Feedback on Circus Berzercus from St John’s CE Primary School

My class and I at St John’s School promoted a production with Circus Berzercus, on Tuesday 21st March 2006. When we first heard about it we were really excited. We had to pick from a sheet of paper with all different names of shows on. We all decided on Circus Berzercus.

After a fortnight Natalie came back with some news for us. It was that everyone had to split into four groups: Stage Manager, Box Office, Front of House and Marketing Publicity. Front of House is one of the biggest jobs on the night of the show like selling cakes and doing the games. Stage Management was in charge of talking to the company and looking after the actors. Marketing and Publicity’s job was to promote the show with posters and flyers. Box Office was in charge of making the tickets and counting how many we had sold and counting our profits. Natalie has helped us with what we had to do.

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Workshop

With the money we made from our show last year we paid for a workshop (which was the afternoon before the show.) Ben and Steve, the people who did the show, taught us how to juggle, balance and plate spinning. The workshop was great fun and Ben and Steve were nice and kind. We all had a turn at doing plate spinning, balancing with peacock feathers, juggling and doing different tricks with these balls called poi. The workshop was funny seeing everyone dropping the plates and juggling balls. I liked making patterns with the poi but I was rubbish at the plate spinning, I couldn’t even get the plate started! Other people were good though and they threw them in the air and then caught them on their stick it was amazing!!!!!

Promoting – Front of house

On the night we promoted a show called Funny Business by Circus Berzercus. We were in front of house and our jobs were to sort out some games, which we did very successfully. Mine and my friend’s game was called Pie the teacher. What you did was you paid a pound for three plates of squirty cream and you aimed it at the teacher sitting in the chair. Seven cans of cream sold in no time so we had to close but we made 44.00. We enjoyed working on the stall.

In our team we had to think of games and prices and refreshments we both did a different game one of us did feed the clown Katie and the other did pin the nose on the clown with Alex. We got loads of money and both our stalls went well, the winner for pin the nose on the clown was Jack Sutton who got it on the nose and the person who got the most balls in the clown’s mouth was Jack Sutton – he must have had a lucky day.

It was brilliant being a young promoter we were in the front of house group, Joel did the game guess the name of the clown, and Alex did the game pin the nose on the clown. Our stalls went very well and at the end of the show Joel’s stall had to pick a name out of a hat and the name was Walter and Jack Sutton won the Easter egg on Alex’s stall.

Promoting – Box Office

At the start of the young promoters we all had to choose a job, I couldn’t decide which one to pick. But finally I chose marketing and publicity because last time we did it I was front of house so I thought I would do something different. I really wish I could do it again.

Promoting – Marketing & Publicity

I was in marking and publicity. My group had to put up posters and send out flyers. I thought it was hard to get people to come but it worked because we sold about 220 tickets. Being a young promoter was an exciting experience for me and I thought it was great!

When the night came I was really scared! I helped with the raffle and loads of people bought tickets. The show was really funny and I really liked all the acts. I would really like to do young promoters again because it was an amazing experience!

Promoting – Stage Management

We were in Stage Managements. We had to do the letters and for the show we had to look after the actors Ben and Steve. In our group we had to send out letters to tell parents about the show and email the company to find out about what they needed at the venue. Other jobs had to do different things like front of house had to provide refreshments and make games to entertain the audience during the interval.

The Show

On the night of Circus Berzercus we sold over 200 tickets the night was amazing everyone had a laugh and our stalls went very well.

I had a great time with Black Country touring. We have raised a lot of money. If I had another opportunity I would do this project all over again and Natalie has really helped us with what we needed to do.

I have had a wonderful time with Black Country Touring. I have learnt so much about making a production. It is harder than it looks, but Natalie helped so much. It was a great performance.

The show was great fun and really funny we liked the part when they had the glow in the dark juggling sticks they were really good when everyone watched the show they all had a go at a game and the most popular was pie the teacher. Altogether we raised £500 but we had £300 profit to keep. We had a great night and we enjoyed it all.

Overall I would recommend all primary schools to do a scheme like the one that my class did that night. It was fun and exciting to do and I would for sure do it again.

In conclusion we both liked it. It was very funny and we learnt skills to help us promote shows in the future if we go into show business.

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• Overall it was a great experience and we would love to do it again!

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This is just one example of the Young Promoters Scheme. Black Country Touring work with groups of young people aged up to 17. Each group will choose a show that is appropriate to their audience. Although the school and pupils chose to make this particular promotion into a larger event with stalls and a raffle you can organise as small or large event around the promotion as you would like. If you would like to know more about the Young Promoters Scheme please email us at info@bctouring.co.uk or call on 0121 533 7129.

What do you need to take part?

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• A committed and dedicated group ranging from 5 – 15 members.
• A group leader to be the key link person between Black Country Touring and the touring performing arts company.
• A venue space where the group would like the performance to be held.

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Interested?

If you would like to know more about the Young Promoters Scheme please email via our [fancy_link link="http://www.bctouring.co.uk/blog/contact/" target="self"]Contact page.[/fancy_link] or call on 0121 533 7129.

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