ear like this, and we taped them onto their face.

And then the pack goes over here and they talk into this and that's how we get their voices out to the speakers in the theater.

Let me demonstrate for you.

Here, why don't you take this microphone.

Okay.

And then what I'm going to do is I'm going to slide it up and that's going to turn on the volume and it's going to send your voice out into the theater.

So here, I'm going to slide this up and you talk into that microphone.

Hi, everybody.

Hi.

Hello.

It's like magic.

It is like magic.

We also control the lights from this room.

So out there, as you can see on the theater, there are stage lights on.

All of the stage lights are controlled from this laptop.

So what we do is say, we want to turn on a light.

We just click on the light and slide up the dimmer and that'll turn the lights on, on the stage.

With the lighting, it sets the mood.

If it's a love song, you might want to have pink lights.

And if it's a nighttime scene, you might want the lights to be very dark blue.

And of course, sound is you have to play music and you also have to hear the actors.

It's really interesting that you have a wonderful camp that kids can learn both sides of the story.

Absolutely.

One of the neat things about our program is that in the technical side, the kids run everything.

It takes everybody to do the show.

Lights, sound, performers, Miss Melissa, the director, everybody, it's a team sport.

Great.

I am so excited to be able to talk to real circus performers.

What does your costume say about what you're doing at the circus?

I think it really helps us kind of bring out the characters out to life and helps us feel the energy of the stage.

And just gives us more energy for the show.

How do you feel about being in a circus?

I feel very, very happy.

It's very, very fun to do a lot of tricks.

Terrific.

And let's talk about you and that tiger.

Are you a tiger?

Yes, I am.

You are.

And what are you doing to show?

Well, I go on the lira a lot.

And what is the lira?

It's a big hoop.

Oh, the big hoop.

I remember watching you practice now.

And what's your favorite part?

I love to do trapeze.

It's like the bar.

And you swing?

Yes.

And how do you feel about teamwork?

It really helps with teamwork.

I trust everyone here completely.

And you have to because a lot of the tricks involved catching people.

And if you don't catch them, they'll fall.

So you have to learn to trust each other and read each other's cues.

Well, I'm very excited for you.

I really can't wait to see the show.

It's showtime.

It has been wonderful to learn about the circus.

Wonderful to learn about being a circus coach and to watch you perform and to actually be part of the whole circus.

Thank you so much for sharing your day and the circus with us.

You're so welcome.

It was so fun to have you!

Bye!

Hi boys and girls, it's Miss Penny.

Put on your thinking caps.

It's time to learn a new word, circus.

A circus is a theatrical performance that involves acrobatics and aerial elements along with acting and sometimes singing too.

What was that word?

Circus.

Good job.

Circus coach.

A circus coach teaches all of the circus, acrobatic elements, acting, clowning and juggling, and sometimes put together a whole show.

What was that word?

Circus coach.

Good job.

Technical booth.

The technical booth is in the back of the theater behind the audience, overlooking the stage.

It is where the lights and the sounds for the performance are controlled.

What was that word?

Technical booth.

Good job.

Theater.

A theater is a place where people go to watch a performance.

There is seating for an audience and a stage for performers.

What was that word?

Theater.

Good job.

See you next time.