Every Kid Juggles at Laguna Playhouse’s ‘Barnum’

Step right up! That rascally ringmaster P.T. Barnum is alive and well and treading the boards at the Moulton Theatre, where the Laguna Playhouse’s revival of “Barnum,” the 1980 Tony Award-winning musical, continues.

“We’ve got a trapeze, gymnastics, tumbling, a human pyramid, clowns, unicycles, tightrope, trampoline, stilts, rope twirling,” said Playhouse general manager Jody Davidson, who is directing. “And every kid in the show juggles.”

No small thanks for all of that goes to a former Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performer, Lynn Polke, who was enlisted by the Playhouse earlier this year to help put the cast of 38 through its paces.

The instruction began with a summer workshop in basic circus skills, Polke recalled. “For juggling, you need good hand-to-eye coordination--and rhythm, because you start out with one (ball), throwing it back and forth, hand to hand. Then you add a second one. That’s where the rhythm comes in; it’s got to be ‘Throw/throw, catch/catch.’

“Then you add the third one, and that’s where everyone freaks out. You tell them, ‘Two is the same as three--except that the third one is in midair all the time.’ ”

Working with young people (and in the “Barnum” cast, the people are as young as 7) is not new to Polke. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in dance, film and theater, she began performing as a clown and mime.

“They gave me a few comic bits to do, some choreography, I put a red nose on--and I was clown,” she remembered with a laugh. “That was also my first experience teaching kids circus. We’d do a 1-hour free show in the park, then we’d gather the kids, divide them into groups, decide what their strong points were and put together a little circus with them.

“We’d have some basic gags we’d throw them. But kids are great that way: You don’t have to give them much to work with. If you can just excite them, they’ll take off with it.”

Problems, she added, often surface after the children happen onto something that really works. “You laugh and say, ‘That’s great--now let’s do it again.’ And that’s where the discipline comes in: trying to recreate that moment, figuring out what it was they did, why it was funny, and how they can do it again.

“It’s hard to stop that moment in time, take it apart. But kids of all ages can do it. I’ve done circus with 2-year-olds, ‘Teeny Tiny Tumbling Tots’--rolling them on the mats, pushing them through a forward roll, then having them stand up, throw their arms up in the air and say, ‘Ta- dah !’ ”

In addition to her 3-year tenure with Ringling Bros., Polke spent 4 years on the road with Circus Vargas, often performing in two or three towns each week as a showgirl and aerialist. Grounded for the time being by motherhood (while husband David Polke stays on the road with Ringling Bros. as a “cat” trainer), Polke keeps busy with teaching jobs and on weekends heads over to Magic Mountain, where she presents the educational wild animal shows.

She also lends her voice to raising the status of circus performance. “Circus is often perceived as ‘light entertainment,’ ” she said. “I’d like to see it regarded as more of an art form, because I think it is. And it is being more and more treated that way, with (the success of) Cirque du Soleil and the Big Apple Circus. I’d hope we could have something like that in Los Angeles: a nonprofit circus based here.

“Circus itself has a very rich history. Three-ring circus is All-American. But now the more artistic companies are going back to the one-ring format, where the performer really has a much closer tie to the audience: Literally, he’s closer. And because there isn’t so much going on, the audience gets a lot more involved.”

Involvement is a big reason why director Davidson selected “Barnum” for the Laguna’s Christmas offering. “We feel this is a time for family theater, and circus is a real universal,” she said. “There’s enough color, movement and action to hold the little guys; enough story, depth and intelligence to hold the adults. It’s one of those shows with absolutely no redeeming social value--but it’s a heck of a lot of fun.”

The Laguna Playhouse’s production of “Barnum” continues through Dec. 11 at the Moulton Theatre, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Performances: 7 p.m. today and Dec. 8 through 10; 2 p.m. Sunday and Dec. 11. Tickets: $3 to $7.50. Information: (714) 494-0743.