Stolen equipment leaves circus group scrambling for help.
When audiences watch the high-flying acrobatics of Wise Fool, they are usually awed and captivated by the grace and agility of the collective's performers.
But behind the scenes, the equipment used by Wise Fool New Mexico also plays a pivotal role.
Now, Wise Fool has quite literally lost its balance. A key piece of equipment has been stolen-leaving the group in a financial free fall.
The timing couldn't be worse. Following sold-out shows at the Lensic in late November, Wise Fool was preparing
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for a coveted performance at the opening of Miami's Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in early January.
But on Nov. 28, as group members loaded equipment into a rental truck bound for Florida, they noticed something was missing: five pieces of a 23-foot aluminum truss.
Purchased by Wise Fool three years ago for $12,000, the truss acts as a central rigging for the group's gravity-defying rope and trapeze acts. It's also a critical component to nearly all of Wise Fool's performances, including the forthcoming show in Miami-called
Flexion
-which Wise Fool has rehearsed for more than a year.
"It's this beautiful, cross-hatched structure that we use for just about everything. We never thought anyone would take something like this," Wise Fool administrator Kate Marco says.
But somebody, apparently, did just that. They made off with five sections of the truss, leaving the remaining structure unusable (the entire truss was kept outside Wise Fool's studio on Agua Fria Street because of its size, Marco says).
The same day the pieces were stolen, Wise Fool members frantically tromped around Santa Fe, through the snow, to see if they could spot the missing pieces anywhere in town. They even checked in with local scrap metal shops.
"We did everything humanly possible to see if we could find it, to track those pieces down, but we had no luck," Marco says.
Without the truss in working order, it was also too late to find something comparable for the big show in Miami. And so, while the majority of Wise Fool's troupe set out for the sunshine state, a smaller contingent traveled to Newport News, Va., where the manufacturers of the original truss agreed to supply the five missing sections to the tune of $5,000, maybe more. Even that trip turned disastrous; founding company member Alessandra Ogren and Lensic Technical Director Mark Hanneman got stuck in a blizzard in Oklahoma.
"It was crazy. We saw 81 accidents on the road," Ogren says. "At this point, we're all just trying to make the best of a bad situation."
Ogren says there's no word yet on when the truss will be repaired and delivered to Miami, but company members are keeping their fingers crossed.
For Hanneman, the loss of the truss was particularly hard to swallow. As technical director and also a stage manager, he'd worked with the truss in various capacities since it was purchased by Wise Fool.
"This is a custom item. It's an amazing piece of equipment. It's been used for both local shows and when we go on tour. It's been a huge asset for Wise Fool both creatively and financially." Hanneman says. "I've set it up and taken it down. I don't think anyone knows this truss more intimately than I do."
Hanneman says he believes the stolen sections of the truss were likely sold for scrap by someone, or they're being used as a makeshift skate park in some teenager's backyard.
Hanneman adds that after the sections were stolen, he called everyone he knew in the entertainment business in northern New Mexico to see if they had any ideas. Unfortunately for him and Ogren, the only logical solution was to travel to Virginia.
"Ironically, the manufacturers told us that they will never make another truss like this-that they'd fabricate the missing pieces for us because we're in such a tight bind, but that was it," he says. "This thing is really one of a kind."
Regardless, the subsequent price tag will likely weigh heavily on the cash-strapped nonprofit. Wise Fool's budget last year was $250,000. It's a paltry figure, Marco says, given the time, training and money each show demands.
"We're already struggling to begin with, so this is just over the top for us," Marco, who notes that Wise Fool currently has three full-time members and roughly 25 associate members, says. "We never make any money off our shows."
Santa Fe Police Captain Gary Johnson says police have no suspects yet and that the investigation is still open. But even if the crime is solved, Kate Russell, an associate member of Wise Fool, worries that the loss of the truss still sets the company back in terms of expanding the creative scope of future performances. Wise Fool will perform
Flexion
at the Santa Fe Opera from Jan. 25-28 and is also slated to perform at the International Women's Peace Conference in Dallas in July.
"We felt like getting this truss was such a big step for us," Russell says. "It was like moving into adulthood in terms of what our organization could do. Now, it's gone. And we're left scrambling to find the money to replace it."
