Scaring Up Success

Written by Sean Riedel (’19, ’21 M.J.)

It has been a series of “pinch me” moments for David Anzaldúa Pierce (’97). When he arrived at the University of North Texas from Corpus Christi in 1994 to study music education, he never imagined he would one day create Cirque du Horror, the horror-comedy-musical spectacle that has become a staple of Denton’s Halloween scene and Day of the Dead Festival.

The UNT and Denton music scenes immediately drew Pierce in. He made his way through UNT’s award-winning and acclaimed “Lab Bands,” performing alongside other talented musicians under the direction of top-rated instructors.

Among his favorite memories as a student at UNT was the opportunity to play a concert inside Kenton Hall with a visiting jazz educator, Brad Turner.

“The 3 O’clock Lab Band was a hard-working band. We played incredibly demanding music at incredibly demanding tempos,” Pierce says. “I remember that concert and a couple of others in Kenton that just brought the house down!” 

Experiences like that, along with inspiration from fellow performers and instructors, helped shape the musician and creator Pierce is today.

“My performance groups were amazing, and I loved music theory and history, as well,” Pierce says. “My music education advisor, Roger Warner, was wonderful to me and had a big impact in my life.”

Toward the end of his time at UNT, he student-taught in Southlake, and having had a great experience, was hired right away. He taught there for the next 10 years before taking a step in another direction.

“I had been writing music, composing and arranging for a while,” he says. “I really wanted to develop all those skills more but felt that if I kept teaching, I’d never have the time to work on my writing the way I wanted to.”

By 2009, Pierce had left the classroom and began teaching privately, while also working more on his own writing.

“I wanted to create art for the sake of art,” he says. “Then, thanks to my wonderfully creative uncle, Mike Anzaldúa, I got inspired by some lines of macabre poetry that led to a lightbulb moment. I realized I wanted to write music based on some of his dark poetry and then started writing originals of my own.”

And thus, Cirque du Horror was born. An original stage production that blends horror, comedy, poetry, musical numbers and acrobatics, the show has been acclaimed since its debut in 2009 and has been scaring up laughs and interest in the community ever since.

“I wanted to fill a void between ‘too scary’ and ‘not scary enough,’” Pierce says. “I grew up loving the old Disney, Silly Symphonies, animated shorts. Those animations were a giant part of my childhood and always harkened to the merriment of the holiday season. I wanted to create something that made the grown-ups feel like that, while giving young kids some funny and safe stories, with a little bit of spookiness.” 

Thanks to his great relationship with the owner of Dan’s Silverleaf, Dan Mojica, Pierce made a phone call on a whim and told Mojica to reserve Halloween night for him, because he had a show.

It just hadn’t been written yet.

“Honestly, I didn’t even know what the show was going to look like, but Dan trusted me, I trusted myself to complete it, and I took the plunge. It was beyond magical,” Pierce says. “It was life changing. From that moment, I knew I was on to something, and for 13 years it lived inside of Dan’s Silverleaf, on a very modest stage.”

What began on a modest stage at Dan’s Silverleaf in 2009 has grown into a major production under the Big Top Tent, drawing roughly 400 audience members per show and incorporating aerialists, jugglers, circus performers and a live orchestra.

“There are few greater feelings than standing in front of the orchestra and hearing my music come to life,” Pierce says. “Also, witnessing all of the creativity I am surrounded by — all the props, lights, dances, set pieces, just all of it, and realizing all these wonderful people work so tirelessly to make my songs live in front of an audience! It’s a real ‘feel the love’ moment.”

Part of what makes it such a fun creative venture for Pierce and the other artists involved in the production is that the show changes every year — mixing and matching songs from past years while peppering in new material and finding new ways to tell classic spooky stories.”

The collaborative environment Pierce experienced at UNT mirrors the creative culture that has helped Cirque du Horror thrive.

“I don’t think a Halloween musical like Cirque Du Horror could have gotten started and nurtured the way it has in any other town than Denton,” he says. “This town supports each other in many ways, especially the downtown businesses — folks who supported my show, supported what would become the Day of the Dead festival, and continue to do so. And that relationship is incredibly important to me.”

Seventeen years after launching Cirque du Horror, Pierce continues to draw on the creativity, collaboration and musical foundation he developed at UNT. What began as a leap of faith has become one of Denton’s most beloved Halloween traditions.

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