[2] Tournelle du Soleil: What Happened the Week Prior (Patreon)

[TRANSCRIPTION OF CONVERSATION FROM APRIL 25TH]

PING!

<<The client is changing their minds about VACUUM – they want to know how we can make the act softer >> read the message from Cirque.

There it was. What I’d been waiting for. A soft, quiet sinking feeling settled over me.

PING!

<<Can you perform VACUUM with a different vibe?>>

Okay, Ess – positive thinking. Let's go.

<<Yes, of course, absolutely!>> I typed back.  <<The videos that I gave you were quite intense: the red lighting and all that, the heartbeat and the breath speeding up on the recording – it's not exactly uplifting.>>

 I could see where the client might be coming from. <<I think with the right music and lighting we could create a version of VACUUM that the client might feel better about, but my technician is away on a cruise contract for another few weeks. All the other video I have is similar to what you’ve seen already – for producers who had very explicitly desired versions of it where I made it as alarming a performance as possible.>>

<<Got it. Let me circle back to you.>>

A few long, quiet days passed.

And then –

<<It’s a firm ‘no’.  They’ve said they think it’s not quite the right fit for the show>>

I let a long, slow exhale and pushed myself away from my computer desk.

Wow. I guess that’s it then. It was too good to be true. That’s okay.

PING!

<<So we have to find a way to adapt, to change – >>

Oh my god.

<<Can you do some contortion just out on the open stage, like moving around?>>

Oh god.

<< It’s not a skillset of mine>> I tapped out quickly. <<All the contortion I trained with my Mongolian coaches in my foundational years was about doing tricks in one tiny, small space>>

<<Right, okay>>

<< If the client is really interested in the contortion-moving-on-stage direction, I think you need a performer like Saffi [Watson]. I don’t want you to feel limited in the direction of the show if what the client is asking for doesn’t align with my skillsets or strengths.  If you need to re-cast I understand>>

<< No, we’re going to find a way>>

<<Would a straps bit work in the context of the show? That’s what I’ve been working on most for the past couple years >>

<< We actually already have a duo straps number in the line-up >>

<< Ah, okay >>

<< I want to put this on your radar so we can figure out what we can do, or another solution – with a heartfelt apology for this adjustment. I'm sorry for the news, but let's find a solution. Send me anything else you've got so I can mock something up for them>> read the message on my screen.

<<We'll figure something out that'll make everybody happy>> I begin typing out. <<I'm not sure what that'll be yet – but we'll figure it out. >>

Another message blooped up on my screen:

<< Maybe we put the act instead in a plexiglas cube? >>

<< I could certainly try >> I replied cautiously. I wanted this. But I didn’t want something that was going to put me in a situation where I would fail, and make this director who’d put his faith in me look bad along the way.

<< It would be a completely different apparatus, though, essentially>> I continued. <<I’d need time to research inside it … >>

<<Thank you for the incredible attitude, because YES we will figure it out! We'll put our heads together and come up with some plans.>>

A wall of hesitation rose inside me, brick by doubtful brick.  I was amazing in the context of the very specific act and the highly specialized apparatus I’d spent a long, long time researching inside – my vacuum tower. Outside of that, at the moment? I wasn’t so sure. This was Cirque du Soleil, after all. The company with contortionists like Alexey Goloborodko, or the Mongolian group acts in Kurios and Kooza that filled me with wonder in my very earliest excursions to the circus as a member of the audience. Cirque had a reputation to uphold.

<<Look, I don’t want to like … talk myself out of the chance to work with you here, because – I’d really like to. But I need to be honest and realistic that my current level of flexibility isn’t at an extreme level right now – I’ve been focusing heavily on aerial straps for 2 years. I wouldn’t want your client to be disappointed>>

<<Honestly this concept was built with you in mind as the main character. So that's not changing.>>

Main character...?

I immediately filed that under Things To Clarify Later.

<< If you're game, I'm game. I

<<Thank you for all of that. But we’re moving ahead with you. Talk soon>>

I closed the chat. Scrubbed my knuckles against aching eyelids. And sat there, hunched slightly in my chair, staring at the black screen. Well, damn.

You’re going to work for Cirque du Soleil, I repeated to myself, testing to see what response those words elicited within.

There –

A small, hot spark of something.

But muffled.

Some part of me wanted to rise to this challenge, but a cold, damp fog of uncertainty was muting it.

You know how long it takes to research a good new act, right? said the Cynic.

A long time, said the Pragmatist.

But not all great things have to take months or years of research, offered the Idealist. You had to make the duo act with Troy for Demain in like … seven or eight weeks, remember?

Dude we’re gonna have three weeks if we’re lucky, the Cynic fired back.

And that was when you were in full swing of contortion, not this 50/50 thing you’re doing while you’ve been working so hard to bring aerial straps up to a professional level… the Pragmatist said nervously.

Idealist: Okay, okay. Whatever. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Pragmatist: Doing what, though?

Cynic: You’d better not let them down.

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Stay tuned for your next instalment of Tournelle du Soleil.  It'll be landing in your inboxes tomorrow at 7am EST / 1pm CEST. Until then, stay strange and wonderful – XO, ess