Circus Smirkus Names Steve MacQueen New Executive Artistic Director

Steve MacQueen Credit: Courtesy of Steve MacQueen

Just over a month after he resigned as artistic director of the Flynn, Steve MacQueen has been named the new executive artistic director of Circus Smirkus. MacQueen and Circus Smirkus board president Michele Levy confirmed the news by phone on Monday. His official start date is Tuesday, April 26.

“My real dream leaving the Flynn was to find a nonprofit arts job that was somewhat of a left turn from doing standard proscenium-theater theaters, with a mission based in helping the community,” MacQueen said.

“We love his reputation as an arts and community leader,” Levy noted.

Putting his trust in the universe, MacQueen said he left the Flynn without having new employment lined up.

“It’s kismet,” he said of nabbing the new job.

Circus Smirkus was founded in 1987. The Greensboro nonprofit arts and education youth organization is known for its summer camps, school residencies and traveling Big Top Tour, the only tented youth circus of its kind in the United States. Postponed two years by the pandemic, the Big Top Tour returns this summer.

MacQueen’s new position is also new for the company. Levy said that the board began discussing the need for “a new form of leadership at the top of the organization” during a retreat in March 2020, just before the pandemic shut down performing arts sectors. She said that the company began a nationwide search in the fall of 2021.

According to Levy, MacQueen’s new role incorporates strategic and artistic oversight for the entire organization, and “to make sure that our culture continues to be centered on excellence [and] innovation as well as diversity, equity and inclusion.”