MICHEAL DUFFY is a multi-disciplinary performer and director based between Las Vegas and Montreal. His passion lies in the performing arts as a platform for societal transformation and a continuation of ancient ritual. Seeing the performing arts through the lens of Cultural Anthropology, he focuses on the interplay between audience and performer. Whether performing on stage, directing, teaching or speaking, Michael is constantly aware of what an audience receives and where the performance is taking them. With over 20 years experience, 14 of which spent with the renowned Cirque du Soleil, he has graced the stage in over 15 countries on 4 continents for literally hundreds of thousands of spectators from 50 seat black box theaters in Quebec City to the O2 Arena in London and Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Knowing that no individual makes or breaks a show, Michael is a strong proponent of collaborative creation and is at home facilitating exactly that with a group of like minded visionaries. With the success story of Cirque du Soleil as a template, he is always in search of art forms on the cusp of reinvention. Though his formation might have been in circus, his interest and fascination with all art forms allows him to spin a web of connection linking the various languages of expression and finding their intersectionality.

Michael’s most recent projects include playing main characters in Spiegleworld’s very successful show Opium and a clown in Celestia on the Las Vegas strip. He is also an Artistic Coach training and integrating performers for shows on board Cirque du Soleil at Sea, teaching workshops to the students of NECCA (New England Circus Center) in Vermont, and speaking engagements .

THE LARGER STORY

Originally from South Florida, Michael began his career in an unlikely turn of events following graduation from the University of Central Florida with a B.A. in Anthropology in 1995. Searching for direction and inspiration he was approached during Kung Fu class by a French Theater troupe called Dream Hunters, working in Disney’s Epcot Center, who appreciated his movement quality and offered to teach him their avant-garde style of street theater through stilts, puppetry, physical acting, improvisation and original make-up design. He took them up on their offer and so began a new life as performing artist. In the 3 years that followed he worked, learned and trained on the virtual streets of Disney. Two hours a day “on stage”, five days a week in the Florida sun, he received a veritable education in connecting with an audience.

Unknown to him at the time was the cinderella success story of a French Canadian circus called Cirque du Soleil. That is until they arrived in Orlando and opened their 3rd resident show La Nouba in 1998. It was in the gift shop of the theater that Michael watched a documentary of how the company had come to be and that was it. It gave him chills and was crystal clear that this was an organization made for him. And so in 1999, he made the commitment to pursue a dream. With no background in gymnastics, no diploma from clown or circus schools, and almost no experience on a real stage, he convinced himself that he had what it takes to be in a Cirque du Soleil show.

In an incredible series of events, Michael was invited last minute to audition on the La Nouba stage and largely through improvisation, made it to the end, being 1 of 3 people out of 20 to make it there. Everyone else was cut. Then came the second audition in New York. 40 people to start, 5 to finish and he was once again among them. And then… nothing. No phone call, no job offer. Just a place in the enormous casting bank in Montreal. So rather than waiting for the phone to ring, he got down to business and committed to immersing himself in Nouveau Cirque, the European art form at the origins of Cirque du Soleil. Whether he got to work for them or not, he had to explore his full potential as a performer in this genre. That meant going to circus school. So he packed his truck and drove from Florida to Quebec City, auditioned for l’Ecole de Cirque de Québec, got accepted and moved there within months.

Two years later he was in the best shape of his life, had proficiency in floor acrobatics, trampoline, hand to hand, russian bar, banquine, an aerial straps number and was fluent in French. That summer after graduation, working in Quebec City with friends on the street he received a phone call from his old French boss from Florida, Julien Gabriel (of Dream Hunters), who had begun working as a creative director for Cirque du Soleil and asked if Michael would be interested in creating the characters of a new project in collaboration with Celebrity Cruises. There was no hesitation in saying yes. He moved to Montreal and took his place at the artist’s residences. This was it. This was the dream coming into focus.

