BIG APPLE CIRCUS

The Big Apple Circus gave its first performance July 18, 1977, under a small, green canvas big top planted in the shadow of the World Trade Center, on a Manhattan landfill that was to become Battery Park City. The New York press and the New Yorkers loved it: "For 90 minutes, New York turns into a village on fair day, binding adults and children alike in a community of sheer pleasure," said the New York Post. The beginnings were modest, however—and difficult. For its second season, in the summer of 1978, the circus put its tent on the vacant lot of the old Madison Square Garden, on Eighth Avenue. But in 1979, it didn't have the financial means to support another season. At that point, it was go or bust.
Although its performers come from all around the planet, the Big Apple Circus has developed over the years a very distinctive style. It has an unmistakable New York energy. Its shows are built around a theme, renewed each year: Different story, different costumes, set, music, lighting, and different show directors, choreographers, designers, etc. Each production is built like a Broadway show, a necessity since it has to compete, during the Holiday Season, with the many offerings of the Great White Way and other Christmas spectaculars!

Still a non-profit organization, the Big Apple Circus runs community outreach programs such as the Big Apple Circus Clown Care®, which provides children with much needed entertainment, laughter and silliness in top pediatric hospitals all over the country. Thanks to its founders, but also to a string of talented Executive Directors over the years (Judith Friedlaender, Elizabeth I. McCann, James C. McIntyre, Gary Dunning), the Big Apple Circus is considered today as one of the most successful non-profit performing arts organizations in the U.S., and one of the world's leading circuses.