7th Annual Children's Circus: Around Town March 2019
Ladies and Gentleman! Orchard School is presenting its 7th Annual Children’s Circus, CircOrchard, involving the whole student body, kindergarten through sixth grade. This is truly a show to be enjoyed by all ages, featuring clown antics, juggling, acrobatics, unicycling and stilt walking, hijinks, roust-a-bout, and circus spoofs.
The public show will be performed Saturday, March 23rd, 2:00 p.m. at the Harbor High School Theatre. Our performance schedule includes free shows for students at Alianza Charter School in Watsonville and DeLaveaga Elementary in Santa Cruz.
Over the years, audiences have been wowed by the expertise and creativity of these children, and impressed by their confidence level and powerful stage presence. The show is created fresh every year with the addition of new, kid-generated skits, as well as an ever-growing student skill level that infuses new energy and ideas into some of the old standards.
For well over a decade, Orchard School students have performed in many community events throughout the county, under the direction of teacher Rock Lerum, a professional performer, and winner of the Gail Rich award in 2003 for his work in the community. Lerum and nine of his students even traveled to New York City in 2007 where they rode 6- foot tall giraffe unicycles, danced on stilts, sang and clowned in the Good Morning America studios in Times Square, as finalists in a national contest for the Oreo Cookie Jingle.
The entire school packed up props, costumes, performers, music and set pieces to perform a rendition of the Yellow Submarine Magical Mystery Tour to local schools in Santa Cruz and Watsonville, in 2009, and again in 2013.
In 2010 and 2012, students performed with the Santa Cruz County Symphony as part of their family concert series, in the programs Here Comes the Circus and Under the Boardwalk, at the Santa Cruz Civic Center and the Mello Center in Watsonville. More recently, you may have seen Orchard School students when they delighted the Santa Cruz Warrior’s crowds at halftime in 2014 and 2017.
In the past two years, CircOrchard was performed outdoors for over 1,600 elementary students at four local schools: Ohlone & Calabasas Elementary in Watsonville, Gault Elementary in Santa Cruz, and Pacific Elementary in Davenport.
Orchard School is a non-profit, alternative private school located on 14 beautiful acres in Aptos, with just under 60 students and a dozen teachers who are specialists in their field.
The school’s mission is to bring learn- ing to life with a comprehensive hands-on curriculum that celebrates childhood and focuses on the arts as well as traditional academics. The staff shares a commitment to make sure students get out in nature and move their bodies as much as possible, and share the belief that kids need this to fully exercise and develop their brains and inspire their curiosity to want to learn. Tickets: $12 adults, $6 under 12 and seniors, free under 2.To purchase tickets for CirOchard via Paypal, visit orchardschoolaptos.org or call or email the school for more information. (688-1074, [email protected])
