Steven Ragatz News

Zephyr will bring a free-wheeling theatrical circus experience to the New Victory Theater from March 24 through April 16. Returning to delight New Victory audiences for the fifth time, Cirque Mechanics' innovative ensemble of aerialists, jugglers, and gymnasts will showcase the relationship between humankind and the machines they create in a dizzying, human-powered spectacle. 

See how a woeful widget factory becomes a frolicsome funhouse in Cirque Mechanics' Birdhouse Factory which will play the Ohio Theatre for one night only. Created and directed by Chris Lashua, the originator of the German Wheel act in Cirque du Soleil's Quidam, and featuring veterans of the Pickle Family and Moscow Circuses, Birdhouse Factory uses a decidedly fresh aesthetic to showcase its high-flying, mindboggling talent. The production has wowed audiences worldwide, including a critically acclaimed off-Broadway run and US tour, highly successful European tour, and performances in Dubai and Hong Kong.

See how a woeful widget factory becomes a frolicsome funhouse in Cirque Mechanics' Birdhouse Factory which will play the Ohio Theatre for one night only. Created and directed by Chris Lashua, the originator of the German Wheel act in Cirque du Soleil's Quidam, and featuring veterans of the Pickle Family and Moscow Circuses, Birdhouse Factory uses a decidedly fresh aesthetic to showcase its high-flying, mindboggling talent. The production has wowed audiences worldwide, including a critically acclaimed off-Broadway run and US tour, highly successful European tour, and performances in Dubai and Hong Kong.

'As circus artists, we aim to show the outrageous things that our bodies can do and to surprise people as much as we can,' said Chris Lashua, artistic director of the Las Vegas based contemporary circus troupe, Cirque Mechanics. 'However, we take circus one step further by building machines that not only capture the spectacle of circus, but thrill in a whole new way.'

Grin like a fool and feel like a kid all over again when 'Birdhouse Factory' comes to Midland Center for the Arts on Friday, June 5 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the MATRIX:MIDLAND Festival. Join in the madcap fun as 12 acrobats of Cirque Mechanics transform the stage into a wondrous birdhouse factory, complete with uniformed unicyclists and acrobatic assembly lines in this enchanting story of laughter, love, flight - and the quest to build the perfect birdhouse!