PhotoJ: Photo Story

The Bellingham Circus Guild facility at 2107 Iron St. is refracted through an acrylic contact-juggling ball as Strangely, 23, shows students the “jellyfish” on Thursday, March 3. Strangely, born Samuel Doesburg, teaches a kid’s circus workshop every Thursday at the Bellingham Circus Guild.  “If you leave it out in the sun in the summer this can start fires,” he says about the transparent ball.

Strangely hangs from 9-year-old Caleb Kors’ arms while swinging on a trapeze during a kid’s circus workshop on Thursday, March 3. Strangely teaches a weekly circus workshop on Thursdays at the Bellingham Circus Guild.

Colonel Longfellow reads a passage from Twilight, complete with sound effects for punctuation during Strangely’s one-man-show, In All My Years, on Saturday, March 5. Colonel Longfellow is a “Masque” that Strangely plays. Masque is a theater technique in which the actor wears a mask, or mustache in this case, that has it’s own personality that “exists within that face” once the wearer dons it. “The experience of acting with a mask is very emotional and deep,” Strangely explains. “As soon as I put [the moustache] on I became him out of nowhere. It’s interesting because he’s very much not me.”

Strangely takes a bow after an accordion performance paired with bells played by participating audience members in his show, In All My Years, on Saturday, March 5. By encouraging audience involvement, Strangely makes his shows more exciting for all ages. Besides being a performance space for Strangely and his fellow guild members, the Bellingham Circus Guild facility is a classroom and a practice space.

John Doesburg, 55, Strangely’s father, watches as Strangely pulls himself out of the frigid water by his boat on Monday, March 7. He was checking to make sure the hull holes were sealed on his boat, “Quiddity,” which is moored at Squalicum Harbor. He says the name of his boat refers to “an ocean of dream or thought.”

At the end of his show, In All My Years, on Saturday, March 5, Strangely thanks the audience and asks for donations to help pay his rent for the month of February. Strangely is self employed and makes money by doing performance art, although he says, “I occasionally do beautiful artistic lawn mowing.”