Hertzberg Circus Collection

In 2004, the Hertzberg Circus Museum collection was acquired by the Witte Museum after the city of San Antonio gave up on it and decided it didn't want it anymore. Harry Hertzberg was a lawyer and avid circus fan and collector of circus artifacts and memorabilia. His collection included such treasures as General Tom Thumbs wedding coach and a slice of the wedding cake, a ticket wagon and a miniature circus among other things. The Witte was planning a big, high profile exhibit to show off their latest acquisition.

Enter Chad Miller, former circus clown, and best friend. Chad approached the suits at the Witte with a proposal to write and perform a twenty minute show/play in conjunction with the exhibit. The play, "Big Top Secrets", would be a backstage look at circus life from a clown's point of view sprinkled with a little circus history too. They liked the idea so Chad asked me if I wanted to be in it. They needed an extra show on Tuesday nights so Pammy jumped in and did her own original show too.

All in all, it was fun to do. The trick with writing for a museum is to be able to walk the fine line between education and entertainment. If you're not careful your play could become one of those boring lectures many suffering students have endured in dreary college lecture halls across the country.

We had to do some haggling over our pay. The Witte bean counters felt we were asking for too much and wanted to pay us rates that hadn't changed in almost fifteen years. Part of the reasoning was and is a commonly heard lament, nay, a mantra, of , "We don't have a big budget so could you work for next to nothing and we'll charge admission and make a chunk of change from the gift shop sales too. O.k. so they didn't word it like that but it was there between the lines. Interestingly enough they were in the process of raising funds an expansion of their museum at the time. In the end we got what we wanted and they got a good show to add to their exhibit.