Juliette Feld Grossman: The Reimagined Greatest Show On Earth

Charlie Melcher:

Hi, I’m Charlie Melcher, founder of the Future of Storytelling. Welcome to the FoST podcast. Ringling Brothers in Barnum and Bailey Circus has been delighting audiences for generations. However, the greatest show on earth is anything but dated. After all, you don’t last for 150 years without regular reinvention returning now after a six year hiatus, the Ringling Brothers Circus is back and better than ever having been reimagined once more for kids of all ages. Here today to talk about the latest reboot to this beloved classic is Juliet Feld Grossman, chief operating Officer of Feld Entertainment. Alongside her father, CEO Kenneth Feld, Juliet led the effort to reinvent the circus to reflect what modern audiences expect and enjoy most in live events. In addition to the Ringling Brothers Circus, the Feld family also owns and operates various other fan favorite shows such as Disney on Ice, Marvel Universe Live, Jurassic World Live tour, and Monster Jam. Clearly, Juliet has live family entertainment in her blood. It’s a special privilege to sit down with her to learn more about what makes the new circus special and what the Feld family uniquely brings to each of their incredible productions. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Juliette Feld Grossman.

 

Juliette, welcome to the Future Storytelling Podcast. So nice to have you here.

Juliette Feld Grossman:

Thanks for having me on.

Charlie Melcher:

So I grew up going to the circus. My nana and papa would take me every year to Ringling Brothers and Bon and Bailey Circus, the greatest show in the world, and we would do everything. Cotton candy, we’d get the flashlight and we’d swing it around. We’d get the book that we would take home with us afterwards, and I would take out the poster and I had all these posters hung in my bedroom. I mean, this was a important family ritual that brought tremendous joy and real emotional connection with my grandparents. This was the thing that I did with them every year. So let me just start by saying thank you for bringing back and saving the circus. This is so exciting. How did you go about reinventing it?

Juliette Feld Grossman:

So Ringling Brothers Barn Bailey is such a special place in American culture and in people’s lives. It is certainly a very humbling undertaking because not only something that is iconic and historic in our pop culture, but also to me, it’s been part of my family for over 50 years and I’m the third generation to be a producer of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey, and it’s incredibly special and personal. How we started was really what you just said, listening to our fans and to our audiences who have come for generations and who share those really special memories. It’s that connection to the family or the friend or the people that you came with that is so iconically, Ringling and why it lives in our hearts.

Charlie Melcher:

It’s funny. I was trying to think what makes that circus special. There is really an emotional connection and maybe it has to do with, as you said, all those family relationships. The fact that it’s so old, the fact that it’s survived so many years and it’s also never, always the same thing. Even the years I went, tell us how it’s different now.

Juliette Feld Grossman:

Well, Ringling has survived and existed for over 150 years because it reflects the times, it reflects the audiences of that era. So over a hundred years ago, they displayed the light bulb because it was mind blowing. Now if you came cutting edge

Charlie Melcher:

Tech,

Juliette Feld Grossman:

Now you come, you’ll see hundreds of moving lights that are programmed with infrared beacons that are on performers and spotlight tracking systems and all kinds of innovation that we don’t even tell you about. It just exists. And so how we began working on this new show was thinking about what are the elements that have allowed it to exist for so long and what has stayed true for over 150 years? And it’s not a single act and it’s not a single element of the spectacle, but it’s that fun and it’s that connection to people, connection to the performers and connection to the people you came with. We say it’s for children of all ages, and that’s not only a marketing line, it’s a promise that grandparents, the parents and the kids will all find moments that they love in what we’re doing. So it’s a balance of humor, always been critically important and thrill, so incredible daredevil, ry, and artistry. And when you come to see with your own eyes, you see that it’s real. There are no gimmicks. There is no CGI here. You’re seeing incredibly talented and dedicated people performing something that really touches the limits of human ability and that just isn’t replicable in any way.

Charlie Melcher:

It’s almost like the Olympics of entertainment. The athletes that you have are extraordinary and physical human potential pushed to some level for the purpose of amazement for all of us. I’m curious about that line between athletic ability and entertainment.

Juliette Feld Grossman:

I think about the relationship between the audience and the performers as a symbiosis. The audience comes to be amazed and entertained. Then they reward the performers with their attention and their applause and their humor and their cheering for the performers. That’s a total rush when people are, in the case of Ringling, often taking on things that have life safety involved and what they’re doing, they’re undertaking it for that adoration as well. And for the lists of that applause, there’s a relationship there between the audience and the performer. Many of the performers in Ringling, they’ve trained to be part of circus and to be in performance in Disney on Ice. We have people who have come off of a competitive amateur career and they have been in grueling practices for the time that they were really young until they come to work with us. And for them to get to personify a character and have such incredible applause for what they do, it’s like a culminating moment for their career because they’ve been in a competitive environment where they’ve been judged and scored. So when they come and they are so well adored and loved, it’s very cool to see that transformation in them because we do train them to come from being competitive figure skating athletes into performing and portraying characters and the intricate choreography and the long form program that it is. It’s two hours on the ice where you don’t necessarily have that in a competition. And so it’s quite different.

