Jenna Struble, Interim Camp Director

Jenna Struble (she/her) feels the most alive and childlike in circus and camp. She is very excited to be the Camp Director for Circus Smirkus! Jenna comes to Smirkus with a varied background as a creative, a technician, an administrator, a teacher, a program director, a consultant, and a camp director.

Jenna started working with teens at her hometown LGBTQ center, organizing activities and mentoring teens. She started working in camp as a counselor and coordinator for the Amarillo Family YMCA, later developing an Arts and Counselor in Training program. She then became Association Camp Director for the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas overseeing 7 teens camps across the metro area. It was during this time that Jenna coordinated large events for teens in civic engagement and Model UN programs at the State and National level. Most recently, Jenna developed staff training and supported a camp for children with intellectual disabilities and trauma.

With a degree in theater, Jenna was co-founder of a theater company in Orlando when she ran away with the circus.  She worked in wardrobe for a residential and touring show for Cirque du Soleil in Orlando, Japan and Europe. She was also Executive Director for the New England for Circus Arts in Brattleboro, VT from 2021 – 2024.

Jenna lives in Brattleboro with her two fur babies J.F. and Ellie and works as a freelance consultant for non-profits, arts and youth-serving organizations. She is writing plays, telling stories and is active in the community as a volunteer with the Town Arts Committee and various arts organizations.  Jenna is passionate about poetry, art, circus, story-telling, and working with young people. She believes that everyone has a unique spark within them that makes the world a better place.

June Mumley, Staff Accountant

June brings over 30 years of accounting experience from a wide-variety of well-known and loved Vermont companies; from chocolate to beverages to ice cream to motorcycles – June has done it all!

Tawnya Sauer, Big Top Tour Planner

Tawnya comes to Smirkus with a deep and abiding love of spreadsheets. She is, at heart, a planning and logistical savant, but with the reincarnated soul of an 18th century nomadic acrobat. Until she discovered Big Top Tour Planning as a profession, she thought she was doomed to feel unfulfilled in the duality of her personhood, but it turns out, the perfect job for her does exist.

Tawnya comes from a professional background of Event Planning and Coordination, and has been a performing aerialist for 10+ years. When she’s not multitasking in a traveling circus tent, she is enjoying the balmy desert weather of her home state, Arizona (just kidding, she’s inside, hiding from the snakes and scorpions, trying not to melt), and teaching lyra classes at a studio in Tempe.

In her free time, Tawnya sits on the board of a nonprofit performing arts organization she is a founding member of, called Atelotorque, that creates community events and performance opportunities for a diverse group of local artists and performers.

Rachel Schiffer, Executive & Artistic Director

A Vermonter and Middlebury College graduate, Rachel joined the Circus Smirkus Big Top Tour in 1995 for the first of her ten years (!) as a trouper. She later worked as a Smirkus Residency Coach, and on the Big Top Tour as House Manager and Trouper Head Counselor. She was also an active member of the Smirkus Alumni Committee for many years.

Rachel traveled the world as a circus artist — working in France, Denmark, England, Wales, and the United States. Highlights include a 4-year tour with Le Cirque Poussiere in France, NoFit State Circus in Wales, and a creative project Laws Of Motion : The Third Law, developed in Denmark and Sweden.

In 2022 she was hired as Smirkus Camp Director; since spring 2023 she also served as Smirkus Co-Interim Executive Director. Rachel loves bringing her performance and circus administrative experiences back to Greensboro and under the Smirkus Big Top where she now serves as the Executive and Artistic Director.

Joshua Shack, School Residency and Special Events Coordinator

Joshua Shack decided to become a clown when he was just three years old. At age nine, he began performing his solo show at many local events, and was a Circus Smirkus trouper from 2000-2003, after two summers at Smirkus Camp. He then toured nationally as a clown with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.

He is a co-creator and performer of The Piccolini Trio and directed their critically acclaimed stage show Circus in a Trunk. Other directing credits include Out of Orbit at The Theater at Saint Peter’s in New York City; Nothing but Nonsense, a variety musical comedy at Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI; and 20 productions for Theater in the Open in Newburyport, MA.

With the 2024 Circus Smirkus production The Imaginarium, Josh became the first Smirkus alum to direct the Big Top Tour show. He is a teaching artist-in-residence for Circus Smirkus, and has served in a dozen different roles with the company, including Production Manager, Director of Programming and Associate Artistic Director.

A.C. Shilton, Marketing and Communications Coordinator
A.C. spent 15 years as a journalist and television producer before pivoting to communications work. After several years at a soul-sucking tech company, she decided to throw her creative efforts into something truly human and good, and has found Smirkus to be a delightful breath of fresh air. When she’s not in front of a computer, you can find her working on her farm, where she raises sheep, chickens, bees, and just a couple of cows, because why not?