“The Carnival” that’s coming to town soon…is not the kind you might expect!
Taking over the Cheyenne Saloon in Orlando, “The Carnival” is the second team-up between the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and Creative City Project, the arts collaborative behind the annual ImmerseFest that fills the downtown Orlando streets with art every year.
Cole NeSmith is the founder and artistic director of Creative City Project. He says “The Carnival” is based around a piece of classical music and then the production gets…well, creative with it!
Cole Nesmith:
We did a collaboration in 2022, called The Seasons around Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons." And it was a really fun time. And so we decided to do something together again. The Carnival is based on "Carnival of the Animals" [by Camille Saint-Saëns]. And we started with that as the foundation and have expanded on it in quite a few ways.
Nicole Darden Creston:
When you say that you've expanded on it, I understand you're going to have dancers and some other things. Can you talk about some of that?
Cole Nesmith:
So we started with the original symphony, which is only 22 minutes in length. And so we thought, well, it's going to be hard to get an audience together for 22 minutes [laughter]. And so we began working to expand on some of new pieces to create variations on the original work. So the entirety of the original score is in the show, but also we have these original compositions that have helped us expand the musical section. But not only is it a musical experience, we've also brought together circus performers and dancers and actors with an original script to really take "Carnival of the Animals" as an inspiration and build an entire show out of it.
Nicole Darden Creston:
Talk a little bit about the venue where this is going to take place.
Cole Nesmith:
Well, we love finding venues that maybe people aren't typically used to going to to see a theatrical performance or an orchestral performance. And so the Cheyenne Saloon in downtown Orlando is a beautiful building. It's full of natural wood, it kind of resembles a turn-of-the-century saloon. And so we're embracing that aesthetic with even the aesthetic of The Carnival itself, kind of reflecting that 1910s-1920s era circus.
Nicole Darden Creston:
So what would you like people to take away from this experience?
Cole Nesmith:
Well, "Carnival of the Animals" originally is this exploration of how the animalistic parts of us as humans kind of come through. And so we've embraced that idea of, what does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be an animal? What does it mean to be alive, ultimately? And the entirety of the show is a led by a ringmaster-lion character, and the circus performers and the dancers become those animals through costume changes and the addition of costume pieces. And it's not only an exploration of kind of the animal side of things, it also is an exploration of really, ultimately, what it means to be human.
Nicole Darden Creston:
Do you have a favorite moment? Do you have a favorite part that we should watch for?
Cole Nesmith:
Well, we have an incredible creative team. Our director is Aradhana Tiwari. Our choreographer is Holly Harris. And they have done so much of this work that I as a creative director have kind of stayed high-level. So I actually in our rehearsals have been experiencing some surprises myself. And it's beautiful, as we are experiencing now rehearsals in the Cheyenne Saloon to see how the beauty of the movement really kind of seamlessly brings together the entire composition and how the circus performers are integrated. I think one of the beautiful parts of the show is that it really is a seamless experience based on this original work of music.
Nicole Darden Creston:
So tell me what collaboration is up next?
Cole Nesmith:
So we're really excited about The Carnival coming up at the end of August. But after that, we have two brand new Halloween shows that we're bringing to Leu Gardens, which is a place we love to create in. The first is Happy Frights, which is a family-friendly trick-or-treating adventure through 12 immersive worlds. And then when the sun goes down, it's Haunting Nights, which is an artful, elevated Halloween experience with just a few chilling surprises.
Nicole Darden Creston:
How did you pick this piece of music? This overarching concept? Where did that come from?
Cole Nesmith:
When Eric Jacobson, the artistic director of Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, and I started talking about what would be great material for our next collaboration, we talked about a few different pieces. But ultimately, I think the thing that we're looking for, and these unique collaborations we've done with the Philharmonic are things that have a sense of narrative, because while we love the kind of foundation of the orchestral composition and performance, we also love bringing together these other more experiential elements around circus performers and dancers and actors and an original script. And so something like "Carnival of the Animals" has so many characters that has a variety of feeling and emotion. And it really is a great foundation for us to be able to create something narrative from it. So it's going to be a fun show for sure. And there's a little bit of mystery thrown in there. But ultimately, it's not just fun and mysterious. It is also beautiful because it's an exploration of kind of the depths of what all of us experience as people.
