About the Festival

FringeArts and Circadium School of Contemporary Circus present the sixth annual Hand to Hand circus festival May 31st—June 2nd in the FringeArts theater. The 2024 Hand to Hand lineup celebrates the remarkable skill and artistry of local circus performers over the course of a weekend of thrilling events for the whole family. Get ready for juggling, aerials, acrobatics, clowning, and more.

About Test Flights

Sunday, June 2 at 7pm

Test Flights is Circadium’s works-in-progress series, showcasing brand-new contemporary circus creations.  The artists in the show are all professional aerialists, acrobats, and jugglers.  These virtuosic performers experiment by blending circus disciplines with theatre, dance, music, spoken word, and performance art.

About the Artists

Andrew Scharff

Andrew Scharff graduated from Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Clown College in 1995 and since then has done very little that isn’t circus-related. It could also be said that since then he has done very little. Andrew is excited for every chance he gets to be the MC for Test Flights, as it gives him a chance to perform in a more calm manner that involves more talking and less lugging around cases of props, juggling and, running around like a madman. As he gets older this is the direction he would like his performance to take. If you think Andrew doesn’t look that old, you should tell him that and it will totally make his day. Oh yeah, and self-promotion uh check out andrewsbigshow.com his website, his little side project www.clowntheworld.com where every year he takes a trip to a new country to perform for people who wouldn’t normally get to see a live non-verbal circus show and come to his Fringe Show in September: Locker Room Pep Talk at the Old Pine Community Center.

Elliott Gittelsohn

Elliott Gittelsohn resolved to join the circus at age 12. His training includes an apprenticeship at Circus Smirkus Academy, a degree in clowning from The Clown Conservatory, and training under Mongolian contortionist, Serchmaa Byamba. Elliott has performed with companies including Capacitor, Celebrity Cruises, Sister Magic Productions, MOTH Poetic Circus, Vau de Vire Society, and Kinetic Arts Production. He holds a degree in Performing Arts from the LEAP Program. While earning his degree, Elliott conducted research on  psychological stress and recovery of circus performers in training versus performing. He was assistant director of Oregon Fringe Festival (2021 season) and was a junior fashion designer for Joe Dunbar Designs. He coaches circus skills, specializing in contortion and hand balancing, and has directed shows for Time Flies Circus, Burning Coal Theatre, Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, Levity Circus Collective, Kinetic Arts Center, Circo Caribe, San Francisco Circus Center, and Hampshire College. Elliott is the Youth Troupe Director at PSCA, and is on faculty at Circadium.

Jack Kavanagh

Jack is originally from Connecticut. He moved to Philadelphia in 2018. Before his Philadelphia arrival he spent five years in Montreal QC studying intermedia studio arts and Contemporary Dance. After his time in Montreal, he spent two years at the New England Center for Circus arts studying Rope and German wheel. He now calls Philadelphia home and focuses his time on building bridges within the Circus community and the overall awareness of Circus in the public eye.

Jack is the director of Open Ring Circus Concept and has toured all over New England and Canada with Open Ring’s show Coated : 1944 Circus fire project. He has also worked with Big Teeth Performance Collective and Almanac Dance Circus Theater.

Jack is also passionate about bikes and works for the Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia where he works in the education and outreach department.

Casie Girvin & Steven Crino – The Circus Opera Company

The Circus Opera Company is a new Philadelphia-based organization that explores the synthesis of circus and classical music. The Circus Opera Company will bring opera to new heights this Fall with their first full-length piece, THE TIRE SWING.

Steven Crino is a composer that seeks to tell relevant stories through emotionally rich and intimate music. His music has been described as “stunningly beautiful, heartfelt, lush, and delicate.” He is also a co-founder of The Circus Opera Company, an organization that synthesizes opera with dynamic circus arts. Steven is an adjunct faculty member at Temple University, where he teaches courses in Music Theory and Music History. He received his Doctoral Degree from the Peabody Institute, where he also completed degrees in Composition (M.M.) and Theory Pedagogy (M.M.). Steven includes among his mentors Michael Hersch, Kevin Puts, and Omar Thomas. www.stevencrino.com @stevecrino

