The House of MASH was born in 2020 out of the wonderful team of coaches and performers at CircusMASH, a community circus programme in Birmingham UK. The CircusMASH 2019 Christmas Community show was called 20:20 and the creative process explored the Vision-Perception-Reaction cycle. Little did we know that our exploration at the end of 2019 was preparing our thought process and grit to react in the way that we did to ensure circus remained in everyone’s life during the year of lockdowns.
2020 gave us a chance to pause, reflect and figure out who we are as a company and what our future was. We’d spent 10 years growing young people into highly skilled acrobats and it felt it was time to think about where we were going. We’d started our digital journey a few years prior to covid (Space-plans.com) and it felt there was a gap in the Market for a production company that blended young performers and their story/ideas with professional artistry and street theatre.
Our question was (and still is):
“How do we create work that speaks to the brave alter-ego in people and encourages strength within them to allow themselves to break free from confines that hold them back in life, or at least know how to start a conversation with themselves about their limiting beliefs, including Insecurity. Self Doubt. Self Esteem and Imposter Syndrome”.
As performance artists we use the medium of performance to express what we feel the world needs. It’s only since 2020 I have been thinking about who our audience is and what we are doing for them. CircusMASH’s mission is to spread circus and help to build skills and belief systems into people. Our reaction to 2020 was to start developing our professional performance work to reach new audiences that we are not yet reaching. The House of MASH’s mission is to create work that shares our message of love, togetherness, positivity, equality and makes people feel good, but think about what really matters.
A Stage of Change. What does it mean?
This is a personal story that I think it lives within us all. We’re all constantly in a state of change and psyche doesn’t always like it. If we’re not aware of this change we can’t make the best of every single moment and we can sometimes sink within ourselves into unhealthy patterns if the changes happen too fast or slow, or even if we fail to recognise that change is always happening. Moments happen, and moments pass. We stand for change. There are so many movements that are happening in the world and so many people fighting for what they believe is right. Things are changing. No doubt in the years to come there will be many more changes that will happen that are out of our control but there is something about circus that holds people together and welcomes change. A stage as a moment and a stage as a place to express ourselves. A place to create opportunity for other people to learn and believe in themselves.
Reflection Words: Energy, Empathy, Passion and Drive. What do they mean to you?