Ladies and Gentleman! Orchard School is presenting its 8th Annual Children’s Circus, CircOrchard, involving the whole student body, kindergarten through fifth 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 28th, 2:00 p.m. at the Harbor High School Theatre. Our performance schedule includes free shows for students at Valencia Elementary in Aptos and Main Street Elementary in Soquel.

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.

In the past three years, CircOrchard was performed outdoors for over 2,200 elementary students at five local schools: Ohlone & Calabasas Elementary in Watsonville, Gault and DeLaveaga 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 learning 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 visit orchardschoolaptos.org or at the door. For more info: (688-1074, [email protected])