Ladies and Gentleman! Orchard School presents CircOrchard, its 10th annual children’s circus, featuring the entire 56-strong student body performing clown antics, juggling, acrobatics, unicycling, stilt walking, and circus spoofs. The not-to-be-missed public show will be on Saturday, March 14th, at 2:00 p.m. at The Landing-A Performing Arts Center. Make sure to get your tickets early. See ticket information below.
Over the years, audiences have been wowed by the expertise and creativity of the school’s young performers, as well as impressed by their confidence level and powerful stage presence. The show, under the direction of teacher and professional performer, Rock Lerum, is created fresh every year with the addition of new, kid-generated skits, and an ever-growing student skill level that infuses new energy and ideas into some of the old standards.
Lerum has been teaching at Orchard School since 1998 and won a Gail Rich award in 2003 for his work in the community. In 2007, he took nine of the school’s students to New York City 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.
This year’s tour includes shows at Monte Vista school in Corralitos, and Del Mar Elementary in Live Oak. Over the past decade, the entire school has packed up props, costumes, performers, music and sets to perform free shows, namely a rendition of the Yellow Submarine Magical Mystery Tour and more recently, CircOrchard, at local schools including Gault, Calabasas, De LaVeaga, Green Acres, Tierra Pacifica, Ohlone, Monarch, Gateway, and Pacific School.
You may have seen Orchard School students when they delighted the Santa Cruz Warrior’s crowds at the half time show, or when they 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. Orchard School is a small, non-profit, private K-6th school located on 14 beautiful acres in Aptos.
The school’s mission is to bring learning to life with a comprehensive hands-on curriculum that celebrates childhood and focuses on the arts as well as traditional academics. The teachers are specialists in their field who share a commitment to make sure students get out in nature and move their bodies as much as possible.
They believe that kids need this to fully exercise and develop their brains and inspire their curiosity to want to learn.
Ticket Information
To purchase tickets for CircOrchard, visit orchardschoolaptos.org. Tickets are $16 for adults, $8 for those under 12 and over 65, and free for children under 2. For more information, call or email: 688-1074, [email protected]
