Work has begun in earnest this week to transform the Bowlus Fine Arts Center stage into an 1865 mining town.
“Boom Town,” the most elaborate — and costly — production ever staged at the Bowlus, begins at 3 p.m. Sunday.
Limited tickets remain. Advance orchestra seats cost $20 apiece, $18 for the balcony. Tickets the day of the show cost $22 for orchestra and $20 for balcony. Tickets for full-time students are half price only if sold in advance.
Jeff Jordan, the Bowlus’ facility manager and technical director, offered some perspective of the five-day effort to equip the stage with the proper sound and lighting equipment, props and scenery.
“There’s probably three times as much work for ‘Boom Town’ as there was for ‘A Christmas Carol,’” which drew rave reviews for its technical wizardry in 2009. “It’s just a lot more complicated than what we normally provide.”
The impressive set includes a mechanical apparatus that serves as both scenery and prop as the performers climb up swaying telegraph poles, dance on a swinging chandelier, fly high and fast on a revolving crane, flip and jump on moving ore carts and balance on whiskey juts.
“There’s probably six times as much work as it would be for a regular concert,” he added.
THE $35,000 Cirque Mechanics production transports the audience to an 1860s set depicting the small frontier town of Rosebud, where two ambitious saloon owners have set up shop in a gold rush boom town peopled with typical wild West archetypes, who all happen to be amazing acrobats and aerialists. The competition leads to comically disastrous results.
The production is billed as entertainment for the entire family. Kids will delight at the gymnastic antics of ballerinas balancing on tiny poles and clowns juggling pickaxes while adults will be intrigued about the seemingly limitless abilities of the human body as performers fly, hang, jump and tumble through the air.
Many of the performers have toured with Cirque du Soleil.
“Boom Town” is sponsored by the Sleeper Family Trust. Terry Sparks State Farm Insurance is the corporate sponsor.
