Christina Gelsone and Seth Bloom. Photo by William DeShazer for The New York Times
Seth Bloom formed the company Acrobuffos with his wife, Christina Gelsone, in 2005. Since then, they created seven shows together, competed in international circus festivals, performed in over 25 countries, headlined at the Big Apple Circus, and were featured on a postage stamp. Christina and Seth built a reputation for making original work that challenged genres and mined big laughs with no words.
Seth spent his childhood in Kenya, India, and Sri Lanka. His college years were interrupted multiple times with national tours as a juggler and silent comedian. He worked extensively in Afghanistan with the Mobile Mini Circus for Children. Seth received his MFA in London for Lecoq theatre technique, and co-founded Split Knuckle Theatre, a 5-star physical theater company. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University, Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Clown College, Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre, and LISPA (MFA). He performed in 30 countries and 49 US States.
Seth Bloom. Photo by William DeShazer for The New York Times
TYA/USA has collected quotes from Seth’s collaborators and friends in the TYA field to reflect on his life and work.
From Marisol Rosa-Shapiro (Director, Performer, Clown, New Victory Theater Teaching Artist):
“To be with Seth in any setting–in the classroom, in the theater, at home, over dinner, or even just in passing in the moments before curtain as fellow audience members in the same theater lobby–was to be transported. Everywhere he went, by his mere presence, Seth created a space of authentic connection, kindness, playfulness, curiosity, creativity, gentleness, ease, compassion, wonder, laughter, and a zest for life. He was magnetic and electric, generous and genius, and so warm. Over the last several years, we connected in the briefest of moments between Seth and Christina’s international adventures–but Seth made an outsized impact on me in subtle and profound ways. The legacy of his spirit, his talent and his artistry live on in the hundreds of thousands of lives that he and his creations touched through clowning, mask play, theater making, and social circus across the entire globe. Seth was an inimitable gift from the universe and I am tremendously grateful to have known him.”
From Daniel Hahn (Vice President of Education, Playhouse Square):
“Ten years ago, I slipped out of a PechaKucha presentation in the throes of my first APAP to meet Mary Rose Lloyd in the upper lobby of the midtown Hilton. I had been in my position for a whopping nine months, felt wildly insecure, and was just trying to connect with as many helpful people as possible. Mary Rose said there were two artists whose work I might be interested in supporting: they called themselves Acrobuffos. The next night I met for the first time Seth and Christina. I fell in love with both of them during that late night dinner, and offered to support their project that was then unnamed but would become the world phenomenon AIR PLAY. In those early years, watching Seth and Christina literally develop a masterpiece using our Broadway theater as their laboratory was what it must have felt like being in the room when the Marx Brothers rehearsed their first vaudeville show. AIR PLAY opened our 2015 season, and I still have a photo of a costumed Seth, his arm around my 10-year-old son’s shoulder, my niece seated on his lap, smiling in front of the stage. In the years that followed, trips to New York City were often punctuated with Seth and Christina visits, where they would gleefully introduce me to spots they loved but I hadn’t yet experienced – Wine Escape, Mercato, Bocca di Bacco. There they regaled me with tales of their latest adventures. We dreamt of turning AIR PLAY into a children’s picture book. We raised many a glass to their brilliant agent and dear friend Jim Weiner. We expressed our mutual love for one another, and gratitude for being in each other’s lives. And now, dear Seth, you are at peace, and those you touched will never forget the joy of knowing you.”
From Edie Demas (Vice President Organizational Strategy, Tom O’Connor Consulting Group):
“I met Seth early in my first month as Director of Education at the New Victory Theater. At that point, he’d been working with New Vic families as a teaching artist for a couple of seasons. Watching him with multi-generational participants was pure joy. He was kind and irreverent, generous and challenging, incredibly prepared and nimble enough to go with the room. I am thankful for the full circle moment of watching him many years later play with my own kids in my backyard. My young son wanted to learn to dance up walls like Singin’ in the Rain and Seth in his magical way helped him to believe it was possible, IF he learned a few more basic skills first. Back in the early years at New Vic, we quickly became close colleagues and friends. He was a tremendous, trusted, and creative thought partner to me as I returned to the US after working abroad to begin my first “big job.” Maybe it started because we recognized the wandering gene in each other. I’m not sure, it was unbelievably 23 years ago and his hair wasn’t blue yet. What I know and will be forever grateful for is how he could balance authentic collaboration with a rigorous and ardent call to us all to do better and to do more.
