Danbury Library teams up with PBS to wet people's appetites for new Circus Documentary

The Danbury Library is excited to announce that it will partner with the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and Circus Moves, a mobile circus arts education and entertainment company located in Bethel, CT, to bring a special, one-of-a-kind experience to circus lovers of all ages to the Library on Wednesday, September 19 at 4:30 pm.

To start things off, representatives from the Danbury Museum, Danbury Library and Bethel Historical Society will speak about our region’s historical connections to circuses, and attendees who would like to try will have the opportunity to walk on a tightrope.  Live circus performers from Circus Moves will also perform some daring feats to help provide the proper lead-in for a special sneak preview of PBS’ new AMERICAN EXPERIENCE film ‘The Circus.”

The program will conclude with a special 34-minute sneak film preview of PBS’ upcoming AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentary, “The Circus.”  This two-part,four-hour documentary explores the colorful history of this popular, influential and distinctly American form of entertainment, from the first one-ring show at the end of the 18^thcentury to 1956, when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey big top was pulled down for the last time. The full documentary will premiere on Monday, October 8th and Tuesday, October 9^th from 9:00-11:00 p.m. on PBS.

As described by PBS, the documentary will show a circus as “A transformative place for reinvention, where young women could become lion tamers and young men traveled the world as roustabouts, the circus allowed people to be liberated from the roles assigned by society and find an accepting community that had eluded them elsewhere. Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive, and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, “The Circus” brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town, its stars were among the most famous people in the country, and multitudes gathered to see the improbable and the impossible, the exotic and the spectacular.

“There’s nothing in the world like a circus,” said ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson. “You cannot come to a circus and still believe as you previously did. "The Circus" is a peek into what we could be, how great we could be, how beautiful our world could be. It’s about making your own miracles, conjuring your own miracles. We’re coming for the transcendent.” Through the intertwined stories of several of the most innovative and influential impresarios of the late 19^th century, including P.T. Barnum, James Bailey, and the five Ringling Brothers, the series reveals the circus as a phenomenon created by a rapidly expanding and increasingly industrialized nation. It explores how its “dangerous” and “exotic” attractions revealed the country’s notions about race and Western dominance, and shows how the circus subverted prevailing standards of “respectability” with its unconventional, titillating and “freakish” entertainments.”

The program FREE and open to all ages.  For more information about the program, contact Aurelio Muraca at amuraca@danburylibrary.org.  

The Danbury Library is located at 170 Main Street in Danbury, CT