RBBB-MEMPHIS

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus a spectacle of organization


Photo by Mike Brown, The Commercial Appeal
May 16, 2013 — Electrician Kat Wrozek helps install the lighting on a suspended truss as the crew sets up for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the Landers Center in Southahven. The show runs through Sunday. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal)
from:  commercialappeal.com
By Henry Bailey
May 16, 2013
“The Greatest Show on Earth” may also stage the slickest setup and takedown process on the planet as the mobile entertainment dynamo also known as the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus rolls from city to city in its several versions.
“During World War II, the Army came and studied the circus — logistics officers were amazed how fast we could set up tents and props and pack up, and wanted to use our techniques to move troops,” Dean Kelley said amid Thursday’s activity the day before the show was to open.
Kelley, also known as preshow host Dean the Clown, is a top tour guide for what the circus calls the “load in.”
“We’ve been around for 143 years, so I’d say we’ve got it down to a science,” he said.

Photo by Mike Brown, The Commercial Appeal
May 16, 2013 — Alfonso Lopez, the patriarch of the all-family Lopez Troupe, helps assemble the 12-foot diameter, steel globe that he, his son and daughter-in-law speed around in at the same time on motorcycles during the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the Landers Center in Southahven. The show runs through Sunday. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal)
He conversed amiably amid the organized hubbub of a circus rising in the Landers Center in Southaven, where the traveling community of people, pets, animals, a school and a nursery — with a different backyard every week — was plugging in for some electrifying action.
The weekend series of Landers shows starts at 7 p.m. Friday, and $1 of every ticket purchased for this performance going to Ronald McDonald House. Other showtimes are Saturday at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.; and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Tickets are available at the Landers box office and online at Ticketmaster.
With more than 100 cast and crew members, the little mobile neighborhood offers big-scale entertainment and extraordinary teamwork to build Fully Charged in 45 cities across America this year. Sharing the trip — some 25,000 to 30,000 miles — are three Asian elephants, three camels, four horses, two ponies, one mini horse and 17 dogs.

Photo by Mike Brown, The Commercial Appeal
May 16, 2013 — Dean Kelley is a clown and preshow with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Kelley says: “Clowns don’t say ‘break a leg’ for good luck. We say ‘bump a nose.’” (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal)

 

Dean Kelley in is clown persona. Photo courtesy of Ringling Brothers.
It generally takes eight hours to “load in” and four hours to “load out” after a city visit. Fully Charged arrived earlier this week from Asheville, N.C., and will head next to Wichita, Kan., packed on four semis plus a flatbed trailer and generator trailer, and three animal trailers. Larger Blue and Red circus units travel by rail, said Kelley, “on the two largest privately owned trains in the country.”

To set up for a Fully Charged show, which includes laser lights and electronic effects in addition to the acrobats, animals acts and clowns of tradition, involves 12,000 feet of cable, 15 conventional and 35 moving lights, 50,000 watts of speaker power. Oh yes, don’t forget three confetti cannons, firing 10 pounds of confetti and streamers per week, and 200 pieces of flashy wardrobe for the performers.
read more:
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/may/16/greatest-show-also-a-spectacle-of-organization/