The One Ring Circus was born out of the insane ideas of a group of friends. We were all huge fans of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, and wished to do costumes for our local science fiction convention, Baycon. However, just doing costumes wasn't enough! How could we show our insanity? In 2002, we had done a Moulin Rouge inspired Disney performance... could we continue the trend??
Deep in Kel's (Merry) mad, twisted mind, an idea was born... What if we presented "The Pitch (Spectacular Spectacular)" from the motion picture Moulin Rouge, as if Peter Jackson was "pitching" Lord of the Rings to New Line? He must have had to talk pretty fast to get that kind of budget... how better than with a musical number? Within days, Cordelia (Legolas) had rewritten the lyrics so they were appropriate for the epic story. Everyone claimed their parts, and a madcap adventure began. Nine women and one man comprised the Fellowship. We worked out choreography, the music was arranged by a talented friend, David Sprinkle, and everyone worked on their costumes. For months, everyone slaved over their Middle Earth attire -- some learning to knit, fletch, make chainmail, and even sew. We shared our triumphs and travails, and started to feel like a real fellowship. We might not have battled a Balrog, but that hot glue burn still hurt like h*ll.
It was all worth it. On May 24, 2003, the One Ring Circus made their debut at the BayCon Masquerade. Ten stressed (and hot) performers sang and danced to a packed convention ballroom. All the months of stress, work, and preparation seemed to fade into the background as we scampered about the stage. Seeing audience members wipe their tears of laughter from their eyes justified every late night. As a group, we've learned so much. Not only about costuming, and everyone's singing and dancing abilities, but, how fun it can be when company is true.... a true bunch of geeks, that is! After the performance we celebrated by getting fellowship tattoos! Of course, since we only spent several months on our quest, instead of two years, they were henna.
Click the pictures for information on the individual costumes! In addition, we also have group pictures from the convention and pictures of our performance.
Because we had such a great time together, the Fellowship traveled south!! After a lot of effort revising our costumes and performance, we decided to attend the San Diego International Comic Convention. In addition, we added two new members to the Fellowship, lovely Galadriel and a Scary Orc. We now had eleven women and one gent. For most, it was our first time at the con and the sheer size was very intimidating. No one could be more surprised than us that we were honored with Best in Show at the SDCC Masquerade. All we want to do is share our love of Lord of the Rings, costuming, and our wacky sense of humor! Come to think of it, we learned a lot at Comic-Con as well!
Last, but not least, One Ring Circus was honored to perform at The One Ring.Net's Return of the One Party - a celebration for the Lord of the Rings Oscar winners and fans. It was a night that will never be forgotten. |
