Stefan's Approach

Philosophy

The audience is king. The short attention span of today's spectator must be nourished with a balanced dose of heart and humor. Production restraints are creative opportunities. Success comes through tenacity, preparation, and intuition. Always learn. Success is a springboard for improvement. Critical analysis achieves full potential.

Working With Cirque Du Soleil

Working with Producers

Producers enjoy working with Stefan because he takes ideas for live performances and ignites them into reality. Stefan can dream big, brash, and bold under the ‘Blue-Sky’ model of unlimited funds. He is also a master of transforming defined budgets and looming deadlines into unique and unforgettable experience for creators and spectators.

Product vs. Process

Audience satisfaction is product. Product eclipses all process.

The process of the naturalistic actor is different than the process of the cirque-comique performer. The actor must go inside himself. The performer must go outside himself.

Cirque-comique performers are story tellers. They stay open and aware of their audience in order to read and flexibly respond to them. Cirque-comique artists offer themselves to the audience by humbly bringing their personal foibles and idiosyncracies to their performances. Stefan creates a safe space for this important process to take place. He emboldens performers and helps them find ownership of their choices.

Special Strengths

Haves attracts world class performers and designers who have joyfully created with him in the past. The power of the ensemble and finding the strength and core spirit of each individual and the group’s identity as a whole is an exciting and unique journey. The process presents a free exchange of ideas, directions, creative bursts and unifying rhythms and themes, with the big picture always kept in mind.

As the show progresses, Haves focuses on composition of performers and the visual symphony of light. Costume, color and music are layered in. The three dimensional storyboard comes to life.

Encouraging the strengths of individual performers while forging a unified show design is an ongoing challenge which brings Stefan great joy. He is a master at working with national treasures, inflated egos, and all combinations thereof.

Performer development is a necessary component in the process of all Haves’ creations.

Haves revels in working with world class acrobats who have no experience in acting or dance. Helping these elite performers discover their own unique abilitiies to connect with the audience is a wonderful journey -- the transformation of an athlete into an artist.