Circus Oz moving home!

  

This year Circus Oz was one of the eleven companies to get funding in the 2010 round of state budget allocation. They are set to receive around $3 million which will be put towards what seems to be the longest standing request to provide Circus Oz with a new address – one in which they can actually fit.

General Manager of Circus Oz Linda Mickelborough explains that Circus Oz has been working towards this goal for the past 16 years.

So far they have received money and commitment for Stage One of the redevelopment.

Stage funding always seems a strange way to fund any project, as it brings to the forefront thinking that those controlling the coffers are deciding whether a half-stitched tent (for example) might just be good enough.

So what does $300,000 provide? According to Linda Mickelborough this is something they will find out in more detail once they meet with the Minister for the Arts and Arts Victoria, but her understanding at this stage is that it includes the detailed design work and engineering of the site, as well as the checking of the site to make sure the building work can be completed.

That mean’s Stage Two – the actual demolition and building stage will need further funding support. Linda Mickelborough goes on to explain that the funds for Stage Two will probably be raised through Circus Oz running their own fundraising campaign.

From a distance this all looks like an almost hyper-benevolent archaic structure (reminiscent of Renaissance Italy). Where does this drive to get the needy to regularly return to head office (ie the State Government) for more funding at various stages come from? Would it have been too crude to just fund the project entirely?

I ask Linda Mickelborough this question and from her perspective it is not unreasonable to share the job.

“So I guess we are seeing it as a joint responsibility between the state government and circus Oz to come up with the money” she explains.

The proposed new home for Circus Oz is in Collingwood, and the site (the former TAFE complex in Johnston Street, Collingwood) has come out of a series of building planning processes, where a whole range of sites have been assessed with this one in Collingwood seen as the optimal site to meet all the business needs of the company.

“We also think it’s a fantastic connection” says Linda Mickleborough. “Collingwood is where Circus Oz had a 35 week season at the Last Laugh in 1979. It’s also just down the road from where the company sewed the first tent in the basement of the Pram factory in Carlton. So our feeling is that it’s sort of like returning home and we are very excited about being part of the sort of community that Collingwood is. It is a very diverse community, a very artistically vibrant community, so for Circus Oz that’s fantastic.”

So what have been the significant business requirements for Circus Oz?

Linda Mickleborough says that the greatest difficulty the circus has had is that first and foremost the space in their current home in Port Melbourne has always been too small for the show they perform (which is fundamental).

“We have incrementally done things to change this building” Linda Mickleborough recalls. “Roof trusses have been adjusted and a whole range of things have been done in an effort to patch things together, however fundamentally they can’t run the show as it is seen in the big top, in this building.”

Given that this has always been the case for the past 16 years, it seems that the time has finally come for the country’s peak circus arts company to receive a boost to its infrastructure.

Finding more space has been the very first requirement for the company. The second is to be able to do a whole lot of activities in the building.

“We are training, we are rehearsing, we are running a whole lot of different activities in the building. We run the high flying teams – a team development exercise. We run classes for children and adults, classes for kids with disabilities, and we also whenever we can make spaces available for smaller, physical theatre companies.” Says Linda Mickleborough.

“So there is enormous pressure on this one space and we are in the situation where we have to cancel things in order to rehearse. So that when every stage of the new site is completed, what we hope it will allow us to do is to have space for rehearsals and also have a space for running the classes program, and not have to rehearse and then pack everything up.”

Circus Oz moved to Port Melbourne 16 years ago after their building at the Australian Ballet School saw it windows explode after the building started sinking. That of course sped up the negotiations for their Port Melbourne address.

“The idea at the time was to move into this building and hopefully raise the level of the roof, and in the process of starting to do that the company started to expand and grow beyond that” Linda Mickleborough remembers.

Indeed in the 16 years it has been around, the company has expanded enormously. It has gone from two full time people and the rest on short term contracts to now having the equivalent of 35 full time.

“It is bursting at the seam – bursting in the rehearsals and in the offices” Linda Mickleborough laughs.

Australia’s internationally acclaimed circus company, Circus Oz, is preparing to bedazzle their hometown fans with a brand new show from June 16 to July 11 under the Big Top at Birrarung Marr. This year, Circus Oz will introduce six stunningly talented new performers to Melbourne audiences, bringing with them a swag of new
acts to leave everyone gasping in disbelief and splitting their sides. Visit their website for more information.