Digital Program

Producer's note:

I can’t lie—all of my favorite moments of producing a show happen at the very end of production. Setting cues in an empty theater, sitting in my favorite chair to write this very note—they’re the bow on top of the present, the shimmer in the air that makes the magic feel real.

LAYOVERS has been a long time coming. By the time we finish our tour in September Nick, Dani, and I will have spent just over two years dreaming, arguing, and rehearsing the ever-loving heck out of this show. I have to believe that we’ve run our finale over one hundred times at this point. We still drop sometimes. Juggling is hard.

Usually when I’m writing this note, it’s a little bit bittersweet because it signifies the end of something, but that’s not the case with LAYOVERS. With this show, we’re staunchly in the middle, crested up to cruising altitude and wondering why tomato juice tastes so much damn better twenty-thousand feet about sea level. At the time of writing this, in the last twenty-four hours we’ve been accepted to one festival and rejected from another, and we’re sitting at the start line of the longest tour I’ve ever taken on.

This show has a lot of ‘est’s attached to it. It’s the smallest show I’ve ever done. The longest rehearsing. The longest touring. The aerial free-est. The juggling-est. The suitcase-iest. In this show, for me, anyway, it’s easy to see just how much has been reshaped by the last four years.

When I look at it from a distance, with my ‘I spent four years learning how to analyze art good’ hat on, this show about suitcases is actually a show about life getting upended and forging ahead with whatever weird, messy pieces you have left. Maybe they don’t all fit together the same way they used to, but maybe it’s for the better.

Creating this show has been a wild and wonderful ride. I’m so thankful for the group of people who’ve come on it with me, and I’m thankful to you for being here. So, fasten your seat belts, and please enjoy your flight.

- Stacey Strange
Producer

PROJECTED FLIGHT PATH

SUITCASES

Cast

Music: The Passenger - LUM!X, D.T.E, Gaby Ponte, MOKABY

CLUB JUGGLING

Nicholas Strange

Music: A Little Less Conversation - Elvis Presley, Junkie XL

LOOPING HOOPING

Stacey Strange

Music: 《三圆》- 曹舒越 (Shuyue Cao), 苏苔曦 (Stacey Strange)

DIABOLO

Dani Bobbi Lee

Music: Who I Am - Toro y Moi

HATBOX

Stacey Strange

Music: Flutter - Bonobo

BORED

Cast

Music: Jazzzz in Ya Bones - The Human Experience

CLUB DUET

Nicholas & Stacey Strange

Music: Bullets - Tunng

ACRO CHAIR

Cast

Music: Pony - Genuwine

DUO DIABOLO

Dani Bobbi Lee & Nicholas Strange

Music: Hair Up - TROLLS Cast

PERFECT FACE

Nicholas Strange

Music: Carillon Club Mix - Magic Box

HOOP DANCE

Dani Bobbi Lee & Stacey Strange

Music: Happy - Owen Phillips

HOOP JUGGLING & ROLLING

Stacey Strange

Music: Anthem - Emancipator

FINALE

Cast

Music: Speaking in Tongues - Jade Cicada

Get the full LAYOVERS playlist below!

CAST

Performer

DANI BOBBI LEE

Dani is a multidisciplinary circus artist specializing in diabolo and aerial arts. She began taking aerial classes with Air Temple in 2018 and soon became a coach after attending the Paper Doll Militia teacher training. She came on as a part owner of Air Temple in 2021.

In 2020, she co-directed and performed in her show, Time After Time. She starred as Sarah Graves in Air Temple’s production, Heaven or California and featured an aerial clowning act for the studio’s staff show, posing as a Martian who ingested human behavior in order to better understand them.

She continues to attend various circus workshops and intensives, including studying the Jacques method of the Neutral Mask under the direction of world renowned clown, Emmanelle Martin.

Dani has a proclivity towards comedy and believes it is one the best ways to connect with others, on and off stage.

