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LARGE CROWD TURNS OUT FOR SCIENCE CIRCUS

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, February 21, 2009 11:12 PM CST

Heavy rain Saturday morning and the threat of more bad weather didn’t deter a standing-room-only crowd of children and parents who turned out for the Science Circus performance at the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas Saturday afternoon.

During Jugglemania, Rhys Thomas uses a lasso and jumps through it to demonstrate centrifugal force to a standing-room-only crowd Saturday during the Science Circus event at the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

Just after Rhys Thomas started his show at 1 p.m., more than 300 people had come through the doors, center communications director Brenda Hengel said. As the one-hour performance continued, a steady stream of additional visitors entered the auditorium, filling up not only all the seats, but standing along the aisles.

“We’ve had him here since Thursday and not only did he do a show here, he went to schools here in Pine Bluff, and to Dumas, as well,” Hengel said.

One of those who had seen Thomas perform at a school and decided to come back for a second look was Mikey Stevens, 12, a student at Coleman Middle School in the Watson Chapel School District.

“It was good,” Stevens said about the performance, explaining that he learned about things like gravity and centrifugal force from watching and listening to Thomas, who juggled a bowling ball, spun glass bowls, and used other objects such as spoons, feathers, swords and the like while explaining the laws of physics.

Stevens was so impressed with the school performance that he brought his mother, Karen Stevens, to the Saturday afternoon performance.

“It’s good entertainment and I learned some things myself,” she said.

Thomas wasn’t the only drawing card at the Arts and Science Center Saturday afternoon.

There were displays from the Delta Rivers Nature Center, face painting, costumed characters, a magician and “the tall man,” said David Bowerman of White Hall, who balanced himself on stilts while making balloon animals and swords for a large group of youngsters in one of the exhibit rooms.

Hengel said the Science Circus was made possible through the Arkansas Discovery Network, sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

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