Event: El Laberinto (1st. Anniversary)
Gardena, CA, The Warehouse, December 4 1999
Sergio Martinez Hosts
144 attendants

First event at a larger, industrial setting allows Circo to really pull all the stops. The space, a 7500 sq. ft warehouse is turned into an elaborate ‘underground’. Guests are invited to enter at the back of the building through a meandering labyrinth. As they come out, guests are welcomed to a multi-level stage from where poetry, music and individual acts are performed. When the lights go out and the night begins, mechanized pajama girls mesmerize the public with their opening ‘psychiatric mad house act’. A truly surreal video of this event exists and it’s part of Circo’s in-progress documentary. (Mariana Pascuzzi again choreographs, dances and directs Veronica Vainstoc, Stella Sosa and Elsa Cecci.) Circular fiction by Cortazar is ‘acted out’ from the second level by Sergio Martinez and Ernesto Sopprani while dozens and dozens of paper airplanes assault the entire crowd. The paper planes, again, nothing but typewritten poems bombarding the crowd with poetic ammunition for later on in the night. As usual, the night takes its unexpected turns: spoken word along an improv drum session. An improvised chant-spoken word-drum session also takes place. Ernesto Sopprani begins his collaboration with Circo as a graphic designer and the night’s invite is designed by him featuring poetry by Jorge Luis Borges.