THE BALLOON MAN

Circus Monoxide has new creative force

Circus Monoxide artistic director Tamara Campbell has big plans to get the Wollongong-based circus touring again. Picture: ADAM McLEAN
ANGELA THOMPSON
FROM: illawarramercury.com.au
22 Dec, 2011
A new artistic director plans to put Wollongong's dormant professional circus company back in business and introduce a HECS-approved "clown college" to the region.Nineteen-year-old Circus Monoxide was once a touring company but wound back its professional work in recent years to focus on teaching children and fledgling performers.
Recently installed artistic director Tamara Campbell, a freelance physical theatre specialist who has performed internationally for the past 15 years, plans to relaunch the company's professional arm, beginning with a performance in Sydney in April.
"In the professional world I think a lot of people stopped thinking about Monoxide as a company," Campbell said.
"What I'd really like to see happen is for us to create world-class, innovative circus - to push circus in a new direction."
Chief among Campbell's ambitions is setting up a HECS-approved professional training program in 2013.
The year-long course would be modelled on California's Dell'Arte International, which offers a Masters of Fine Arts in ensemble-based physical theatre and is a magnet for ambitious circus and physical theatre performers from across the globe.
In 2006, one-third of the clowns touring with Cirque du Soleil were graduates.
Campbell, also a graduate, believes large numbers of Australian and international performers would attend a similar school in the Illawarra.
"NSW is not one of the states known for its circus, [like] Victoria with Circus Oz or Queensland's Circa," she said.
"[A professional training program] would bring in people from out of state and even overseas to train. With it we would become the NSW centre for circus arts, maybe even for performing arts."
Circus Monoxide was created almost 20 years ago by theatre-media graduates from Bathurst's Charles Sturt University.
Its former artistic director Jane Davis remains with the company and will continue working on its Half High Circus School.
Campbell is best known in the Illawarra as alter ego Shirlee Sunflower, who MC'd last year's Viva la Gong arts festival.