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Stafford native travels the country as part of 'Greatest Show on Earth' Date published: 4/3/2005 By KRISTIN DAVIS T STARTS with the national anthem, sung by a man in a glittering black tuxedo who sparkles with every move. He stands on a mechanical cart in a circle of pale yellow light, his overpronounced voice carrying to the far edges of the arena. An elephant in a sequined headband trots from the shadows, hauling a straight-backed woman in a crown who waves the American flag. Jake Walther is in those shadows, a dark shape hidden among painted black walls and ledges and equipment. He is not a star. Walther is not a costumed dancer or a juggler on stilts or a somersaulting clown. He doesn't tame lions or flip from trapeze bars or zip across the high wire. He illuminates it all. For just over a year, Walther has traveled with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as a lighting technician, moving by van from city to city across America. For three weeks, the 23-year-old is back near his Stafford County home, the place where he grew up and first fell in love with show production. Almost nightly--across weekends and holidays and changing seasons--Walther mans an inconspicuous lighting booth or works the floor, turning dark coliseums into stages that glow pink and blue and yellow. He is part of a behind-the-scenes team that infuses the air with energy and childlike magic. "I'm not the one they're going to get an autograph from," Walther says of the audience. "I can blend in with everybody but still come in and have my 'glamorous' job. I kinda like that." Walther's work starts long before the evening show begins, before rehearsals and a steady, early afternoon flow of performers into dressing rooms. Wednesday morning, eight hours before the circus's opening show at George Mason University's Patriot Center, he helps transform the cool and quiet arena. At 11 a.m. there are hints of the circus: three tell-tale rings set up across the stadium floor and a man with a painted face and red rubber nose near the loading dock. There's a giant motorcycle cage commonly called the "globe of death" pushed to one side of the floor. And already, the circular lobby smells of warm cotton candy.
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