Names: Tony Hernandez and Sylvia Hernandez DiStasi
More Top Picks Accommodative Dysfunction Signs Your Childs Eyes Cant Focus
Positions: Circus Coordinator and Choreographer
Years: Four and Eight
Lookingglass Theatre’s current production of “La Luna Muda” features actors floating in air, riding an enormous spinning ladder, and tightrope walking. Sylvia Hernandez DiStasi choreographed the show, and her younger brother, Tony Hernandez, coordinated the circus rigging (Tony also acts in the production). Behind the Scenes sat down with them to talk about how they worked together.
Q. You both teach circus arts at The Actor’s Gymnasium. How’d you become involved with circus performing?
Sylvia: Our parents were in the circus. My mom had been in the circus since she was in Germany. My dad was in Cuba. He was a body builder and a gymnast. The circus came to Cuba and was looking for someone like that. My Dad joined the troupe, and then the show came to the U.S.
Tony: He escaped Cuba right before . . .
Sylvia: . . . right before Castro took over. Basically we were just born into it. We were with Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey. I left in 1990. Tony stayed with the family until 1992. We did the teeter-board, which is like . . .
Tony: . . . a seesaw, teeter-totter.
Sylvia: Tony and I were the flyers. We’d fly off the teeter-board and land on stacks of shoulders.
Q. How did you get involved with Lookingglass Theatre?
Sylvia: I came to Chicago in 1990 and did odd jobs. Lookingglass was looking for someone who could do physical stuff. One of my friends from the Ringling show said, “I think I know someone who could help you.” It was very exciting to use the circus in a different way than I was brought up with.
Q. How did you work together on “La Luna Muda?” What did you contribute?
Sylvia: I’d think, it’d be really cool to have this ladder spin around a center point. I don’t know how to make a ladder spin around a center point. That’s where we go ask Tony. The simplest thing I thought about for the show is the lira [a trapeze-like steel hoop]. It’s round, you put someone in it; it looks like they’re in the moon. To me it was the simplest thing of all time, but it wasn’t.
Tony: The cool thing about working with your sister, especially since we grew up in the circus and your family is a lot tighter than most families, is I know what she’s thinking. My job is to figure out how to coordinate the circus stuff. For example, they wanted a to have a high wire in the Ruth Page [Center for the Performing Arts]. One of the staff members said, “What if it’s a Y?” This is something that’s never been done in the circus, because a high wire is always a straight line. That led to sleepless nights and calls to my older brother, who’s with Cirque du Soleil. That was another huge technical thing, because Ruth Page is not meant for circus stuff.
Sylvia: Meanwhile, I’m sleeping, thinking, oh, the Y is going to be so good.
Tony: Another part of my job is making sure all the actors, including myself, are safe. It’s a really scary position to be in. The key is to be confident and know that you know what you’re doing.
Sylvia: If it’s not a little bit dangerous, it’s not circus.
Q. How important is it to you to be carrying on the family tradition?
Sylvia: I grew up between two worlds, the old-fashioned traditional circus where everything was done a certain way. Now, there’s Cirque du Soleil. You can’t just do the circus the way you did when you were 12. Being able to take my family tradition and make it viable today, I couldn’t ask for a better job; it’s very rewarding. I feel loyal to my family tradition, and feel I’m taking it to another level.
Tony: Circus will always be a part of me. I couldn’t lose it if I tried. I really want to try to apply it more to acting. I’d like to do it more as a physical comedian and actor.
Sylvia: We used to work in a tent, behind a supermarket in a grass lot. You don’t see that anymore, it’s kind of sad.
More Top Picks Best Flicker Free Monitors For Eye Comfort
———-
“La Luna Muda ends Sunday at the Ruth Page Center for the Performing Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.; 773-477-8088 or www.lookingglasstheatre.org.