Charlie Melcher:

Let me ask about the other elements that you play with in producing a circus. I mean, there’s music, there’s costumes, there’s lighting, and now you also have a lot of tech. How do you think about integrating all of those to create the greatest show on earth?

Juliette Feld Grossman:

It is a very complicated show to put together, and this is actually the first Ringling that I created, and the entire show is oriented around the people and the performers, and they don’t necessarily work to time because let’s say you’re on the trapeze, on our ultimate swing set, people are swinging out and you have to get the timing of that swing. It doesn’t swing to music, so it’s not the same as when you have dance and dancers work to account. So the timing is a little bit more fluid, which means that all of the other elements that are typically synced on the time code now have to have some flexibility in there. So that goes to lighting, video, live video, the music of course, sound effects, all of these other elements that are integrated together. It’s quite complicated to get the timing right.

Charlie Melcher:

So that’s amazing. These days for most shows, it’s run by computer, those cues and marks for lighting and music and all those things are happening whether or not the actor gets there or the performer. And you’re saying that it’s not all done on a fixed time code.

Juliette Feld Grossman:

It’s a combination, so it’s on a time code, but we had to build in systems to allow for the flexibility of somebody perhaps needs a second attempt on a trick, and that’s a real value to the audience, and so we want to allow it. And so it never runs exactly the same. You have to have flexibility built into the system to accommodate that. The other big challenge was these are people. They are people scale, but they are in a massive space. Our ultimate playground is the size of a hockey floor. And so with everything that we created in the set and in video and all of the other special effects and pyrotechnics and everything that we have, we wanted to make sure that people were the focus and that nothing ever minimized the scale of the people, but rather everything went to amplify them. So our performers in our central performance space are actually elevated by video that’s literal and metaphorical. It is the apron on the center ring, and it also serves to augment their performance, not to distract from it.

Charlie Melcher:

What do you mean by that?

Juliette Feld Grossman:

Well, oftentimes when you go to see your favorite music artists at a concert, they are flanked by enormous video screens of them. But we wanted to make sure that when we were using video, we were using it to add things that you couldn’t otherwise see with your eye, like details of somebody’s facial expression or footwork or elements that would give you an extra understanding of the difficulty required. But for most of it in the arena, we also looked actually at the set in virtual reality before we built it so we could understand the sight lines and make sure that no matter where you’re sitting within the arena, you were getting a great view of the performance space and of the performers. So you saw with your own eyes, but then we were able to augment with details.

Charlie Melcher:

This is something I think a lot about because I see a lot of live performances that are at such large scale that the audience, as you just said, is so far from the, let’s say singer on stage that you need that big screen. So basically you’re gone to this live event to watch tv, right, because sort of

Juliette Feld Grossman:

Watching. Yeah, what a bummer. Right, exactly.

Charlie Melcher:

And yet people don’t think twice about that. I mean, I even remember myself going to an Olympics in Beijing, and we got tickets to the track and field right up near the track, and I realized all of a sudden that they run by you in a matter of seconds, and then they’re so far away you can’t even see them. So they would run by and we would turn around to look up at the giant screen to see what was happening. In fact, being close was a mistake because it was harder to see the screens, and we only got to see live people for fractions of two seconds of a race. Anyway, my point is what are the things when you go to an event like that that make it authentically alive?

Juliette Feld Grossman:

You’re seeing people perform the most remarkable feats, whether it’s troop brothers are Mongolian Teeter board troop, they do a quintuple somersault. You can imagine how fast you have to be rotating to do five rotations. It’s mind blowing. And the years of training that go into each of the elements of the show, there’s just nothing else like it where you get to see people who have been so dedicated to what they do and have refined their performance through training and grit and then moved to this achievement. For us, we wanted to make sure that the audience could appreciate that because that is the crux of what makes it aspirational, not achievable in a way. I think, okay, I’m going to start training now and I’ll be doing a hand to hand performance in a few months, but that, are there things in my own life that I could train at and dedicate myself to and achieve that maybe I didn’t think was possible before? That’s the kind of inspiration that being at Ringling delivers to the audience when they leave.

Charlie Melcher:

Let me ask you about the costumes and the set design that is always so spectacular and it comes from a huge tradition. How did you go about designing all of that?

