Article content
After 25 years of joyful work, Aytahn Ross was prepared to bow out. The Edmonton-based circus-cum-comedy performer was ready to retire his crystal juggling balls and pack up the cigar boxes he can pile as high as the sky, if that was what the world was telling him to do.
“I’ve always been a humble person, so I am open to different ways of living,” said Ross, who lost all his spring and summer bookings to COVID-19. “I’m a student of history and literature and I know the world changes and sometimes we cannot control that.”
But then the Found Festival asked for submissions that would respect physical distancing, prompting Ross to craft a show that is emblematic of what the festival does best. That is, to send art careening into the community, and see what happens.
The festival, now in its ninth year and running July 2-5 in the Old Strathcona area, is known for curating “unexpected collisions” between the world, and artists. Previous iterations have seen theatre, dance and music turn up in a grocery store, on the loading dock of a business, or at a playground. This year, though, festival co-producers Megan Dart and her sister, Beth Dart, knew things would have to be different, and it wasn’t just because festival sponsorship dropped by half to only $55,000. (And there’s no beer garden.)
