Nimble Arts Halloween Show

After seeing the show and taking the pictures below, I came home and did a little writing practice by writing a review of the show as if I were going to submit it to a newspaper. Just for fun, here is the review. Corrections welcome.

A Political Circus

Willy the janitor will tell you that folks can get a little riled up about politics, and it's best just to let them have their say. Willy, the program reports, has been with Nimble Arts since they started, sweeping floors and generally keeping things running around the place.

He's got a set of keys, and he's hoping that some of the extras will unlock doors leading to some things we could really use, like a cure for diabetes, or Peace.

Willy's other name is Bill Forcheon, and he's one of the members of the Nimble Arts team. Nimble Arts was founded by twin sisters, Serenity and Elsie, both former Cirque du Soleil performers, as is Bill. The three have many other performance credits to their names, including "Between Sand and Stars", a collaboration with Putney's Sandglass Theater that combines theater, puppetry, and circus performance into an intriguing retelling of a St. Expury story.

But that's a different review.

For this performance, Nimble Arts drew together a number of area performers and some from more remote parts to treat us to an evening that combined both joy and seriousness into a show that kept the audience rapt right through the ending moment.

Nimble Art's Halloween show didn't have much to do with Halloween other than the pre-show music selections and the costumes of the volunteers who helped put on the show. What the show did have was an number of stunning visual performances interspersed with music, laughter, a little magic, and some sharp political commentary. And one overriding message: please vote.

The individual acts ranged from a soulful single trapeze performance dedicated to 911 (as Elsie says: the event doesn't belong to the politicians), to musical performances with political messages, to playful partner acrobatics with a girls-at-the-beach theme, to a stunning aerial fabric act by Serenity that started with a slow intensity and then burst to an exuberant conclusion.

The performers had their political message and made no bones about it. But regardless of your own political leanings, this was entertainment of a high caliber, enjoyable by both young and old. One young man even stole center stage during Stephen Stearns magic act and helped him make a clown nose disappear by wearing it back to his seat.

The most moving part of the show came with the last act. Willy discarded his janitor's outfit and finally made his own political statement. He noted that some people look back to the good old days, but not him. He looks forward. When he looks back, things don't look so good. As recently as 1967, he tells us, there were a number of states that still had laws on the books making it illegal for blacks and whites to marry.

Bill, an imposing black man, then performed a piece that combined a serious show of strength on the straps with a pantomime that gave a poignant reminder of the long path African Americans have trod in this country.

The image of this powerful man moving from this space of menial labor and hauling himself upwards, into the future, by the strength of his own arms, brought tears to my eyes.

Let us hope that one of Willy's keys unlocks the door to the dream he expressed in his lead in to his performance: that someday, the box he checks on the form will simply say "American".

Click image to enlarge

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