Claire Armstrong & Neena Hodgins Photos.
At first, the beat had a certain funk to it, with a bass drum that sailed and swooped over the New Haven Green. Piano crept in, upbeat and ecstatic, followed by bass and guitar. In front of a giant, sculpted pair of ears, the members of Squonk Opera beamed and extended their hands, urging attendees to come into the performance and start making music themselves.
Smoke machines, accordions, bagpipes and a giant, blinking head all came to the New Haven Green Friday afternoon, as the musical and circus troupe Squonk Opera arrived at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas to perform the heart of New Haven. The 30-year-old brainchild of Jackie Dempsey and Steve O’Hearn, the Pittsburgh-based troupe brought a community spirit to the city, one note at a time.
The group performed again on Saturday, before the New Haven Caribbean Heritage Festival and a closing concert from Nadia Batson filled the Green with thousands of people.
Co-founders Dempsey and O'Hearn.
Part rock opera, part circus, part performance art, Squonk has been performing circus acts for over 30 years, and is currently on tour for the group’s new show, SQUONK: BROUHAHA. The show includes live music, unique imagery, and audience participation, ranging from kids to the grandparents they’ve come with (on Friday, it included one of these reporters, who was too pulled in by the vibrant sound not to participate).
“What we’re doing is just a continuation of what we did as a species for half a million years,” said O’Hearn, who founded Squonk with Dempsey during his time at Carnegie Mellon University. “We dance, we make sounds, and make colorful masks and costumes”
Squonk combines newer technology (electric guitars, keyboards, and leaf-blower tuba backpacks complete with bright, fire-colored ribbon), with a habitual feel of connection. Friday, troupe members ran out onto the Green, literally pulling in people to play the notes with the band. At times, this included a larger-than-life accordion, which would bellow as listeners grabbed on to several attached strings, and pulled the instrument down.
“In today’s world, if you can get a bunch of people together in a public space to spend 30 minutes not doing anything other than just enjoying art together, that’s worth its weight in gold,” added Squonk bass player Tony Thomas. “That’s kind of magic in this world.”
Squonk’s main goal is to make art accessible to everyone. Although they have performed on Broadway and multiple continents - the group mainly plays in free and public areas, to focus on people who may not always be able to access art.
“If there’s unhoused people, I want them rockin’ out with us, too, because they have it harder than anybody out there,” Thomas said.
Corey Grau and Tony Thomas.
Since joining the group, Thomas has driven over 30,000 miles touring with the band, in the U.S. and Canada alone. The band’s next stop is August 10, in Oakland, Pennsylvania, at the Summer Reading Extravaganza in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.
“It’s fun to do shows in public for free, because your audience is everybody, and that’s the way art should be, art should be for everybody, it should be accessible for everybody,” Thomas says, “I love seeing a hugely diverse audience.”
That focus on people makes sense: Squonk is very man-made. Members put the Brouhaha set together in a warehouse back in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. All of the props are made by hand, and during the tour everything is stored in large boxes in a truck. The team even memorized how long it takes to pack everything: an hour and 45 minutes.
The flaming tuba-heads were O’Hearn’s idea, which came to life from builders including Thomas. After making prototypes and perfecting connecting leaf blowers to tubas, the band was able to practice and choreograph it into part of the show.
Sometimes the tech team needs to fix the set or mechanics due to damage done on the trip. There were “a million little tech things to deal with” tech crew Corey Grau said when explaining that even once the show is on the road there is much to be done to keep everything maintained.
The work is never over for a show on the road, and performing multiple times a day means presetting, sound checks, and line checks right after the show. Thankfully Squonk has a talented crew, Corey Grau, John Chakos, Fletcher Piercen, Mia Taylo, Kady Donitzen, and Brandon Walker, as well as many more who were not present for the show.
They not only operate the puppet head but also take the stage during the musical bellows section in the first half of the show, opening up the bellows to the audience and playing along to the rhythm in order to demonstrate how they are operated. This sets the stage for when they welcome the audience on stage to participate by playing themselves.
Not only does the crew get involved on stage; musicians also play crucial roles when it comes to design. Member David Wallace plays the guitar and a refashioned tuba, and is also responsible for the group's CD and shirt designs. He also runs Squonk's social media.
Being a full time artist offers many opportunities, Thomas said—including being able to contribute to a given show, as well as to the overall portrayal of Squonk to the public eye.
“People often ask us what the concept is, or what the story is," Thomas said. “It’s just joy.”
Squonk is planning on debuting a new show in June of 2026. Find out more about the group at their website.
This article comes from the 2025 cohort of the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI). YAJI is a program in which New Haven, Hamden and West Haven Public Schools high school students pitch, write, edit and publish articles through the Arts Paper. This year, YAJI advisors include Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman and reporter and YAJI alum Abiba Biao. Claire Armstrong is a rising senior at Common Ground High School and Neena Hodgins is a 2025 graduate of West Haven High School, headed to Gateway Community College in the fall.