Bios | school-shows

After completing the advanced training program a the American Conservatory Theater in San Fransisco, Mr. Winslow joined the Ragabash Theater in 1982 as a puppeteer and actor. Later he became an Associate Director of the company and toured colleges and museums across North America with grants from the NEA, NYSCA and the Jim Henson Foundation. In 1985 he toured Eskimo Villages in Alaska with an original one-man show sponsored by Alaska State Council on the Arts. He has since toured Japan, Bosnia and the Czech Republic, with live performances accompanied by National Television performances.

In 1984 Mr. Wislow was a founding member of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit which brought classical circus to the bedsides of hospitalized children, their parents and caregivers. As “Dr. Van Loon,” he has gone on to lead the way in creating programs in Boston, Washington and 12 other Nationaly recognized Children’s Hospitals across the Country and consulted globally in Paris, Frankfort and Sao Paulo. He has also frequently appeared in the ring of the Big Apple Circus at Lincoln Center and created their clown and theater program at Paul Newman’s Hole In The Wall Gang Camp, a summer camp for children with life threatening illnesses. He has gone on to consult Internationally for Newman’s Own in that context. 20 years ago he co-founded the Grand Falloons with Stephen Ringold performing in THOUSANDS of venues including Off Broadway, Festivals, Museums, and Schools.

Dikki Ellis has been associated with the Big Apple Circus for over 30 years. First as teacher then as featured performer in 1989 East Meets West and 1999, Happy On shows under the Big Top at Lincoln Center, NYC. As a Founding Member of Clown Care Unit in 1987, he began a journey as clown Dr. Trikki. Twenty-Nine years later he still makes bedside rounds. Mr. Ellis graduated from both the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Circus Dimitri School in Switzerland, he is a Co-Founder of the Hanlon Lee Action Theater bringing live jousting to events across the United States. He directed the clowns in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for 20 years, is a Guest Artist at NC School of The Arts, has appeared on The Conan O’Brian Show, numerous national commercials, and has toured his one man show, The Dikki Ellis Show, to over 200 performances a year. He enjoys a busy and happy life with his wife Robin in West Orange NJ.

Stephen Ringold is an NEA, Rockefeller Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and Raoul Wallenberg Humanitarian award winner. His original works for theater and circus have been produced in festivals, theaters, and arenas in the Far East, the Middle East, across Eastern and Western Europe and throughout the United States. He assisted the 1997 Nobel Prize Winner, Dario Fo in Mr. Fo’s production of Il Barbarie De Savilia at the Dutch National Opera House in Amsterdam, Netherlands. As Ringmaster and Clown he has toured Nationally with NYC’s Big Apple Circus and performed in their ring at Lincoln Center. As an actor he has appeared in the title role of Elizabeth Swados’ award-winning musical, Job, as Krogstad in the Other Theater’s A Dolls House, as Creon in Jean Anouigh’s Antigone at Primary Stages, and in numerous other Off-Broadway and regional performances as well as major motion pictures, national TV shows and commercials, The Late Show With David Letterman and the Conan O’Brian Show. His work teaching clown and circus in East Harlem Public Schools is featured on NBC and Sesame Street. He has taught Circus, Clown and Theater from the Preschool level through Graduate Degree intensives. He was a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Bond Street Theatre and an early and integral member of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit, bringing “Clown Doctors,” to the bedsides of hospitalized children across the United States.

As Co-Creator of the Grand Falloons’ Earth Science Circus Assembly Programs funded through developmental monies by the Environmental Protection Agency and the New Jersey Recycling and Litter Abatement Communities, he performs in over 300 shows a year for the K-8 grade levels from Cape May to Cape Cod.

Will Shaw has been entertaining

audiences as a comic juggler and variety

artist since the early 1980’s. Originally learning his craft as a street performer in New York, his distinct blend of technical skill and humor has since been seen in almost every imaginable venue including the streets and nightclubs of New York City, festivals in Asia, Africa and South America, the studios of major motion films, national TV shows and commercials, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Lincoln Center in New York City and The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C…. and camps, parks, libraries, schools and civic and private events of all sorts around the New York City area. He's been an instructor for The Ringling Bros.and Barnum and Bailey Circus and has had a long affiliation with New York’s Big Apple Circus representing them at special events and in area hospitals as member of its “Clown Care Unit”.

Therese Schorn, an FIT granduate has been designing and constructing costumes, props, sets, and puppets since 1984. As a fine artist and a physical theater performer, she incorporates these skills into her designs, which are built to move, be manipulated and transform. She has designerd and built costumes and props for the Big Apple Circus as well as performing for 30 years in their Clown Care hospital program. For the New Victory Theater she designed and fabricated interactive set pieces as well as working for the past eight years as a teaching artist. As head of the Theater Department at Paul Newman's Hole In The Wall Gang Camp she designed and built numerous shows for and with the campers. She has designed, performed and taught across the US and Internaionally including Taiwan, China, Europe and Brazil. With the Ensemble of Movement she performed and designed original works with Professor Nancy Smithner. Other Credits include. Theater For The New City, The Public Theater and Henry Street Settlement here in NYC and The Pennsylvania Academy Of Fine Arts and RISDI among others.