Juliette Feld Grossman:

We knew when we started working on this version of Ringling that we wanted to be in the round 360 degrees. When you’re 360, you have nowhere to hide props or set pieces people. And so you have very limited backstage, so to speak. Everything is out. So we had a couple goals. One was when you come into the space, you say, wow, that there’s an immediate impact, but the space also shouldn’t feel like it’s activated until people come on. So the performers are actually what activates the space and brings it to life. So we have a very modular system. So we have staircases that detach from stages that are at the similar height so they can reconnect to a different performance space. We have pieces that open up with stair units and pops of color. We have ramps that move and transform into a whole BMX park at the end of the show.

 

And we have elements that again, are activated by the performers. There’s a turntable within the center space and the lift and all of these things. They don’t go without the people. And so the people are really driving. Then the movement and the energy of the space, even though it’s a beautiful design on the costume side, it’s physical fit and also fit to who they are and what they’re doing. And when you talk about, again, the performance of what they’re doing, there are real technical needs within these costumes. So first we looked at the technical needs of the costume, and then we worked with each of the acts as to what is their aesthetic. And in many cases, we worked with a designer local to their country of origin to create costumes that reflected their cultural heritage to create a costume that would look wonderful and our environment really pop with color and the pattern, but be reflective of their culture.

 

And then throughout the show and something that was a change, we kept our performers in the same costume throughout the show, and we did that so that you could connect to them and see them. So in the opening number, when everybody comes flying out through the door at the beginning of the song, you’re seeing the performers and they are performing with their troop largely, and they might wave to you. You see them, and then when you get to see them in their act, you say, oh, that was the person who waved to me in opening. And there’s a connection there.

Charlie Melcher:

So you’ve mentioned a number of elements that are special about the new iteration. Talk a little bit about what you’ve left out, what you didn’t include this time around.

Juliette Feld Grossman:

Well, as Ringling is a reflection of pop culture and consumer preferences of the time. There were certain things that we couldn’t carry forward into this production. We have no touring animals. We also made some decisions to not have clowns in full face makeup. And that was really because of what horror movies did to clowns. We’ve got clowns, but they’re not wearing full face makeup. And overall, our performers are also in much more natural makeup. We wanted people to see who they were and to see their faces and expression. And so even for the acts themselves, they’re in a more natural makeup style overall. The other thing that is not in this performance is a traditional ringmaster. And with our focus on the Pac it is

Charlie Melcher:

And gentlemen, but my son used to do it. That was good. He used to do a whole bit about being a ringmaster I present to you. And anyway, sorry. It’s a family tradition. Well,

Juliette Feld Grossman:

It’s a family tradition and it’s part of our legacy and our heritage. And in this production with our focus on the pacing, as we looked at how we kept that up and how we drove the pacing of the show in a more seamless way, it just didn’t have a place. And so we have a trio of show guides who are leading you on this adventure, but they’re really there to facilitate between the audience and the performers and to invite you into the experience. And then we still wanted to say, who are the performers? Where are they from? And so we’ve done that using a lot of tools that we didn’t always have before. One in the video at the show, you can see who they are. We also have a great website and social media channel and YouTube content that’s out there giving you behind the scenes looks at our performers, telling you more about where they’re from, what they do, how they train, where they like to go when they’re in all the different cities across the US on tour. And so we were able to use all these other touch points to deliver some of that information that really had to exist with the ringmaster historically.

Charlie Melcher:

Juliet, how else do you make the experience interactive for the audience?

Juliette Feld Grossman:

Because the relationship with the audience is really symbiotic with the performers. We wanted the audience to feel very special about being there to every performance. And we wanted them to understand that them being at the performance was part of what made it unique and special. And so we built in some moments of interactivity in the show. We’ve got a really fun production number before the end of Act one, where the audience is engaged with us in making a song, a unique moment there where the performers are doing a call and response and connecting. And then we built in a number right before intermission where there’s a interactive segment with the audience, where we have our lead vocalist, Lauren Irving, she’s doing call and response segment, and we’ve got these other musical elements going where the audience is actually engaged with the whole cast.

Charlie Melcher:

Is there a story that runs through the circus? How do you think about taking the guest on a kind of narrative arc?

Juliette Feld Grossman:

We have a light narrative of a newcomer’s first day at Ringling. And so we follow Wesley through his first day arriving at Ringling all the way through his culminating moment of attempting a world record on a unicycle that’s 34 and a half feet tall. And so we have a light narrative that guides us and gives us a reason to progress through. But for us, when we think about narrative in an arena setting, we say something to writers that probably makes them want to run away, which is we need to have a story that works even if the sound goes out. So the story can’t be delivered verbally because I’m there at the show and I’ve got kids that are squiggling around, and sometimes it’s just hard to focus on those words. And so what we need to see is a physicality that guides us through. And so that’s always the challenge for us in arenas. But for us then we focus on a really simple narrative that’ll take us through.

