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Road conditions count. So does a nurturing artistic environment. Artists stopping over in Charlotte will get their own apartments instead of getting crammed into double occupancy motel rooms. Troupes of acrobats get more than a calliope accompaniment.
"If you come to work in our circus," Roy stresses, "we're going to work on your act. We're going to put another costume on. We're going to bring in a choreographer to work with you and the people around you. We're going to give you your own music, your own lighting, you see? We're going to put you in a proper environment that respects the entire concept of the show."
Quidam: a nameless passerby, a solitary figure lingering on a street corner, a person rushing past, living lost amidst the crowd. One who cries out, sings and dreams within us all. Transforming an anonymous world into a place of hope and connection. Target: grace in motion. The Target chooses to live in empty space, present and absent at the same time, a companion to the lost girl for a little while.
In a show as richly concepted as Quidam, Cirque du Soleil turns the paradigm of circus production upside down. Normally the company would seek out solo acts and groups, devise an environment that showcases them, adding music in the background, formulating intros, building the tension...cuing the drum rolls.
Soleil also scouts talent around the world, but they have what Roy calls a "big casting department" in Montreal. That's because people need to be found to meet exacting character concepts in new shows spun out by Cirque's creative team -- and to fill openings that suddenly crop up because of injuries, illness, and career moves. On tour, Roy takes on a large share of the troubleshooting.
"We just started Miami," Roy told us back in February. "Before that opened, we transferred from Europe to Miami. In that process, we lost a couple of artists. So to make sure that everything is well-tuned-in and oiled and everything, I'm going to bring the choreographer."
The original choreographer, Debra Brown, answered that SOS. Benoit Jutras' assistant came to work with the band because a new bandleader was on board, along with a new violin player and a new guitar player. On top of that, since Roy was integrating a new act into the mix, the original musical concept had to be adapted to the new talent.
So the original creative team remains involved, but not as closely as they were in 1996. "What's opening the first half is not what you saw four years ago," Roy reveals. "So it's never really boring, like I'm watching the same show and maintaining the quality. It's alive!"
When the headless visitor drops his blue bowler to the floor, there's a sudden clap of thunder and flashes of lightning. Zoe retrieves the hat and runs after the man. But he walks resolutely out into the rain, ignores the girl, leaving his blue bowler -- and his umbrella! -- behind him.
Still singing sweetly, Zoe returns stage center, sits down, and studies her new hat. The Ringmaster and the Target line up behind her, hamming it up impishly, as Zoe remains entranced by the bowler. Emboldened, the Ringmaster sneaks up behind the girl, looming directly behind her as she lifts the blue chapeau over her head. Will the prankster steal the hat before she puts it on?
Although the main goal is to entertain, Quidam stretches the emotional and visual boundaries of circus far beyond their traditional glitz and glee. Costume designer Lemieux has chosen grey as the color she wishes to emphasize, accented by warm hues and metallic tones. And the creative team that already reinvented the circus now strives in Quidam to reinvent themselves.
"When it was time for Quidam," Roy remembers, "they wanted to try and do something else, something different. They wanted to dare to bring a new type of emotion onstage, something a lot more contemporary, something that would dare to talk about anonymity.
"If you've seen the beginning of the show, the little girl starts moving around, and it's obvious that the parents are there, and they're inside their little world. She's trying to get in contact with them, but they don't move. Nothing happens.
"So what is the next sequence, is she dreaming? It's not really important. When a child plays, he's just in the world he's playing. He becomes what it is. When they decided to create Quidam, they wanted to show an emotional state that's not necessarily fun.
"It can be dark. But it's not a dark show."