Rob Mermin
Rob Mermin is the founder of the award-winning international touring youth circus Circus Smirkus.{{cite web | title = A Brief History of Circus Smirkus | publisher = Circus Smirkus | url = http://www.circussmirkus.org/htm/about/history.html | accessdate = 2009-04-19 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20090501034427/http://www.circussmirkus.org/htm/about/history.html | archivedate = 2009-05-01 }}
Biography
Rob Mermin grew up in a lively Jewish family, and in 1969 Mermin ran off to join the circus. He clowned with various European circuses including England's Circus Hoffman, Sweden's Cirkus Scott, Denmark's Circus Benneweis in the Circus Building by the Tivoli, the Hungarian Magyar State Cirkusz, and circus palaces throughout the former Soviet Union. His formal training includes mime with masters Marcel Marceau and Etienne Decroux, and a degree in Drama and Literature from Lake Forest College in 1971. He is former Dean of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, and President of Blackfriar’s Summer Theater. In 1987 Mermin founded Circus Smirkus in Greensboro, Vermont.
=Awards=
Mermin's awards include Copenhagen's Gold Clown; Vermont's Bessie Award;{{cite document | title = Memo, Shmemo | publisher = Circus Smirkus | location = Greensboro, Vermont | year = 2006 | page = 34}} Best Director Prize at the International Circus Festival on Russia's Black Sea; the Lund Family Center's "It Takes A Village" Award;{{cite web | title = Balancing Act | publisher = Seven Days | url = http://www.7dvt.com/2004/balancing-act | accessdate = 2009-04-19}} the Vermont Arts Council Award of Merit;{{cite web | title = Vermont Arts Council Annual Awards | publisher = Vermont Arts Council | url = http://www.vermontartscouncil.org/About/VACAnnualAwards/tabid/99/Default.aspx | accessdate = 2009-04-19 | archive-date = 2009-05-11 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090511224616/http://www.vermontartscouncil.org/About/VACAnnualAwards/tabid/99/Default.aspx | url-status = dead }} Lake Forest College's Outstanding Alumni Leadership Award;{{cite web | title = Class of 1971 | publisher = Lake Forest College | url = http://www.lakeforest.edu/alumni/homecoming/2006/1971/default.asp | accessdate = 2009-09-17 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20100602020349/http://www.lakeforest.edu/alumni/homecoming/2006/1971/default.asp | archivedate = 2010-06-02 }} and the 2008 Vermont Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.
=Personal=
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.robmermin.com Rob Mermin]
- [http://smirkus.org Circus Smirkus]
- [http://www.vpr.net/episode/42198/ An Audio Remembrance of Marcel Marceau] by Rob Mermin
- [https://video.vermontpbs.org/video/rob-mermin-bqivs7/ A 2006 interview of Rob Mermin on Vermont Public Television's show Profile.]
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Category:American circus performers
Category:People from Orleans County, Vermont