Charlie Melcher:

It’s a great narrative because Wesley becomes all of us, right? The wish fulfillment that everyone has in a way when they go to the circus, which is to run away and join the circus. And what would it be like to show up day one and be able to make it into an act that kind of wish Fulfillment is the story you’re telling. Feld Entertainment works with a whole lot of different live family entertainment, and a good amount of it is based historically on famous intellectual property, ip, Marvel Universe, Jurassic Park, Disney Properties. What’s it like working with those kinds of intellectual properties and how do you choose which ones to build a show around

Juliette Feld Grossman:

As a company In film entertainment, we’ve been working as a partner to Disney for 42 years. Wow. So we are one of their longest partners, and we have produced over 40 Disney on ice shows. And actually, my father created Disney on Ice. It was his invention. And it’s just remarkable to work with those characters that are so beloved because we now tour Disney nice to 80 different countries now. When we think about what makes a great show and what drives people to come out to live entertainment, it’s a pretty complicated sales process because for a consumer with kids, you’ve got to think about, you’ve got to check the schedule. You’ve got a selected time, you’ve got to decide which seats you want, deal with parking, come into the venue, maybe it’s unfamiliar to you, and the kids always have to go to the bathroom. I feel like they always have to go bathroom all the time. And so it’s a complicated kind of experience. It’s really got a feel to the parent that it’s a spectacular value. Value in terms of delivering an experience that is so memorable that it overcomes all the reasons and all the complexities of getting to that occasion.

Charlie Melcher:

Most people think about movies as real life things created into a fantasy thing on the screen, and you at Feld are doing the opposite. You’re taking the animated or fantasy movies and making them real life things that people can actually come to and see. What’s it like to have to translate dinosaurs into something that’s working on a stage or characters that only exist animations into real life characters and people. It’s such a different kind of challenge you have than most people would think.

Juliette Feld Grossman:

We love taking on the impossible. So in a lot of cases, we’re doing it for the very first time when we created Marvel Universe Live, and we were taking on the special effects and the appearance of superheroes, many of those had never existed before. And in the films, they were CGI characters or there were practical elements. And this is true with Jurassic World as well. There were dinosaur elements that were real, but the whole was CGI. And so we took on creating those things in real life. So when we created Jurassic World, we took a CGI model of the T-Rex, and we then built her to scale. She’s the size of a school bus, 17 feet long, and then she can travel at 16 to 17 miles per hour, which oh my goodness, is actually the same as what scientists estimated realty Rex could travel at.

 

And we took on these challenges because it’s what the audience expects because their expectations are built around what they’ve seen in the film. We have to meet those expectations. We immerse ourselves very deeply in the IP because we’re also creating new stories within these, well-known and well beloved Canons. So what’s interesting on Jurassic World is it’s a universal cannon. So we had to fit our story into a time period in which certain people in dinosaurs would be in different locations and places, and we had to fit our scenic design into the state of the island at that period of time, and the level of foliage and overgrowth and disrepair and all of that, and be very conscientious of all those elements. And we love that we get into that and thrive on it. And then with Marvel Universe Live, we had flexibility to develop a story that was really a unique realm because in Marvel, you have different universes for which you can have different kinds of stories. When we created that show in 2014, it was actually the first place that you could see Spider-Man, the Avengers and X-Men come together. You’ve got a fan base that has expectations and fans are invested in your property because we want them to leave feeling that it was so much more than they expected, but it was also completely in line with that franchise.

Charlie Melcher:

You have to be more detailed and nerding out than the most loyal fans. If you got caught on a mistake, it would be terrible. But I didn’t realize the level of animatronics, for example, or the different disciplines that all come together at Feld to put on a kind of magical world class, real life show that can compete with what CGI can do, stay true to a kind of fantasy that is set by only the limits of imagination. I always wanted to meet the ringmaster, and you said the show doesn’t have one, but I actually feel like it truly does. And you are it. And thank you so much for being here and sharing with me and bringing so much joy and memories for so many people through what you do.

Juliette Feld Grossman:

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Charlie Melcher:

I’m Charlie Melcher, and this has been The Future of Storytelling Podcast. I’d like to thank Juliet Feld Grossman for joining me today, and to thank you for listening to learn more about the new Ringling Brothers in Barnum and Bailey Circus. Check out the links in this episode’s description, and if you enjoyed the show, please consider giving us a five star rating and a review on the podcast platform of your choice. The future of storytelling is a community of people who are passionate about live entertainment, media, technology, immersive experiences, and above all stories. In addition to the FoST podcast, we also release a free monthly newsletter FoST in Thought, which gathers the best storytelling news from across disciplines. There’s also the FoST Explorers Club, our annual membership program, which brings members to meet the world’s best storytellers and experience their creations firsthand. To learn more about both, please visit our website@fost.org. The FoST Podcast is produced by Melcher Media, in collaboration with our talented friends and production partners, charts and leisure. I hope to see you again soon for another deep dive into the world of storytelling. Until then, please be safe, stay strong, and story on.