This is more than make-believe. Professional performers will be preparing for the next show of the Flying Griffin Circus, the Actors' Gymnasium's resident troupe. What you will see are people learning and practicing and not a polished performance. Use of interpreters is fast becoming a hallmark at the museum. Such passengers as Molly Brown populated the museum's recent Titanic exhibit.
Nothing can replace the human experience.
Practice sessions and character portrayals are just part of the new exhibit. The core is Circus Magicus, an exhibition of artifacts, videos and photographs from European, Canadian and United States collections that was assembled by Quebec's Musee de la Civilisation and co-produced by Cirque du Soleil in 1999. Visitors can see a costume worn by a Cirque du Soleil member in the troupe's famed Chinese Pole act and also watch the act on video in the exhibition just inside the West Court. But they should be sure to walk the periphery of the ring to catch the rest of the displays, including a circus trunk filled with clown shoes and juggling pins and a bicycle used in the famed Wallenda high-wire act. It really pleased me.