American Circus Educators Magazine Fall 2017 (Issue 2, Volume 10) | Page 22

INTERVIEW #2
The LeClair Legacy:
An Interview with Circus Smirkus'
Outgoing Executive Director
WITH LISA GODIN
Lisa/
I understand that you didn’t have a circus
background originally. How did you first come
to Circus Smirkus?
Ed/
No, I didn’t have a background in circus. I started
ironically as a nuclear engineer, then moved into
business management. In 1992, I started playing Taiko,
a style of Japanese festival drumming. I eventually grew
what started as a hobby into a non-profit organization
named Taiko Aikokai New England. In 2003, a fellow
drummer and board member for Circus Smirkus
recommended me for a job with Smirkus. I was thrilled.
It allowed me to use my business background to grow
a platform for artists and creative teams to show the
world the power of the performing arts. Here at Circus
Smirkus, we have what we call the Creative Team that
begins the entire process. The Directors have a vision
for the show. They describe the acts that they want.
Because the show is cast months before it starts, we can
now create costumes, compose music, design sets, and
provide an entire creative process that really is similar to
what you would see on Broadway. I just watched a Walt
Disney special and it was remarkable to me just how the
creative process that goes into animation is very similar
to what is happening in our creative design process
now. First and foremost, the process of being able to
allow the Creative Team to gather and communicate and
record their creative thought and build on it rather than
have a series of brainstorming meetings where everyone
goes off and talks for a while and a month later we come
back and say “what was it you said?”
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