Performer

NICHOLAS STRANGE

Nick is an accomplished straight jacket escape artist. He is also interested in circus and has been practicing and performing for at least 8 days now.

Past performance highlights include entertaining on stage with the World/Inferno Friendship Society, playing the villain in the Circularity’s production of Sherlock Holmes and the Sapphire Night, and being served with a subpoena to testify at a mob trial.

When not performing in the circus, Nick can be found engaging in questionably worthwhile engineering feats like moving an entire deck one foot uphill or digging up that big rock in the backyard with a winch.

He also enjoys reading near-impenetrable sci-fi novels, watching Mark Wahlberg movies on repeat, and listening to podcasts at double speed. He is also the founding member, and chairman, of the National Association for Excellence in Dowsing.

Performer, Producer

STACEY STRANGE

Stacey Strange is a quintuple threat. A multidisciplinary circus, musical, and visual artist, she often combines art forms to create transportive entertainment rooted in meaningful storytelling. Her creations include circus short films, touring productions, and the occasional novel.

She is the founder and creative director of Air Temple Arts in Connecticut and has taught and performed myriad circus arts across the US and internationally. As of 2024 she is a permanent member of the coaching staff at the New England Center for Circus Arts.

Her work has been called ‘As smart as it was entertaining—and it was very entertaining indeed.’ (The New Haven Independent)

You can learn more about her at www.staceystrange.com and on her Patreon

FLIGHT CREW

Voice of the PA, Sound

LIZ RICHARDS

Liz Richards is a juggler, trapeze artist, and circus director.

She graduated with a BFA in Acting from the NYU Tisch School of Drama in 2014 and ran away with the circus shortly thereafter.

Liz has directed two shows produced by Air Temple Arts: Heaven or California in 2021, and Super Duper Pool Party in 2023.

She would like to thank the cast of Layovers for trusting her with the sound of this singular show, and her husband, Ian, for his loving and steadfast support.

Stage Manager

BRIANNA THOMPSON

Bri is an aerial and ground performer specializing in multicorde, rope, and cyr wheel.

Spending her young adult years pursuing science and research, she now finds joy in re-realizing her childlike creativity and need for movement. Bri draws from her previous experience in dance, cheerleading, and obstacle course training to soar as a circus performer.

She enjoys sharing her strength and art with the world and experimenting with story telling.

Bri discovered circus in 2018, focusing on aerial hoop, and entered the ProTrack program at the New England Center for Circus Arts in 2020, with a major in multicorde and a minor in cyr wheel.

She completed lyra teacher training in 2022 and is currently in development on her first show to be directed with Air Temple Arts in 2025.

Stage Crew

SIERRA BACHMAN

Sierra Bachman started her aerial journey at Air Temple Arts in June of 2020. Being inspired by a professional circus performance, she dared to immerse herself into the world of circus, never looking back. She fell in love with silks, and juggling, but has also explored lyra, sling, Chinese pole and corde lisse.

She loves how circus sparks feelings of independence and personal accomplishment. It satisfies her love of learning while expanding her horizons. She’s always up for a challenge and seeing just how far she can go!

She began teaching at Air Temple Arts in 2022 and couldn’t be more honored! She loves how students inspire her with their own enthusiasm and hard work. She aspires to help others on their individual journeys and have fun along the way.

Thanks to:

GreenStage Guilford for giving us a reason and impetus to create this work in the first place, and their support in promoting it; Our Crew: Liz, Sierra, and Bri for their wholehearted enthusiasm and indefatigable excellence over so many months and long Sundays; Eva Skewes for her photography over two winters and this show; Sylvie Moran and Jill Marchenko for their videography;The Arts Paper, and the New Haven Independent for providing previews of this show and spotlighting the arts; Laurie Kigner for being an excellent mom and lobby runner 10 shows and running; Seth Harris for his always excellent work and humor; Liz Bissell for being so accomodating and always a delight to work with; Our Air Temple Community for being some of the best damn people on the planet; but most importantly, Our Dogs, Tesla and Piper because they are very objectively, the best.