After creating these character for the Bar at the Edge of the Earth for the Special Events department headed by Jean-Francois Bouchard, Michael was asked to be the Artistic Coordinator for the project, something he’d never dreamed of and seemed premature at that stage. But seeing the bigger picture, he accepted the position and opened himself up to learning every aspect of running a Cirque production, from the daily operations to running auditions and training new cast members. It was another veritable education in the business.

Not content with accepting a desk job just yet, he kept knocking on Casting’s door and soon thereafter auditioned as a dancer and was cast in DELIRIUM, a bigger than life arena show with which he toured for over 2 years and 375 performances. Along the way, he replaced the main character on stilts Cerbere and became a focal point for the show pushing his skills in physical acting and projection to arena sized audiences.

BOTH SIDES OF THE 4TH WALL

After two and a half years on tour, Michael was again approached by Special Events to be Assistant Director to Julian Gabriel for Cirque du Soleil’s debut at the International Expo 2008 in Zaragoza Spain. Still eager to learn on a bigger scale, he finished DELIRIUM and jumped right back into the direction side for the creation of this giant parade that would play for 93 days straight during the Expo. In everything from training stilt walkers to creating characters and coordinating rehearsals, he became accustomed to wearing many hats. Becoming fluent in Spanish within weeks, he then ran the project as Artistic Director for the summer.

Returning to Montreal in 2008, following the success of the Expo, Michael entered the life of freelance artist for the next 3 years. Playing multiple characters in Cirque’s Special Events and at times following his passion with homegrown circuses from Quebec City such as Companie Les Confins or working with the renowned Ex Machina, company of Robert LePage, to createThe Ring Cycle for the Met Opera, he continued to work on both sides of the “4th wall.” This allowed him to go deeper into the underground and receive vital experience directly from the life of a freelance circus artist. Each summer he worked the biggest of these projects called Les Chemins Invisibles (The Paths Unseen), the ambitious outdoor production by Cirque du Soleil that would run for 5 summers. The first year, Michael was again in the Assistant Director seat, the second year on stage as the main character, and the third year he ran the show as Artistic Director. The epic scale and outdoor show challenges once again became a crucial education in adaptation and perseverance both as a director and on stage.

FORK IN THE ROAD

Following the success of this 3rd year in 2011, Michael was asked submit a video to play a main character in Zarkana, the grand spectacle created specifically for Radio City Music Hall directed by Francois Girard (The Red Violin). At the same time he was also asked if he’d be interested in applying for Artistic Director of one of the Big Top Touring shows. A difficult position to be sure but, feeling that there was more to give on stage and knowing that Zarkana represented the closest iteration of his original dream of playing in a giant Cirque show, he once again jumped on stage, this time as a Mad Scientist!

Michael would stay with Zarkana for the next 5 years, playing New York, Madrid, and Moscow’s Kremlin Palace Theater before taking up residency in Las Vegas. Maniacally pronouncing “Madames et Monsieurs! Bienvenue au Cirque du Soleil!!!!” in the opening speech in over 1,800 shows, it was the gig of a lifetime (check out the link for more info). But alas, all good things must close that curtain at some point and in 2016, Zarkana took it’s final bow and became part of Cirque du Soleil legend.

A NEW LIFE

Since the closing of Zarkana, Michael continues to cultivate the unique experience of working both sides of the table. Much like movie Actor/Directors, for him, we all have a role to play, be that directing or being directed. We are all creating together to make this magic we call show. No one person can make this happen. Since 2017 he has been chosen as Artistic Coach for Cirque du Soleil at Sea where he continues to train the next generation of circus artists to be part of the shows on board MSC Cruise Ships. Residing in Las Vegas, he is also performing as an actor/clown on stage regularly in hit shows like Opium (from Spiegleworld). His unique path has also opened up invitations to speak on the audience/performer relationship, concept creation and unorthodox approaches to stage direction. Settling into this mix of artistic expression, Michael is very inspired to discover what awaits around that blind corner of life and greet it with curiosity of a child.

THANK YOU!