The Old Globe Theatre began preview performances of "Passengers" last week. The innovative show uses acrobatics, theater, music, and dance to reveal the dreams and emotions of passengers traveling on a train. It evolved from Shana Carroll and the Montreal-based circus collective The 7 Fingers.
Traveling on trains is something circus performers are used to and Mandi Orozco should know. She is part of The 7 Fingers modern circus troupe. But for the show "Passengers," trains and travel provide a metaphor for how life can unfold. And circus provides the means of expressing that.
"You feel every emotion in an elevated way through circus," Orozco said. "Whether that's the physicality of trust, for example, or the idea of losing someone. Circus takes a very physical way to express emotions we all know, but it takes everything up a little bit of a level. So I'd say that's really how circus plays into this specific theme."
Orozco appears in an act called "Imperfect Strangers" that begins with the discomfort of sitting next to a total stranger but then shows how that physical proximity can lead to something else. The act involves aerial acrobatics and trapeze to dazzle the audience.
"Circus obviously has a lot of wow factor," Orozco said. "But I think one of the things that 7 Fingers, specifically as a company is very good at, is connecting not only the wow factor in engaging people on an acrobatic level, but also reaching out and grabbing people emotionally, and that's really a powerful combination."
Santiago Rivera is another performer in the show.
"We do something called contemporary circus," Rivera explained. "We develop a story, we develop characters, we develop a whole line in which people can enjoy acrobatics and different disciplines throughout the show. But the idea of the show is that everyone has a different story to tell and everyone has lived different experiences, and how we behave with each other in that moment is what makes the show special."
Last week the 7 Fingers performers were rehearsing at San Diego Circus Center to get their timing back after being on a break. Jean-Luc Martin owns and runs the center and is thrilled to see the Globe present a show that highlights circus.
"It is absolutely amazing," Martin enthused. "I would love for all of San Diego to get a taste of what 7 Fingers has to offer. It's very unique, very special, very theatrical. It has a very strong message. So I think it's absolutely beautiful."
Rivera appears in an act called "Boxed In," which involves juggling.
"Basically, this idea of claustrophobia, of being in small places crowded with a lot of people and how we manage to go through them," Rivera explained. "I have a background in musical theater, but I think circus was able to offer me a bit of a challenge, a step up to everything that I was doing originally. Adding acrobatics or adding prop manipulation or all the different things that circus can offer just makes me feel like I can do more than I can imagine."
"Passengers" was created before the pandemic and the current show has a new cast that came aboard last August. That meant Rivera had to sharpen his juggling skills for a complex sequence and Orozco had to learn how to work with trapeze.
"I had never really done trapeze," Orozco said. "So we had five weeks to put everything together, and putting a show like this together in five weeks is definitely no small undertaking, especially when you add in the fact that people are learning new disciplines. That being said, we didn't start circus fresh. We obviously have a whole skill set and years of training to come to that with. So the learning is, let's say, accelerated, but it's still wildly challenging to undertake something like that in just a span of five weeks."
But the results are spectacular. Shana Carroll is co-founding artistic director of The 7 Fingers. She choreographed and directed "Passengers," which reflects the company's origins. The seven artists who originally made up the company have primarily worked for the visually elaborate Cirque du Soleil.
Orozco is new to the company but explained, "From their experience (at) Cirque du Soleil, they took their knowledge of what they knew from that, but also took a very human turn to the whole thing. So less makeup, less costume. The Seven Fingers are very focused on the performers as humans who are on stage. It's not necessarily about playing a character. You're not covered in makeup. And so we really get to be ourselves on stage, which came from their origins as a company when they were on stage as artists as well. And I feel really privileged to be able to explore that with this company because it's a beautiful way to experience both yourself and the audience on stage."
Audiences can get a taste of the circus wow factor as "Passengers" continues at the Globe main stage through July 30.
