Heralding the approach of Halloween, the GasLight Circus will transport its audience into the shadowed realm of its all-ages show entitled “Noir” on Saturday, Oct. 8 at the Alwun House.
Following the success of its Aug. 27 “Pandorum” performance at the same historic venue, the GasLight Circus decided to diverge into a darker storyline while utilizing its unique, theater-meets-vaudeville talent. “Noir” is centered around a girl named Ari, depicted by Ariana Flatt, who dies of a brain tumor.
“As she is passing into this limbo-esque afterlife, it takes the form of a circus, which is us,” said Jerome Keenom, ringmaster and founder of the GasLight Circus. “It has a bit of a dynamic struggle about finding out where you go after you die. Where do we go when we die? We could go to a circus in the sky; we have no idea. But this is the middle ground. The circus is limbo.”
The GasLight Circus will be donating part of the show’s proceeds to GrayMatters Foundation. This nonprofit organization is dedicated to researching of brain tumors, as well as extending services and providing support to families impacted.
“Our aerialist Hayl Daugherty almost lost her mother to a brain tumor when she was five,” Keenom said. “When we reached out to GrayMatters and they were excited to do the show with us, we thought, ‘Oh, this is perfect. Hayl is willing to share this experience; I think we should maybe make it a part of the show.’ So we have.”
A donation sum for GrayMatters will be a portion of the final revenue, consisting of ticket sales, tips and new GasLight Circus merchandise available for purchase on the night of the show.
Two days before the show, GasLight performers dedicated their time to rehearsing “Noir”, which will be performed on an outside stage set on the eastern side of Alwun House. They ran a sound check, adjusted their positions on stage, and brushed the ground clean of dirt and dried leaves.
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Noah Brown, portraying Puddles the Clown, warmed up his vocal chords in a series of trill sounds that climbed up and down in pitch. He was full of theatrical energy and dressed to match, in a white-and-black-striped costume and an elegant helm missing one of its adorned wings.
“To be an effective clown, you have to be aware of your audience,” Brown said.
The “Noir” rehearsal, a preview of what’s to come on Saturday, was a mix of singing, comedy and carefully scripted dialogue with eerie undertones. It also included daring acts pulled off by Tom Hilliker and Tom Woodward, both of whom specialize in the art of fire, as well as dizzying spirals performed by Shawn Cook on his Cyr wheel.
Keenom was inspired by a juggler he saw as a 12-year-old during his first Renaissance Festival visit to set out to form his own circus — but not in the traditional sense of the trade.
While Keenom gained experience in circuses such as The Mystic Circus and Pain Proof Punks, he thought there was room to improve.
“Most of the people here are more than circus people,” Keenom said. “I instead reached out to other forms of art … people who weren’t necessarily circus, but I knew that if I could catch their interest just enough and bring them in, they can be exposed to circus and see how it expands their own art.”
This show follows the GasLight Circus’ scheduled appearance at Fangoria FearCon in Tempe.
Doors open at 8 p.m., and the show will begin at 9 p.m. and end at midnight. Tickets can be purchased in advance at alwunhouse.org for $12 or upon arrival for $15.
Contact the reporter at Katelyn.Finegan@asu.edu.
