Spirits Lifted in Richfield - In and Out of the ring

Richfield, UT

When we set out on this little adventure, we knew it was going to be an odd sort of trip.  Circus Bella as Shrine Circus, rural southwestern Utah, theaters and gymnasiums....hm.  Our first shows in Cedar City were barely attended.  That seemed a bit odd.  Panguitch was really sweet, but again, small attendance.  Then Hurricane happened.

We know that the small attendance was no reflection on the quality of our show and that for the most part, we're pretty decent people.  There were a number of forces at work that were clearly outside of our control.  Regardless of the reasons, small audiences are hard on the egos and morals of our performer selves.  We really needed some show love in Richfield…

As much as I love Google Maps, I don't recommend it if you're traveling into unchartered territory.  Our directions to Sevier County Fairgrounds in Richfield led us to a looped country road spotted with small properties across vast farmland. We were not in Richfield but in Annabel and we were definitely not at the Fairgrounds.  Many of the homes had a few sheep in their yard, quaint. Two different times, curious dogs came trotting out to the road right in front of the truck, another sign that we were the unlikely anomaly in these parts, even to the dogs.

Prehistoric people occupied the Richfield area for more than 7,000 years. Fremont culture remains are found near most community sites in the Sevier area and are dated from approximately CE 1 to CE 1000. During the late 1820s, Jedediah Smith and other fur traders crossed the area. Sevier County lies on the Old Spanish Trail between Santa Fe, New Mexico and California and was used by travelers between 1830 and 1850.
In the early part of January 1864 a party of ten men under the leadership of Albert Lewis came from Sanpete County, Utah and arrived in what is now Richfield. The Mormon settlers found fertile soil, good water and wood in the nearby hills. They decided that it was a desirable site for a settlement. These pioneers made a dwelling place for all ten men, which they called 'The Hole in the Ground.' They carefully covered this hole with brush willows and other materials and made a crude chimney of rocks. This dugout was located on today's Main Street. These men spent the remainder of the winter in this dwelling, planning and preparing for the time when they could bring their families.
The early Mormon settlements were abandoned in 1867 due to the conflict known as the Black Hawk War. But, when resettled in 1871, Richfield grew to become a regional center. The coming of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad in 1891 opened the valley for expanded agricultural commerce and mining.  From Wikipedia

Fortunately, cell reception worked and I was able to reach the county events coordinator, Paula, who gave us directions to get us on track.  We were only 10 minutes away but it felt like a million miles to get there. We made it to the fairgrounds with no idea what to expect after Hurricane.  Some of us ready and open for anything, others, a bit worn down. 

We promptly met Yvonne, the short, fiery spirited blond groundskeeper.  She gave us the tour of the building and set us up with an empty office for our dressing room.  We got to work.  While we got into motion, Mark took the reigns of working out the sound system and microphone situation with Yvonne as JB set to work on the setting up the merch table in the lobby.  Yvonne said that she'd probably make it for the 4pm show but had to leave as her daughter had a dance recital that day.

The fairground arena faced the parking lot with its back to an open vista of cow pastures that stretched out to the mountains.  The arena was relatively small with a well groomed packed dirt floor and aluminum bleachers on one side for about 600 – 700 people, split in the middle by the entrance from the lobby.  Roll up doors sat on each side that accessed to roof covered stables.  This is where they held the rodeo and other events.  Now there would be a circus here.  It felt good to be setting up on earth again and anyone who's worked both stage and ring can understand the value of the differences – good and bad.  Nice to be able to stake again and feel a bit more grounded, not so much better for unicycle and leveling the table.

We had a good 2.5 hours to prepare for our first show at 4:00pm.  Plenty of time to set up (done in about 80 minutes) and give us all some time to noodle around a bit in the ring.  We decided to set the ring in front of one set of bleachers instead of centering to the entire space, anticipating not filling the entire space.  A.C. was running late on his return from a meeting in Las Vegas so JB had to handle ticket sales for the first show.  Unfortunately, this didn't prove to be much of a challenge as only about 30 people showed.  The 4pm show as nice enough, though.  We just rolled with it.

Before the 7pm show, we all scattered to tend to our own needs.  Making lunch, finding napping spots, getting on the phone, running routines.  All of us, at one point or another, took some time out to watch the calves dance and play in the field directly behind.  It was a novelty for us city folks to watch cows play.

Backyard behind the Arena.

Paula, the events coordinator for the county, came around in between shows, disappointed that she missed the 4:00.  She mentioned that she couldn’t stay for the 7:00 performance.  Paula came in and took some pictures of the ring in the arena, expressed her disappointment that it was a small house, and then left.  Before departing, she mentioned that this was the time of year for a lot of youth sporting events and that we may have had a better turn out a different time of year.  Hm.

Thirty minutes till the next show, we were a bit curious as to what would pass.  Would there be an audience at all.  The bounce house was blowing around a bit in the afternoon winds out front.  We'd peer through the venetian blinds of our office/dressing room to see anyone was out there.  A few kids, few adults.  Ok, maybe we'll have another little show.

Twenty till we go out to the arena and get ready.  Fifteen till we were hoping for a case of MST (Mormon Standard Time) arrival.  And, alas, the bleachers appeared to actually to fill up.  Sparsely, but there were people.  We were thrilled.   Tristan was peering through the curtain dancing with joy that she spotted at least three audience members deemed good victims for the contortion reprise.  It took so little to get us excited at this point. 

The 7pm show was cohesive, energized, and exciting.  The ensemble was working as an ensemble and JB was completely on his game running sound.  The audience was very much with us throughout the show and the post show in the lobby really affirmed this.  Lots and lots of pictures, cutting up and chatting.  Someone from Richfield actually posted on our Facebook page the following day.  We needed that show in more ways than one. 

We struck in 79 minutes, just getting dark outside then.  We were ready to leave, running the dummy checks, etc. when we realized we were the only ones in the building.   Odd.  We wrapped up our business and just left.  I did call Yvonne on the roll out, who casually told me, "oh, yeah, I'll be over there in a bit to lock up." 

In our original plan, we were going to stay the night in Richfield.  We decided to keep our reservation in Cedar City to simplify our lives.  It had become our temporary home and staying one more night kept us close to Parowan for the next night's show. 

The two-hour drive back was not so bad in spite of heavy eyelids.