Circus Alba was born on a snowy night in the Highlands; three people with very different circus histories but a shared vision for performance, production and training in a Scottish and international context. It’s growing slowly – we’d rather make it right than make it quickly.
Who are we?
Phyllis Martin
Phyllis Martin has been a producer and production manager for circus, dance and theatre for 10 years. She has created and toured ensemble acrobatic dance shows, run a cabaret club for four years, overseen 50-cast big top extravaganzas and run venues at Glastonbury, Edinburgh and Adelaide Fringes.
Experienced in everything from regional strategic development, to corporate PR and nationwide touring, very little fazes Phyllis these days. She founded the Pocket Circus social circus charity, secured several new circus commissions and multi-year funding for Bright Night International, instigated the Edinburgh Mela’s G-Force project and was a lead in the Commonwealth Youth Circus pre-professional circus training programme and show.
Phyllis holds a Churchill Fellowship for business models in youth circus and is the Administrator for CircusWorks, the UK Youth Circus Network. She also runs the Truffle Pig grant-writing consultancy to help good people make great things happen in the arts and other interesting fields. In her spare time, which she insists she has, Phyllis likes writing sci-fi and playing the ukulele.
Rob Thorburn
Rob has been working across the world as a teacher and performer since 2001. A circus artist of international repute, he specialises in manipulation, acrobalance, and the creation of contemporary clown circus.
From 2001-2006 he worked with te POOKa, a performing arts charity based in Edinburgh and then set up his own masterclass training company, Uberevents, offering worldwide tuition in high level manipulation techniques.
Thereafter he has: formed performance troupe JAM and toured Europe, performing at some of the largest street arts and circus events on the continent; helped set up and produce the first full time course in Fooling technique with Jonathan Kay and Attic Theatre; joined the team at PLAY festival as festival programmer; created several new shows with Firepoise in Northern Ireland and become heavily involved with circus charity Performers Without Borders.
In 2013 he returned home to Scotland to work with the Commonwealth Youth Circus and now splits his time between Circus Alba and freelance work as a performer, producer and tutor.
Suzy Enoch
Suzy comes from a theatrical background having studied acting at the Italia Conti Academy in London, after which she worked in both theatre and film within Britain and Europe, specialising in children’s and physical theatre. She founded London based company First Draft, now Blank Pages, and pioneered a collaborative devising method involving writers, directors and actors.
Upon moving to Edinburgh she discovered circus and became a professional acrobalance performer. Suzy is now passionate about combining her theatrical background and circus expertise, working to create multi artform shows and narrative circus.
Associated Artists
Circus Alba works with a fantastic group of artists and companies. Come back soon and you’ll be able to read all about them here.
