Horror, humor and sexuality culminate in this year’s Fright Night: A Halloween Circus at Portland State. Returning for its eleventh year, this event will feature 12 acts and 18 performers from the Portland-based aerial and circus arts company Night Flight.
Fright Night is no traditional circus. “This is modern, human only,” said Jack StockLynn, cast member and coach at Night Flight.
“Think [of an] athletic performance,” StockLynn said. “More akin to dance than a circus with animals or big top [tent] type stuff… We follow a story and then the acts are different pieces of—in this show—it’s different characters from horror films brought to life to do a theatrical virtuosic dance in the air or sometimes on tables or chairs.”
This event will showcase various skills, such as trapeze, silks, contortion, dance and lyra—acrobatics performed on large aerial hoops. According to Night Flight’s website, viewers can expect to see “battling possessed dolls swinging high above the audience, contorting demogorgons and a blood soaked prom queen on aerial silks.”
Fright Night is rated-R, but not for the reasons you might expect from a Halloween-themed event. “The show is very queer, but also it’s horror-film themed,” StockLynn said. “It’s not necessarily ‘R’ for blood and gore. It’s ‘R’ because there’s a lot of sex and burlesque kinds of sexuality. We say rated-R for butts.”
Night Flight aims to attract horror enthusiasts and those who don’t enjoy the scare factor of Halloween. “To be honest, I am one of the main performers in it, and I don’t like horror movies,” StockLynn said. “There’s no jump scares or anything. It’s more silly and funny and sexy.”
Beyond this show, members of the company perform at private events and community venues around Portland, as well as the annual student showcase. Night Flight’s studio space in Southeast Portland hosts group classes and open gyms for multiple forms of dance and aerial arts.
“The coaches are professional performers and have been coaching and teaching and performing for a long time, and we really focus on learning aerial safely,” StockLynn said. “It’s a good progression of skills, so that we’re teaching things as you’re ready for them.”
Classes welcome all levels of athletes and performers, from total beginners and beyond. “If you feel like, ‘Oh, I’m not strong enough to do circus,’ [then] come to circus class and we’ll get you strong enough to do circus,” StockLynn said. “There’s not a prerequisite.”
Fright Night will be held at Lincoln Hall from Oct. 20–29.
