Philadelphia is a national center for circus acts and clowns.

America’s first circus building opened at 12th and Market streets, with its first performance April 3, 1793. President George Washington himself attended a performance later in the season.

One group that explored the possibility of circus performance locally was a group of Swarthmore College students, writes Jane M. Von Bergen for Billy Penn.

Swarthmore College performing arts majors wanted to develop a craft where expression depended more on movement than words.

They opened Pig Iron Theatre Company in 1995, collaborating with the Headlong Dance Theater.

Out of that grew the Pig Iron School, a physical theater school that encourages experimentation and playful theatre-making, according to its website.

“None of us was from Philadelphia,” recalled Quinn Bauriedel, program director of the Pig Iron School and one of the original Pig Iron Theatre members. “We could all live here really cheaply, so we could spend more of our day making plays,” he said.

In 2011, Pig Iron School developed a graduate program. It now has 125 alums schooled in physical theater, circus, and clowning.

You’ll find them everywhere in the Philadelphia circus/clown scene, including at this year’s Fringe Festival.

Find out about the development of circus acts and clowns in Billy Penn.  

Enjoy this promotional video from 10 years ago about the advanced training program at the Pig Iron School.