Marina Petrano and her show partnerJennifer Buehlman have made life on the road a family affair
Tammye Nash | Managing Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com
When you think of acrobats on aerial silks, you probably think of elegant, graceful women performing breathtaking feats of strength and skill high above the ground. If you go see a Cirqa Brava out at Scarborough Renaissance Festival, you will certainly see all of that.
But be prepared for plenty more — like a mind-boggling contortionist act, audience participation and bawdy repartee and innuendo delivered with a wink and a grin by a delightfully impish young woman who’s not afraid to make a fart joke.
By the time she was 14, Marina Petrano was working as a street performer, entertaining tourist on the pier in her hometown of Clearwater, Fla.
By the time she was in high school, she barely had a minute to spare.
“I was a competitive sword-spinner” in high school, Petrano said, explaining that she was a member of her school’s performance ensemble, the Seminole Winter Guard.
But between taking “all AP [advanced placement] classes,” touring full time as a performer and a 40-hour a week rehearsal schedule, it didn’t take long for her to get burned out. So she headed north to attend classes at The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, graduating from the school’s intensive program in 2010.
Her training as an actor and her years of experience as a performer helped her land a role in a stage production of Carnival — and that’s where her love of the circus really took root. So, she said, “I ran away to join the circus. Really.”
The circus life
“Joining the circus” translates, first, to studying circus arts with the Aerial Angels and Circus Arts of Tampa Bay. She learned the art of aerial silks and was soon traveling the U.S. and beyond as a member of the Aerial Angels troupe.
While she wanted to focus on learning to work on aerial silks, instructors there quickly decided to also needed to learn to be a contortionist.
“I really didn’t want to be a contortionist. But in circus school, you don’t get to pick your major. So I learned to be a contortionist,” Petrano said.
“I spent the next several months with a large Moroccan man trying to bend me in half. The first time I felt my head touch my butt, I got so excited I actually passed out.”
In the fall of 2012, at 18, Petrano moved to Brattleboro, Vt., to study at the New England Center for Circus Arts. She graduated from the Intensive Professional Training Program there the following spring, launching her into even more traveling and performances.
Then, a little more than a year ago, a mutual friend introduced Petrano to aerialist Jennifer Buehlman, and Cirqa Brava was born.
Buehlman has been studying and performing ballet since she was 5. For awhile, in her early 20s, she toured as a dancer for a band. She learned aerial silks and performed with the circus for awhile and performed in her own show for about four years.
In the show as it’s written, Petrano is the one who does all the talking, while Buehlman stays silent, miming her way through as the “straight guy” to Petrano’s jokes and wild antics. In fact, Buehlman is the “straight guy” of the act in more ways than one: While she and Petrano are “show partners,” off stage they each have their own life partners.
Buehlman recently married, and her husband is also a performer. At Scarborough, Renaissance Festival he is the wandering insult comedian.
Petrano and her life partner, Maria, have been together several years. They have a house in Clearwater, but they don’t get to spend much time there. Cirqa Brava is on the road for at least part of 10 months out of the year, and every December Petrano goes to Fargo, N.D., to teach aerial ballet.
Thankfully though, Maria’s job as a grant writer allows her to work remotely, giving her the ability to travel with Petrano and Buehlman and act as their “roadie,” helping set up for shows and break down afterwards. That comes in especially handy at renfaires and other events where they share a stage and can’t leave props out between shows.
Petrano said she and Maria have had good experiences within the community of traveling performers and the local faire folk, who have in their experience very open and accepting of them as a couple. That isn’t always the case, though, when they wander out of the confines of the faire and into the often-rural communities where such events are located.
“We’ll go out somewhere to eat, and be sitting in a diner holding hands, and then realize that we are getting some dirty looks from people,” Petrano said.
Into the future
When she and Buehlman met, it was, Petrano said, “instant love.” And they immediately set about creating a show for the two of them that was both funny and “full of woman power.”
And light-hearted innuendo, delivered with a wink and a grin.
And contortionist displays utilizing members of the audience as props, complete with bawdy jokes about bladder control.
And sight gags like Buehlman “warming up” for the show with a glass of champagne poured from a bottle strategically placed on a table at the back of the stage. (“It’s really just water,” Buehlman admits.)
And of course the grace and elegance of their performances on the aerial silks.
And so much more.
The circus life, both women said, is a very demanding one physically. The strength and skill needed for their show demands constant work to stay in shape. And the risk of injury is always there. And both Petrano and Buehlman know they won’t always be able to perform the show as it’s written now.
So what happens when that time comes? “We’ll write a new show,” Petrano declared. “We change, so the show changes.”
Despite the constant travel, the physical demands and the ever-present risks, both women said they love the circus life, not only for what it gives them, but for what it lets them give others.
“The world can be such a grim place these days. There’s just not a lot of magic left,” Buehlman said. “But the circus is magic. It’s one of those few magic things left.”
And Petrano and Buehlman want to keep on sharing that magic with the rest of the world as long as they can.
Scarborough Renaissance Festival, located just off I-35E on FM 66 in Waxahachie, continues each Saturday and Sunday, through May 27, and Memorial Day, Monday, May 28, from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Cirqa Brava performs each day of faire on the Roundabout Stage in Holly Field at noon, 1:30 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
