A Homecoming Circus
Cirque's Jim Slonina says he's glad to be home again - if only for a few weeks.

BY Carrie L. Kaufman

Slonina

It’s a long way from storefront theatre. Yet it still has the, well, circus feel that storefront theatre can sometimes have. I was sitting in the performers tent with Jim Slonina, on a little couch in the corner. Behind us, in the center of the room, acrobats were practicing teeterboard. Every once in a while, I would be distracted by a loud banging or shooting noise, or men flying through the air in my peripheral vision. Slonina didn’t blink an eye.

Slonina is a clown with Cirque du Soleil’s current production of Kooza. He is also a former Chicago actor, most closely associated with Defiant Theatre, which he led as artistic director for a time.

Now, after three years working in Las Vegas in a Cirque-inspired show called La Reve, Slonina has a new gig that will take him all over the country—including a current stop in his home town.

“The best thing about performing in Chicago is that my mom can come see it,” said Slonina, whose mother couldn’t get out to Vegas for one of his 1300 performances in La Reve. He’s also reconnected with old Chicago theatre friends, many of whom have seen the show.

Slonina landed in Kooza just this past May—a year after the show opened. He had auditioned in 2007, but “tanked the callback,” he says. A year later, he heard a clown was leaving the show. The same day he sent off his resume, he got a call from the Kooza casting people saying that they remembered him and wanted him to come back to audition.

Since then, says Slonina, it’s been an amazing experience.

“The people I’m working with, especially the other clowns—it’s a dream.”

Cirque’s sense of community and collaboration is what reminds Slonina of Chicago. He and his fellow clownmates often will refine their performances while they’re backstage. Or they’ll work on something the next day that didn’t go over as well during the show. He’s constantly working, constantly defining his character, constantly trying to figure out how to make people laugh.

That’s not much different than his aim when he was in Chicago. But, unlike Chicago, he gets to break the fourth wall, wade out into the audience and interact.

“It’s still all physical theatre for me.”

What’s different from Chicago is the pay and amenities the performers get. They stay in five star hotels. There are catered meals and exercise equipment. And families can come along. Slonina travels with his wife, Robin. There are about 30 children and spouses who travel with Kooza.

Slonina is contracted through the end of 2009, though he would like to stay with Cirque. He’s hoping to start a family, and would like to eventually land in a sit-down show.

“I want to do this and Cirque is the best way to do this,” he said.

For now, he’s just happy to be home, revved up to be playing in front of friends and visiting old haunts. He might not be doing storefront theatre anymore, but for Slonina, the thrill of making people laugh is just the same.