By Wendy Wang (Age 13)  & Vivian Wang (Age 9)

Through May 19 to 21, 2012, the International Toronto Circus Festival brought families together for a fun-filled weekend at the Harbourfront Centre. Co-produced by Zero Gravity Circus, the International Toronto Circus Festival is the only free circus festival in Canada. There are crazy clowns and stilt walkers wandering around, and other amazing circus performances. One collection of routines that stood out was the performance by Zacada’s Circus School, a group of talented acrobats, some as young as seven years old!

Zacada, from Hamilton, came to the International Circus Festival to showcase an excerpt from their year-end show, “Summer Please.” The opening act astounded many people as two young ladies did an acrobatics
routine on the dual trapeze, which is a type of swing. The ladies were very flexible, and they did flips and arches that most people can’t do without training.

In the audience, Fyon and her five year-old daughter, Carina, came for their love of the circus. The trapeze act was their favourite. “It is a very well-organized show. It’s our first time here, but we’ll come back again next year for sure!” Fyon exclaimed.

Zacada’s second act was truly a test of strength and flexibility. Relying on just their body strength, two boys named Gauss and Kaleb climbed the aerial silk (which resembles a curtain hanging from the ceiling) while
performing multiple tricks. Among the following acts, there was a skilled juggler, and a funny act with a “family of acrobats” who told the story of a beach vacation through acrobatics.

After the performance, Voice K spoke to one of the teen performers named Annachie Borsellino-Luchsinger. Annachie was introduced to Zacada’s circus school at a young age because his parents said he was a “bit too
energetic.” Since then, Annachie has been performing for four years and really enjoys it.

In this year’s performance, he took part in the beach act and a skipping act. He really likes spending time with his circus crew and learning new tricks. Annachie and his crew have been practicing for almost half a year for the show they performed at the Harbourfront Centre.

“Everyone at Zacada is very nice and the program offers lots of variety. I like how I can train according to my level so I don’t feel pressured,” Annachie says, “Zacada isn’t very big, but we have lots of fun!”

The International Toronto Circus Festival is a place for family gatherings, and to watch the wonders of a circus. However, it wasn’t easy to fit everything together. Chico, an organiser of the event, was happy to share his thoughts.

“Well, there are challenges for everything. The hardest thing was creating the show schedule. Many performers participated in multiple routines, so we had to make sure the right people were at the right places at the right time. It’s thanks to the crew that the timing works out,” says Chico. As for why people should come back next year, Chico points out that “there are new acts each year, and new activities - plus it’s all free.”



Read our update 2013 report on Toronto International Circus Festival 2013

By: Sunni Zhou and Vivian Wang

Seussical, a musical for children aged six to 12, premiered on Thu, Nov. 10, 2011, at the Young People’s Theatre in Toronto. It was a huge success.

The main characters are the Cat in the Hat, played by Damien Atkins; Horton, played by George Masswohl;
and Jojo, played by Jennifer Villaverde.

All of the actors performed beautifully in the musical. It was fun entertainment, especially with the words all rhyming. Not one mistake was seen during the show. One very funny moment is when Gertrude, a lone bird played by Jane Johonson can’t even walk because of how long her tail was! Gertrude is a quiet bird. She can’t fit in with anyone and she’s Horton’s neighbor. She has a crush on Horton and a little one feathered tail. When  Gertrude finds out how her tail can get more beautiful, she jumps for the chance. Trying to impress Horton,
Gertrude’s tail grows too big and too heavy. She has to drag it and that makes her very slow. That is why she  cannot  save Horton when the hunters trap him. She tries to fly to save him, but her tail is in the way.

The story is a mixture of all of Dr. Seuss’s stories. It is about how Horton protects the Whos and how he loses them. Horton is captured by  hunters while he has to babysit Mayzie’s egg, which distracted him from finding
the Whos. Mayzie, played by Sharron Mathews, goes on vacation. The hunters sell Horton to the circus. Mayzie sees him but makes no attempt to save him. It was Gertrude who saves him and finds the Whos. She plucks her tail to only one feather so she could fly again.

Mayzie’s egg hatches and it is an elephant with wings! Gertrude and Horton decide to raise it together as a family.

Other characters in the cast are Sour Kangaroo, played by Nichola Lawrence, three monkeys played by Desmond Osborne, David Lopez and Dale Miller and two other birds played by Natasha O’Brien and Bethany Kovarik.

“I would recommend this show, two thumbs up!” says Robert Gontier, an adult who watched the musical. He really liked it. The director of this musical, Allen Maccinis enjoyed the hard work of the performers and he was proud  that the show was a success.

Maccinis wasn’t sure if the show would be a big hit. He traveled to New York to see an earlier version of it. He decided to buy the script and changed it up a little before he allowed it to be shown in Toronto.

Maggie Primeau and Asa Pattison, both four-years-old, were  very excited to watch the musical.They had been at the Young People’s Theatre last year to watch Frog and Toad, which they enjoyed.

Food
After the musical, there were cake and snacks to eat. The cake was in a rectangular shape with a picture of the Cat in the Hat on it. The other snacks were cucumbers, sweet peppers, crakers, cheese, and carrots dipped in salad sauce, and there were also nachos dipped in fresh salsa. 
In both lobbies, the rooms were filled with people enjoying the snacks and lining up for cake that the staff provided. 
Other than the delicious snacks, there was also a juice stand. There were mango, orange andapple juice for everybody to drink.

By: Vivian Wang

The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair displayed different kinds of giant vegetables. There were squashes and cabbages. They were well organized with  a tag of what vegetables they were, their height, weight, and the places they were grown. The largest squash we saw weighs 1199.4 lb, from Picton, grown by John Vincent. 
Some fruits and vegetables had very strange shapes and others were normal -shaped. Pumpkins, squashes,  
pears, grapes, spices, and lots of other kinds of fruits and vegetables were normal-shaped, as well as wheat. Beautiful golden stalks of wheat were on display, too. It showed the hard work of farmers all over the land. The Fair had very tall plants, too. They were probably one storey and a half!