Casie Girvin is a Philly-based singer, actor, acrobat, and co-founder of The Circus Opera Company. She specializes in interdisciplinary art, combining her love of music, theatre, gymnastics, and circus arts. Some of her favorite credits include “Charlotte” in CHARLOTTE’S WEB at the Arden Theatre Company, MAKE BANK with Meg Saligman, “John Webster” in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE at the Capital Repertory Theatre, and “Edith” in a new chamber opera, SIX AUTUMNS ON THE HUDSON. Casie joined the faculty this year at The Circadium School of Contemporary Circus as a Voice and Cabaret teacher, and coaches tumbling and acrobatics at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts. @casiegirvin @circusoperacompany www.casiegirvin.com

Shin to Shin

L M Feldman is a queer, feminist, GNC playwright. She makes theater (& circus) that is brave, kinetic, epic, and intimate. She’s ongoingly grateful to have been an alum of the Yale School of Drama and the New England Center for Circus Arts, an Orbiter 3 member, a New Georges Affiliated Artist, a Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries winner, a Playwrights’ Center Core Writer, and currently a Venturous Playwright Fellow. Her work has been nominated for the Herb Alpert Award, Wasserstein Prize, Steinberg Award, Blackburn Prize, and New York Innovative Theatre Award. L has lived in seven cities and is now based in Philadelphia, where she writes, collaborates, dramaturgs, consults, advocates, teaches (all over the place), and handstands (also all over the place). Her theater & circus work can be found on the NewPlay Exchange or at www.laurenfeldman.com.

Rebecca Wright (she/her) is a director-creator, and a founding member of Applied Mechanics, with whom she has created over a dozen original immersive works, most recently the utopian science-fiction extravaganza Other Orbits. Other recent favorite projects include Backing Track, Pinocchio, and Red Riding Hood at the Arden; The Wild Duck at Quintessence Theater Group; Head Over Heels at Theater Horizon; Perfect Day at Headlong; and Spiritual Experience with the Private Theater. She has created work with Annie Wilson, Cynthia Hopkins, Kristin Linklater, MK Tuomanen, Michael Kiley, Emily Bate, and The Riot Group. Rebecca has worked with students at the University of the Arts, University of Minnesota, Arcadia University, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan, among others. She has contributed writing to publications by TCG, Ecotone, Routledge, and Haymarket. She is a two-time recipient of an Independence Fellowship in the Arts.

Hannah Gold is a Philadelphia-based actor, devisor and educator. She has performed locally with companies including the Wilma Theater, Inis Nua, Orbiter 3, InterAct Theater, People’s Light, Mauckingbird Theater, EgoPo and devised material with Ninth Planet and the After-Image. Hannah is a graduate of Temple University’s MFA program, where she now teaches. hannah-gold.com

Anna Faye Lieberman (she/they) is a scrappy, queer, theatre artist. Passionate about the development of new works and the subversion of classics, they shape characters with their expansive, wacky imagination. They want to unleash your inner weirdo. She loves cowboys, dirt, and their pets. Recent credits include: Fun Home (New Light Theatre), A Christmas Carol (People’s Light), Jane Eyre (PAC), Head Over Heels (Theatre Horizon), 10 Dates with Mad Mary (Inis Nua), Into The Woods (Arden Theatre Co.), Carroll County Fix (Azuka Theatre). UArts BFA Musical Theatre. @annaliebz www.annafayelieberman.com

Luther Bangert

Luther is a juggling performer and teacher specializing in expressive ball juggling technique and movement. He began juggling in 2005 while studying philosophy at the University of Iowa. After graduating in 2010, he performed with the Great Bombay Circus in India. In 2012 he first encountered the worlds of both contemporary circus and street performance while performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. From there, between 2012-2016, he used street performing as a means to travel the USA, Europe, Australia, and Asia, interacting with contemporary circus and dance schools, communities, and various performance and arts festivals along the way.

In 2016 he moved to New York City to perform and teach, and began studies of qi gong and dance with Daria Faïn in her C O R E M O T I O N program. Luther debuted his solo stage show, Distillations, in May 2022. He began teaching at the Circadium School of Contemporary Circus in September 2022.

Luther regularly performs in Philadelphia and around the East Coast and has recently shared his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, as well as performing and teaching in and around Mardin, Turkey at the Flying Carpet Children Festival – a mobile festival for children living in difficult places.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Juggling Association (IJA) and is devoted to bringing juggling to new places in his own practice, in his teaching, and in the world.

Granule is a works in progress showing of Luther’s research as Artist-In-Residence at Circadium in May 2024. This will ultimately be a full length production set to premiere in mid to late 2025.