🎪 AUDITION ANNOUNCEMENT: NERDCORE CIRCUS – THE ROAD TO PROTÉGÉ! 🎪

✨ Aspiring Protégé Performers, This Is Your Moment! ✨

Calling all experienced flying trapeze, aerial, ground, and overall circus students ready to transition from technical training to dynamic performance! This is your chance to audition for a spot in our next Protégé Show, directed by seasoned circus and theater artist, director, and educator, Jaron Hollander, with a NerdCore Circus theme! 

The audition will take place on February 9, and if selected, you’ll be part of a cohort who are guided and supported to perform your special skills and collaborate with others in front of friends, family, and fellow circus lovers on April 11 & 12. The protege experience will be a three part program, where you can improve upon your technical skill or apparatus, co-create with your cohort on ensemble work, and participate in specialty workshops to dive deeper into the art of performance. Whether you’re performing on one apparatus or several, we’re looking for aspiring protégé performers who are ready to bring something new, fun, and full of personality to the stage! (Audition information below!) 

About Jaron Hollander, Protege Director

Jaron Aviv Hollander is an accomplished director specializing in circus and physical theatre, renowned for his innovative and multidisciplinary approach to storytelling and ensemble creation. As the founding Artistic Director and master teacher of Kinetic Arts Center in Oakland, CA, for 12 years, he trained countless circus artists—many of whom are now professional performers worldwide—and directed dozens of productions. He collaborated as a director with circus legend Master Lu Yi, performed with Cirque du Soleil, and has toured his award-winning physical comedy, The Submarine Show, internationally. In 2016, he was honored with an award for Innovation in Circus Education from the American Circus Educators Association. Jaron holds a Master of Fine Arts in Puppet Arts from the University of Connecticut and a Bachelor of Arts in Acting and Directing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He attended CircoArts (a circus school in New Zealand), the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, CA, and trained extensively at the San Francisco Circus Center.

What is Nerd-Core, you ask? Read below! 

🎭 AUDITION DETAILS:

• All Performers: Prior to arriving for the audition, fill out this form.
• There is no cost to audition! Come show us what you can do!
  
• Flying trapeze artists:
  • Your flying trapeze audition will take place on February 9th between 1-3pm.
  • The coaches will be Parker Madison and Lukas Weinbach.
  • Be warm and ready to get on the rig right at 1pm. You’ll be able to do one warm up swing and one of each of your tricks that you plan to catch to the net before throwing your tricks across to Lukas.
  • The ensemble portion of your audition will take place afterwards from 3-4pm. Be warm and ready to let loose and have fun!
  • Requirements: Minimum age is 14 years old. Flyers must be able (or close) to return two tricks to the board without safety lines and have a flyout.

• Aerialists/Ground Performers:
• • The ensemble portion of your audition will take place first from 3-4pm on February 9th. Be warm and ready to let loose and have fun!
  • Your apparatus/circus skill audition will take place between 4-6pm on the stage at ECTA. 
  • Prepare a solo on your apparatus inspired by Nerdcore Circus that’s about 2 minutes long.
  • We are looking for variety—the more creative, unexpected, and nerdy, the better!
  • Requirements: Minimum age is 14 years old.

REHEARSAL SCHEDULE
(February 23, 2025 through April 12, 2025):

• Flying Trapeze Protege Sessions
  • Sundays 1-3pm
  • Tuesdays 5:30-7:30pm
• Aerial/Ground Protege Sessions
  • Mondays 7:30-9pm at ECTA on the Stage
• Ensemble Sessions (For All Performers)
  • Thursdays from 8-10pm at ECTA on the stage
• Workshops: 1-3pm on Saturdays at ECTA on the Balcony EXCEPT Week 2
  • Week 1, March 1: Act Development (For Aerial/Ground Performers Only)
  • Week 2, March 8: 3-5pm Choreography/Musicality (For Aerial/Ground Performers Only)
  • Week 3, March 15: Character Creation (For All Performers)
  • Week 4, March 22: Costume & Makeup (For All Performers)
  • Week 5, March 29: Preparing for Tech (For Aerial/Ground Performers Only)
  • Week 6, April 5: Self Care (For All Performers)
• Tech Rehearsal: Saturday, April 5th from 4:30-9pm
• Dress Rehearsal: Monday, April 7th from 8-10pm (Call is 7pm)
• Opening Night of the Show: April 11th at 8pm
• Closing Night of the Show: April 12th at 8pm

Cost
Includes 7 weeks of classes, ensemble sessions, workshops, tech, and dress rehearsals, as well as the two shows! 

• Aerial/Ground Proteges: $585 per performer
• Flying Trapeze Proteges: $985 per performer
  

Apply now and show us why you’re ready for Nerdcore Circus!

It’s time to geek out, level up, and make circus magic happen. Ready to take flight (in more ways than one)? 

Nerd-Core Circus  

What kind of Nerdcore Circus are you?
What sort of nerdy thing do you do?
It’s wacky! It’s weird! It’s wildly absurd!
A circus where EVERYONE’S  proudly a nerd!

Escape from the locker, be freed from your wedge
What once was uncool is now wildly edgy
Your bully can’t hurt you, he can’t utter a tease
When you’re high above him on the flying trapeze

Oh, what is a nerd? Well, let me explain,
It’s someone whose brain moves as fast as a train!
They love what they love, and they dive deep inside,
To a world full of wonders where passions abide.

A nerd isn’t worried if it’s “cool” or it’s not,
They’ll chase what they love, and they’ll love it a lot!
Be it numbers or novels, or making craft beer,
Or climbing a rope or practice roue cyr

 A nerd, you will see, has a heart full of zest,
Whatever their passion, they give it their best.
So if you are one, wear the badge with great pride,
For a nerd who loves circus, is magic inside!

Do you LARP with a sword that you forged yourself?
Or cosplay as Rayek, that tan angry elf?
Are you a tech nerd who does not want to be paid
So you built an app that does a 12-ball cascade?

This circus is a place where cultures collide,
Where many languages can be heard side by side.
Yes, Mandarin, French, and Russian are spoken
also Khuzdul and tlhIngan Hol from Star Trek and Tolkien.

We want Comic Book Nerds, POW! in the ring,
Inspired by Dick Grayson/Boy Wonder/Night Wing
Or Theatre Nerds, boldly proclaiming,
In iambic pentameter! A shrew I am taming!”

Oh, nerd of all nerds, come and step in the ring!
There’s room for your talent, your brain, and your zing!
Be it coding or comics, or flaming soufflés,
The Nerdcore Circus will let you amaze!

So come now, come quick, we’ve got room for you too,
Whatever your talent, whatever you do!
There’s one simple question you must answer true:
Oh, what kind of Nerdcore Circus are you?