Seth believed in the power and possibility of the artist as teacher and global citizen. His contributions in those early days were essential to creating an ensemble culture where the work in schools and with families was not simply a side hustle between the “real” gigs. He inspired our commitment to building a homebase on 42nd st where performing artists who also happened to be brilliant teachers and passionate change agents could return between other projects. Balancing, or juggling, these ambitions was not easy. But when was easy ever part of Seth’s lexicon? As many of us worked together to refine the program, Seth continued to inspire and challenge us by posing important questions like; “what is the career path for teaching artists?” and “how will my compensation represent my time here, my increasing expertise, and my commitment to the organization season after season?” He understood the role of the artist as instigator, investigator, and innovator for all people of all ages in all situations. And he played it perfectly. I will forever be grateful that he played that role in my work and life. I will forever miss his questions and his mischievous, joyful smile while posing them.”
Seth Bloom. Photo by Dan Welk.
From Lindsey Buller Maliekel (Vice President of Education and Public Engagement at the New Victory Theater / New 42):
“To read posts after the news of Seth’s passing is to read dispatches from Egypt, Afghanistan, England, Australia – street performers on the streets of Edinburgh are dedicating their acts to him as I write – and the list will certainly keep growing. It is to read tributes to a person that made each of us feel like the world was brighter, kinder, more fun, more connected than we had previously understood. That was the magic of Seth Bloom. He saw the whole world, all the audiences and thought, “I can make them all laugh.” And he could! He could make audiences of 10,000 in Taiwan erupt in wild laughter. He could make streets full of people gleeful in Germany. He could make all of Cleveland join in a collective gasp at the beauty of the work alongside his partner Christina Gelsone. But he also made each individual person seen. I cannot count the number of people he befriended with his authentic and playful curiosity; he truly never met a stranger. With that special quality, he allowed all of us to see more in each other. His ability to connect changed all of us – that is what I will miss the most, being changed and expanded by my friend, Seth.”
From David Kilpatrick (Senior Director, Education Programs and Productions, Kennedy Center):
“I’ve been lucky enough to know Seth for more than 20 years. On top of being extremely talented and a one-of-a-kind teaching artist and circus performer, no one was more warm, generous, kind or joyful. He loved what he did – and that love was infectious.
I first met Seth when I started working at The New Victory Theater in 2002. The Family Workshops were in my portfolio of programs and we started the season with a weekend of ‘Juggling and Physical Comedy’ workshops for kids and their families to take together. I was super nervous; it was my first job out of grad school and the first program I was running for our audiences, so I wanted to make sure I got it right. In walks Seth, who immediately put me at ease and made me laugh out loud as he walked through his lesson plan. We instantly connected. Seth’s two-hour masterclasses that weekend were gifts: brilliantly facilitated and expertly planned. He taught juggling with scarves, encouraged improvised wordless scene work between adults and kids to Federico Fellini scores, and had 60+ participants in the palm of his hand. That weekend expanded what I believed was possible in a classroom, and impacted my career more than Seth likely ever knew. All these years later, if I can still remember his workshops so vividly, imagine the impact it had on the family participants?
Leaving New York and the New Victory meant less opportunities to see Seth over the years, but we stayed in touch and certainly cheered each other on. I watched closely as he and Christina developed and created Air Play. I knew it’d be special because I had seen Seth’s artistry up close, but still couldn’t believe the journey it had, with support from all sorts of respected presenters and producers. I made a point to bring my family up to see the show when it premiered at the New Victory. It took my breath away. My son laughed so hard he fell out of his theater seat, while I wiped tears from my eyes during the quieter, introspective moments. Trust me when I write that it’s a perfect show, a perfect hour. It reminds you why we all got into the performing arts in the first place.
Years later, I brought my family to see Air Play again, this time post-pandemic when we had the honor of presenting it to sold-out audiences at the Kennedy Center on one of our big ‘main stages’ – the Eisenhower Theater. The magic and importance of the show had only grown. My kids – older and now seasoned theatre-goers – loved the show all over again and had new favorite moments and most impressively, zero comments or criticisms. Air Play will remain a core memory for our family – something that brought us closer when we needed it most.
After the one-week run in the Eisenhower, the space’s longtime House Manager – who, over the course of his career, has seen it all – took a moment to send this message to our staff, Seth, and Christina: “I just wanted to share it is rare that I have a production in the Eisenhower that for every single performance engenders such pure raw, innocent joy, wonder, and amazement from both children and adult alike. This performance brought a tear to my eye more than once. I, and my audiences, are grateful to you for the experience and the sheer purity of it.”
I imagine it’s one of hundreds, maybe thousands, of affirming and grateful messages from house managers and theater staff all over the world that Seth and Christina received.
Like the best artists, Seth gave us more than he received. He made us all expand our capacity for imagination and possibility. We’re all in his debt for the large doses of joy and inspiration he gifted us. It’s unimaginable that he is gone, but our memories of Seth will do what I think he always hoped: make us laugh.”
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