I’ve always been a fan of Cirque du Soleil and I make sure to go to a show when they are in town either in San Francisco or in Las Vegas. I got a backstage tour of their latest extravaganza, OVO, in San Francisco when they were in town. I caught up with Gerard Edwards-Webb, the Technical Director of the show, and we chatted about what really runs the show. Most people see the show, and are amazed at all the work the acrobats have put in, but me, being the geek that I am, decided to dig deeper, and go technical.
Cirque du Soleil is known for many things, but you know Cirque is in town when you see their big yellow tent in the horizon. What many people don’t realize that when Cirque comes to town, they set up a mini-city, also known as the “village.” Now this includes the actual main tent, the artists training area, the mess hall, a school, and much more. A school you ask? Well, yes. Many of the acrobats are still young, and travel with a teacher so they can keep up with their studies. Also, the acrobats don’t stay in the city — they rent apartments for each of the artists, and the crew for extended periods of times.
First, lets get some background on the show.
OVO is a headlong rush into a colourful ecosystem teeming with life, where insects work, eat, crawl, flutter, play, fight and look for love in a non-stop riot of energy and movement. The insects’ home is a world of biodiversity and beauty filled with noisy action and moments of quiet emotion. When a mysterious egg appears in their midst, the insects are awestruck and intensely curious about this iconic object that represents the enigma and cycles of their lives. It’s love at first sight when a gawky, quirky insect arrives in this bustling community and a fabulous ladybug catches his eye – and the feeling is mutual. OVO is overflowing with contrasts. The hidden, secret world at our feet is revealed as tender and torrid, noisy and quiet, peaceful and chaotic. And as the sun rises on a bright new day the vibrant cycle of insect life begins anew.
The entire site needs to be at least 180,000 square feet (4.2 Acres or 17,000 square meters) in order to house the entire site including the tents and trailers, and still have room for all the rest. It takes 11 days, and more than 200 workers, including 100 hired locally, to complete a city to city transfer of the infrastructures. It’s also interesting to note that Cirque uses their own generators, and don’t use the city power, which seems pretty logical — if the city has a power outage, Cirque doesn’t have power. The only recourses Cirque uses for the show is water, at least in the case in San Francisco.
The entire show is carried on tractor trailers, where an average of 55 are needed to carry the show from one city to another. It doesn’t matter if the city is 10 hours away, or 45 minutes away, the show has to move, and the same setup takes place for each city. Which if you think about, just sounds like a pain in the ass for the crew and site technicians which actually have to move everything from one city to another.
Gerard took me were not too many folks go to go — under the stage. What most people also don’t know is that there is only about 4-10 feet from the bottom of the stage, to the concrete floor that the show is setup on. So the actors use moving carts to travel across under the stage to get from one place to another. The stage is quite complex, and uses a various amounts of different material, and even includes three trampolines. I shoot some video of the main trampoline bed opening in the middle of the stage. The trampoline bed opens up in a matter of seconds, and uses a hydraulic system to actually open and close.
Overall, the operations behind running a multi-million dollar circus is quite complex, and Cirque du Soleil have truly mastered the art, and that’s what makes them such a success. I highly recommend that anyone go and check out the show that’s nearest you — you won’t regret it.
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