Eric Byrer, '10, had no idea the history of Indiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries would involve so many lions and tigers and bears.

"You drive into Peru, Indiana, and see a sign welcoming you to the circus capital of the world and you think, 'Who knew this was in our backyard?'" says the musical theatre major who spent part of his senior year creating an original musical inspired by Hoosier author Cathy Day's novel The Circus in Winter. Through this immersive learning experience, Byrer and 13 other students have been given complete control of the production, from creating the script, to crafting the lyrics and writing the music.

Day's novel is a collection of stories centered on the fictional inhabitants of Lima, Indiana, circus people of the Greater Porter Circus who spent their winters in the town from 1884 to 1939. Day grew up in Peru, Indiana, home of the International Circus Museum and, for decades, the winter quarters of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, and made the novel a fictionalized history of her hometown.

The decision to adapt Day's novel for the stage came under the leadership of Ball State's Beth Turcotte, a theatre professor who worked on The Circus in Winter project through the university's Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry. "I've always wanted to develop a musical," she says. "I've just been waiting for the right combination of people to come into my life and make it happen. Everything fell into place with this."

As part of the creative process, the students spent weeks researching the time period, studying Day's book, meeting with the author, and soliciting advice from visitors in the theatre industry, including Tony Award-winning Broadway actress Sutton Foster.

For Ben Clark, '11, musical theatre, writing the music and lyrics for the project was a life changing experience.

"I was already composing, singing, and acting, but producing The Circus in Winter challenged me to use all of those skills and lead the team at the same time," he says. "It's been a dream come true."

Twin brothers Christopher and Justin Swader, ’12,  designed the large, hand-crafted elephant operated by puppeteers. Christopher says working with Day has been a highlight of the project as she's given them her blessing to make adaptations to her novel's storyline for the script. As written, the musical will focus on the lives of several key characters of the novel, such as circus owner Wallace Porter and Jennie Dixianna, one of his most famous performers known for her "Spin of Death."

Day says it's an honor to have the class interpret her novel for the project. "When I visited them in January 2010, I got to listen to people sing songs about the themes of my novel—the stuff that's been in my heart since I was a child—and it was very moving to see that," she says. "It's also wonderful to know this is a project happening here in my home state—a group of Indiana students learning how to become artists with a text about Indiana."

The group saw the fruition of its efforts when The Circus in Winter hit the stage September 29 through October 8, 2011, at University Theatre. The stage debut came a few months after the release of Water for Elephants, adapted from Sara Gruen's best-selling novel and starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson.

"The timing may be perfect for this production to really take off," Turcotte says.

Related Links:

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Department of English 

Department of Theatre and Dance

Department of Telecommunications 

Immersive Learning

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