A touring life with Circa often lends itself to quite a varying schedule, however now that we have landed in London for two months I am looking forward to slightly slower morning routines. We are performing Peepshow by Circa at the Underbelly Festival until mid-August before taking the show to the Chamåleon Theatre in Berlin for 6 months.
Circa
Naturally, after a performance it takes some time for the adrenaline to ease and your mind to wind down, so bedtime doesn’t usually present itself until after midnight. I have the luxury of not setting an alarm in the morning, I lay in bed for as long as I need for my eyes to peel open and stretch out my limbs, accessing which muscles in my body are sore from the night before. Once I roll out of bed I shuffle my way to the kettle, stretching my spine on the way, allowing my body to begin to realign and stand tall again.
My evenings belong to a tent or a theatre, so I take the remaining hours of sunlight to soak in the fresh air and take some time to myself. In my spare hours I have also taken a liking to photography and drawing, chipping away at both as hobbies. Both mediums are non-physical, enabling my body to take a break and for my mind and soul to explore and create through a different medium. While I find drawing quite meditative there are also days when lying in bed with a cup of tea and a book hits the spot.
As for post-show rituals, I firstly take a big swig of water, take a moment to check in with the rest of my cast members followed by cool down to give my body the best shot of bouncing back without too much pain the next day.
Then I religiously wash all of the dirt and rosin off my feet before putting my shoes on, it really is a very satisfying reward/task. By the time we have tidied up for the night it is usually when my belly begins to grumble and I realise that I am hungry, my mind and muscles are craving some nutrition and hydration.
Our training schedule shifts depending if we are on tour or in rehearsals in Brisbane. We train and rehearse from 9-5 when we are at home in the Circa studio, however when we are on tour performing we train 3 hours before each show. We use this time to get the blood flowing and acrobatically connect with each other.