Scarecrow Press
Pages: 292
978-1-4617-0654-0 • eBook • October 2006 • $84.00 • (£65.00)
Ernest Albrecht is founder and editor of Spectacle, a quarterly journal devoted to the circus arts, and is the author of A Ringling by Any Other Name (Scarecrow Press, 1989) and The New American Circus (University Press of Florida, 1995).
Part 1 Acknowledgments
Part 2 Introduction: The Circus as an Art Form
Part 3 Part I. The Creative Team
Chapter 4 1 The Director and the Creative Process
Chapter 5 2 Designing the Circus
Chapter 6 3 Setting the Circus to Music
Part 7 Part II. The COllaboration (Case Studies)
Chapter 8 4 Ringling's 131st Edition
Chapter 9 5O Notes
Chapter 10 6 The Making of a Major New American Spectacle
Chapter 11 7 The Big Apple Circus's Clown Around Town
Part 12 Part III. The Performers
Chapter 13 8 Circus Sets
Chapter 14 9 Clowns on Clowning
Chapter 15 10 Training the Artists and Building and Maintaining the Performance
Part 16 Bibliography
Part 17 Index
Part 18 About the Author
...exhaustive, meticulous, illuminating...highly readable and entertaining...both uplifting and educational.
— King Pole
This penetrating analysis of the contemporary circus is highly recommended for all comprehensive collections and for the serious student of the circus.
— Circus Report
A couple of monkeys and a clown car no longer does a circus make. Now audiences, designers, owners and performers expect the circuses they watch and perform to bend the quality and quantity of space and time, seek out the truths behind fantasy and reality, and hit an emotional and even spiritual spot unreachable by any other art form. Albrecht, a specialist whose credits include a quarterly journal devoted to the circus arts, augments his case studies of productions of leading circuses, including detailed descriptions of the collaborative and individual creative work involved, with commentary pitched to the fascinations of the audience. Commentators include directors, clowns, acrobats, musicians, animal trainers, and dancers as well as instructors in schools for all the above.
— Reference and Research Book News
...an all-access behind-the-scenes view of circus productions....a mine of ideas...fascinating reading....
— Kaskade
...an important addition to circus literature. Recommended.
— Choice Reviews
...provides unprecedented scholarly analysis....Short of being invited into the inner circle of circus leadership, there is no better way to appreciate what it takes to produce contemporary circus.
— White Tops
Ernest Albrecht's new book is itself a spectacular journey into the processes, aesthetic and commercial, that go into the big-ticket Big Tops of the twenty-first century....Undergraduates will appreciate its easy-to-follow logic and clarity; graduates and scholars will enjoy its depth and richness of information.
— May 2008, Volume 24/2; Ntq Cambridge University Press Journals
An incisive look at todays circuses, this book reveals the hard work and planning behind such shows as Cirque du Soleil. From costumers to choreographers, performers to stagehands, this book is facinating.
— Teacher Librarian