Students at two Prince Albert schools will be among 18 from across Saskatchewan getting a fresh look at science thanks to the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils (OSAC).
Aythan Ross will tour St. John Community School on Sept. 17 at 1:30 p.m. and Princess Margaret Public School on Sept. 18 at 9:30 a.m. with his science show “Professor Wow!” The performances are possible thanks to OSAC’s Performing Arts in Schools Program.
“It really has the flavour of an old European Circus tour where I’m traveling and living in my own little clown car sort of thing,” said Ross, who will tour the province with his own trailer since some of the communities he’s visiting have no hotels.
“I’m quite excited and looking forward to exploring North Saskatchewan and seeing all these towns and meeting all the students in the schools.”
Ross said he became interested in theatre as a child because he was not particularly athletic.
“I learned how to juggle one year in the mid or mid-80s and got sort of addicted to juggling and balancing and essentially circus skills,” Ross said.
Ross’ interest in the circus started before the advent of Cirque Du Soleil and before circus became a possible future goal. Instead, he attended university in Montreal where his family is originally from.
“It was always a hobby for years,” he said. “I worked a little bit in the summers, doing summer festivals of all kinds, traveling the country a little bit. After university—after my arts degree in literature and philosophy and the things you need to be a professional clown—I went full time in the year 2000, approximately, and haven’t looked back since.”
Ross described his show style as circus and vaudeville because he is a juggler and balancer that mixes in theatre to find his own style.
“I really got into school performances in earnest maybe about 10 years ago,” he explained. “This show, Professor Wow in the Invisible World of Science, that I’m presenting with OSAC throughout Saskatchewan is a show developed in 2019 and it’s very fun. It’s been very popular with schools.”
Originally, Ross focused on creating silly, fun shows that could be performed solo for theatres, schools, and outdoor festivals. However, once he started performing more and more in schools, he began including more educational elements.
“I wanted to have something that was more … curriculum based, a bit more meaningful,” he explained. “More of my revenue was in schools and stuff so it was sort of an organic transition to where I was getting to work. As an independent artist, of course, you have to kind of go where the work is and try to figure things out.”
Ross said that despite studying art in university, he became passionate about science.
“I really fell in love with science in university, despite being an arts student, because as one professor said to us, science is just ideas,” Ross explained.
“For the most part, science is just ideas, and I just love that.”
Ross said his show is essentially a paraphrase of Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. According to the OSAC press release, the show demonstrates Newton’s three laws of motion and more. Themes include Atoms, Newton’s Laws of Motion, Aerodynamics, balance, centrifugal force, gravity, inertia, knowledge, logic, mathematics, nature, phenomena, sonic boom, physics, science, velocity.
“I spend the rest of the show doing demonstrations and having these little epiphanies that lead from one idea to another,” he explained.
He previously presented 19 performances of The Great Balanzo from September 17-28, 2018 in 14 Saskatchewan communities to a total audience of 5,283 students and teachers.
“I’m very excited to be back with this science show where I get to play myself,” he explained. “I’m a silly professor, but I acknowledge quite quickly that I’m not really a real professor or a scientist.
“Traveling the world, I’ve been to 14 countries over the years, I got curious about how do my circus tricks work. What’s going on? That leads me into the physics of the show and of my circus tricks.”
The Prince Albert stop is the fourth and fifth on the tour. His next stop after Prince Albert is Maude Burke School in Melfort on Sept. 18 at 2 p.m.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
