Barely Balanced

A world record holding stilt walker. His life as a performer is a peculiar story. Coming from a long line of hyperactive adventurers he found reality too dull to demand his consideration.
So rather than functioning as every other Tom or Susan, no offense Tom's and Susan's, he dropped the 9-5, on something quite sharp, and took a look from under the rug of expectations. He soon decided to set out and live every child's dream. He would climb everything, speak loudly, throw all that is shiny, and live a life of farcical adventure.
He soon formed Barely Balanced and since that day the troupe has been battling the forces of Banality and tantalizing the minds of onlookers with hilarious stunts.
Outside of performing Cameron loves nature and artistic creation. Blacksmithing, carpentry, costuming, writing...etc. He hopes to perform for the rest of his life and one day, when he conquers dyslexia, be an author of many books that will challenge others to imagine.

Casey Martin is an enthusiastic and fearless addition to Barely Balanced. Whether stiltwalking, eating/breathing fire or rock climbing this 22 year old is ready to take on the more dangerous divisions of life.
She began her acting career early in her home town of Mechanicsburg, PA. As the lead in all the school plays and being reviewed regularly by local newspapers for community theater she decided to take it up a notch. Soon she began working at the PA Renaissance Faire as a stiltwalker and juggler. However, this taste of adrenaline only intensified her desire for stunt acting.
She is now working as a professional acrobat. On top of all that she is a full time student at West Chester University studying theater and philosophy. Casey's other hobbies include camping, dancing, writing and politics.

Dreagn grew up in Virginia Beach, VA. As a child he spent a lot of time talking in class, riding his bike, and not sitting still. In the middle of high school, his family moved to a small rural town about one hour away. At his new school he first got involved with performing.
Later he earned a degree in Theatre from Virginia Tech. One of his first professional gigs after college was the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. Over several seasons there he improved his skills in acting, juggling, stiltwalking, improv, singing, and guitar playing.
He has performed all over the country doing several tours, acting in a Shakespeare Festival in Florida, cofounding a theatre company in Oregon, visiting the screen in a television show and several commercials.
While not Barely Balancing he finds time to pursue his other love: music. He has played with a number of bands over the years and enjoys playing solo as well.

Cameron, Casey, and Dreagn, all in their early to mid 20's, have toured together for the last two years. The three met while working at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, Cameron as part of Barely Balanced and its predecessor Bardic Wind, Casey and Dreagn as part of the performing company. Cameron recognized the pair's talent and commitment and, when the opportunity arose, recruited them for Barely Balanced.

As a trio, the group has developed a show full of bits and routines involving stilt walking, improv, juggling, acrobatics, climbing on others, and general mischief. It's not unusual for Casey to search the audience for two kinds of volunteers who, with their unknown reaction to the bits, bring an added dimension to the show.

%u2022 The first is a volunteer to stand between Cameron and Dreagn as they toss knives in front of and behind the motionless assistant. Sometimes Casey will join the assistant, though not always. The three fondly recalled a woman who involuntarily screamed each time a knife passed before her, saying that it really helped to get the audience involved and even caused a pause in the show a couple of times as laughter overtook Cameron or Dreagn.

%u2022 The other person Casey looks for is someone sturdy, there with friends, and having a good time. When brought to the stage, instead of standing between the throwers, the new assistant becomes the base of Cameron's two-person balance while Casey ascends to Dreagn's shoulders. The day I watched this stunt, their assistant was Gylfi, a solid young man who Cameron said was great because of his nice wide stance. Sometimes the base is a little wobbly and the climber has to know how to move his body in opposition to where the volunteer is in order to keep the balance. With Gylfi, Cameron said he could have climbed circles around him. When he finally reached the pinnacle, Cameron and Casey juggled clubs back and forth.

In addition to knives and clubs, the trio juggles torches. When asked for the funniest prop failure story, Casey burst out laughing and reminded the others of the time she balanced on Dreagn's feet while juggling the torches. She missed a toss and dropped the torch, which fell, hit Dreagn's butt, ignited the back of his pants, and then bounced away. Dreagn stayed calm and never dropped Casey as Cameron slapped the fire out with his hands. "It's one of the weird things about our profession, the things that can go wrong become common place and something like 'Am I on fire?' begins to sound normal. You learn how to handle things and take care of each other, so that if we are all knotted together and things go weird we know how to help each other out and smooth it over," Cameron said.

The three are constantly teasing each other, the ad-lib and improvisation changing from show to show, inserted where it will draw the largest audience participation and keep them on their toes. The trio agreed that they love what they are doing and performing is the best practice, keeping it interesting and fun. However, there is some physical danger in the work, as evidenced by the blood on Casey hand during the interview. She had caught one of the knives in a way that had broken the skin. Scrapes and bruises are common but she worries more about making sure they all wear sunscreen. Bruises and scrapes heal but skin cancer; that scares her.