On April 27, 2007, Cirque du Soleil, MSG Entertainment and BASE Entertainment announced the world premiere of Wintuk presented exclusively at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. “Experience the excitement of Wintuk with the whole family, only in New York this holiday season,” the announcement said, “and share the enchanting winter tale of one boy’s quest to find snow and adventure!” “This new creative challenge for Cirque du Soleil is very inspiring,” said Gilles Ste-Croix, Cirque’s Senior Vice-President of Creative Content. “Creating a new show based on a family-oriented storyline and theme has made us look at different artistic forms. We’re using large-scale puppetry and transforming traditional acrobatic numbers into fun and games experienced from a child’s perspective. We really hope Wintuk’s tale will create a sense of child-like wonderment in the audience.”

Cirque du Soleil would incorporate many firsts into this new production. The show was designed exclusively for the Theater at Madison Square Garden – Cirque’s first permanent address in New York City for a show outside the Big Top. Additionally, Wintuk would be the first Cirque show created specifically for a family audience. “People of all ages will identify with the lead character and his quest to find snow and adventure” Fernand Rainville went on to say. And Wintuk would be the first Cirque production to be built around a specific precisely-defined premise: the theme of winter. “With all these firsts,” added Director Richard Blackburn, “the new production is certain to amaze everyone from long-time Cirque du Soleil fans to those experiencing the excitement of Cirque for the very first time!”

But how would these two craft Cirque’s “winter tale”?

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CRAFTING THE ADVENTURE

In early press releases by Cirque regarding the show, Wintuk became “an enchanting tale about a boy named Jaime and his quest to find snow and adventure. Jaime lives in a city where the arrival of winter has brought long shadows and intense cold – but no snow! He interacts with an extraordinary cast of high-energy urban street characters, including acrobats, dancers and talking marionettes. But when the snow doesn’t arrive, he embarks on a quest with three companions – a female shaman who’s lost in the city, a shy man destined to discover his courage, and the shadow of a young girl – all to bring the snow back to where it belongs. The adventurers journey to an imaginary Arctic - a world without sunlight (Wintuk) - where they encounter the rich culture of the People of the North and extraordinary giant characters made of ice. When at last the sun returns, they fly home on the wings of a giant crane and generate a swirling snowstorm.”

But as with any work-in-progress changes are inevitable. For instance, by the time Cirque and MSG were prepared to officially announce the show – as if some of their other numerous announcements weren’t “official” enough – the release on September 18, 2007 brought with it some indications of changes to the show thematically, such as: “Jaime” becming the lead’s character name (after the young kid who played him) rather than Wintuk, and Wintuk becoming the name of the aforementioned Artic world without sunlight – to where the characters of the show journeyed.

What brought about those changes? Creative workshops, intense meetings in the round and refinements based on space confinements, time restraints and other factors.

MEET THE PRESS

With the Wintuk Blizzard gathering steam throughout summer 2007 and with only a few short months left until premiere, time was of the essence. On September 18, Wintuk met the press for the very first time. Fernand Rainville, Director of Creation, Michel Granger, Production Manager and René Charbonneau, Puppet Designer, were on hand and took a few minutes to present an overview of the show. More specifically, they addressed the challenges of creating a show for an existing theatre, how the acrobatic performances were adapted to the location and the descriptions of the story’s main characters, among other things. It was a rousing success.

"It will snow in Manhattan every night from November 1, 2007 to January 6, 2008. That’s not a weather prediction; it’s the promise of Cirque du Soleil, which intends to introduce New Yorkers, and their numerous visitors, to winter," said Daniel Lamarre. After only one press release two months ago, close to 150,000 Wintuk tickets have been sold, according to Daniel Lamarre. “This proves that the Cirque brand is very, very strong in New York, which gives us a significant competitive advantage,” he says. “The other thing is that people love Cirque’s acrobatic performances, which they will see in this show. I also think that we will be going where no one has gone before with the puppets, because the word puppet does not do justice to all the technological development put into creating them. People will be highly impressed by what Mr. Blackburn has created.”

Wintuk had a final dress rehearsal on Monday, October 29th before premiering to favorable-but-mixed reviews: “Everything here is but a shell of the usual Cirque du Soleil whimsical spirit and creativity,” said the Asbury Park press of the show. “This is not an experience that will take your breath away or make you gasp in amazement at the beauty of it all. [...] That whole aspect of wondering “How did they do that?” is missing here.”

But that didn’t stop the show from earning a second season.

A FUTURE FOR WINTUK?

For its second season (October 30, 2008 – January 4, 2009) Cirque added “even more wonder and adventure to the story, with riveting new elements of suspense and intrigue, and surprising twists, turns and reversals for the second season.” Besides enhancing the show thematically, the show also added Power Track, “a daring, high-speed, precision choreographed trampoline act that pushes the very definition of acrobatics to the limits.” They also re-designed a couple of the show’s puppets.

The show remained relatively the same after the second season, with minor cast changes here and there as performers came and went, concluding after its fourth season, which ran from November 17, 2010 through January 2, 2011.

With the initial contract having concluded and no renewal in sight, there was nothing left but to pack WINTUK up and leave the Theater at Madison Square Garden. In an interview with Jerry Nadal (SVP of Resident Shows) in Fascination, the Unofficial Cirque du Soleil Newsletter (http://www.cirquefascination.com/?p=2283), he spoke about at least one potential future for Wintuk: “We were talking about touring it, redesigning the sets to fit into theaters. But we’ve got so much product in North America we thought it probably wasn’t a good idea. So I’ve been looking around for different places to put it.”

Alas that has yet to occur; therefore, at present time WINTUK’s last show on January 2, 2011 was its final curtain call.

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