Welcome to The House of MASH! It is our mission to continue creating fun, post modern circus performance through new and classical process’ that enable play, learning, participation and collaboration. What that really means is that we will make cutting edge shows with our professional collective and community, inspiring everyone along the way to play, work together, learn from each other and be 100% authentically them always.
You can think about the House of MASH as four rooms. It is our vision to develop these rooms into tangible safe spaces for people to connect creatively and develop their creative projects.
Come in! This blog spills the tea on our dream! #JoinTheNoise
“Dream way too big and forget not your purpose but live every day like your life is a circus.”
The Dream Den
My (Joe) enquiry was (and still is):
“How do we create work that speaks to the brave alter-ego in people and encourages strength within them to allow themselves to break free from confines that hold them back in life, or at least know how to start a conversation with themselves about their limiting beliefs, including insecurity, self doubt, self esteem and their inner imposter? I believe the answer lies in creativity and human connection”.
The Dream Den started in 2020, when we asked students at CircusMASH what they wanted to do as lockdown hit. We thought we’d try something new and we were surprised with the response.
Lots of amazing projects came out of the Dream Den and we’re excited to see what The Dream Den evolves into over the coming years…
Here are a few selections that were dreamed up by our students:
Polaroid: An abstract film about a young person’s pov on a governmental campaign. Blog
Unfailing Our Future: A social commentary on climate change.
The Monster Mash: A CircusMASH inspired moment, in collab with Bfourteen. Blog
Mad World: A collective message to the world at a time of crisis.
The Purpose Portal
Our vision for the purpose portal is to create a safe space for people to find their voice, connect with others and be brave enough to pitch their ideas.
The Purpose Portal presented itself during lockdown when we started weekly meetings with a group of people we called ‘The Collective’. It started as a social but quickly turned into a peer to peer support group. The Collective started to enable conversation company wide and I started to see the opportunity to create a space to nurture innovation and collaboration.
We’re still exploring ways and means to continue with this group that we now call The House of MASH Creative Collective. Keep your eyes open to see some amazing adventures!
For now, join our facebook group here. Want to get involved? #jointhenoise. Keep up to date by joining our ‘Work With Us’ newsletter here.
The Life Lounge
Life can be hard sometimes, and it can be super exciting at other times.
In 2023, overwhelm is at its peak in everyone’s lives. Speaking as Joe (The founder of MASH) I remember a time I was super exhausted, wondering what I was going to do with my life. I fell into circus, and years later I felt I wanted to do it full time but didn’t know how.
Through perseverance, grit, continued learning, putting myself in as many spaces as possible (money or not) and working hard I am proud of this magical company that is an extension of me.
We don’t quite know the ins and outs of what the Life Lounge is at the moment but we’re busy behind the scenes working on a plan!. You may know we’ve been working on a digital tool to help artists on a digital tool over the past few years called Space Plans. Keep your eye’s peeled for this…
I (Joe) am also offering mentorship sessions to small organizations and artists to help them see the bigger picture and build a sustainable business model around what they love doing.
Learn more about ‘What’s Next Mentoring’ by joining our newsletter here.
CircusMASH
CircusMASH has been running since 2011 and has established itself as a hub of circus training and activity in Birmingham. It is here where the magic happens.
Our classes focus around making high quality theatrically inspired circus shows with everyone involved. We produce multiple shows a year with over 100 cast members (adults & youth)!
#JoinTheFun
www.circusmash.co.uk
Throwback to 2019…
The CircusMASH 2019 Christmas Community show was called 20:20 and the creative process explored the Vision-Perception-Reaction cycle.
Little did we know that our exploration at the end of 2019 was preparing our thought process to react in the way that we did to ensure circus remained in everyone’s life during the year of lockdowns.
2020 gave us a chance to pause, reflect and figure out who we are as a company and what our future was going to be.
We’d spent 10 years growing young people into highly skilled acrobats and it felt it was time to think about where we were going. We’d started our digital journey a few years prior to covid (we’re still building / testing / exploring) and it felt there was a gap in the world for a production company that shook things up and had more of a purpose to help young artists and creatives get to where they want to be. A space that could help nurture growth outside of educational institutions.
As performance artists we use the medium of performance to express what we feel the world needs. It’s only since 2020 I have been thinking about who our audience is and what we are doing for them.
CircusMASH will continue to spread circus and help to build skills and belief systems into people. Our reaction to 2020 was to start developing our professional performance work to reach new audiences that we are not yet reaching.
The House of MASH will create work that shares our message of love, togetherness, positivity, equality and makes people feel good, but think about what really matters.
A Stage of Change
What does it mean?
This is a personal story that I think lives within us all. We’re all constantly in a state of change and our psyche doesn’t always like it. If we’re not aware of this change we can’t make the best of every single moment and we can sometimes sink within ourselves into unhealthy patterns if the changes happen too fast or slow, or even if we fail to recognise that change is always happening. Moments happen, and moments pass. We stand for change.
There are so many movements that are happening in the world and so many people fighting for what they believe is right. Things are changing. No doubt in the years to come there will be many more changes that will happen that are out of our control but there is something about circus that holds people together and welcomes change. A stage as a moment and a stage as a place to express ourselves. A place to create opportunity for other people to learn and believe in themselves.
Reflection Words: Energy, Empathy, Passion and Drive. What do they mean to you?