When Molly Deptula ’27 (ENG) was four, she told her mother that she was going to join the circus to substitute for the tattooed lady. Fifteen years and zero tattoos later, the multidisciplinary engineering (MDE) major spent her summer with Cirque du Soleil, joining the circus after all.

Deptula was one of six interns selected to join Cirque du Soleil this past summer. Each intern works in a different discipline of the circus, and Deptula had the opportunity to fulfill her dream of working in automation.

“Automation is the act of making things move without physically pushing it,” explains Deptula. “Cirque does an amazing job at blending traditional circus art with automation, which is what I experienced all summer.”

At UConn, Deptula is part of the Entertainment Engineering specialization within the Multidisciplinary Engineering (MDE) major, combining her passions for entertainment experiences and engineering. MDE provides students with a foundational engineering education, while integrating multiple fields and the opportunity to explore specializations or individual areas of interest.

“At the UConn Bound Day, my mom met this professor while I was talking to the Mechanical Engineering department and handed me a paper about Entertainment Engineering. I looked at it and realized I had to change my major,” says Deptula. “I then met Professor Ed Weingart, who told me all of the things that he teaches and works on, which was basically laying out exactly what I wanted to do. I committed to UConn three days later, and now, I stand on the other side of the table at these events and give the Entertainment spiel.”

Last March, Deptula and other members of the Entertainment Engineering department attended The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) Conference, where she met Chuck McCafferty, the head of automation for Cirque du Soleil residency shows.

“About a week later, Chuck called me in for an interview where twenty minutes turned into forty-five, and within the next week, I had gotten the call offering me the internship,” shares Deptula.

Cirque du Soleil has five major shows in Las Vegas, and Deptula was assigned to “O,” the aquatic-based show at the Bellagio Hotel.

“Sometimes I was on day shift and sometimes I was on show shift,” Deptula explains. “The day shift was day-to-day operations. Basically, we’d get notes from the show crew about what happened the night before and then ask: What projects need to be done? Does anything need to be built? Does anything need to be repaired? Is there anything we need to change?

“During the show shifts, I was shadowing different automation tracks throughout the show. So, I got to learn the software that they use to control all the machines, how to use the computers, how to talk with the machines and to talk with everyone else on the team about what your machines are doing.”

While gaining this hands-on experience in her field was rewarding for Deptula, a true highlight of the summer was the tight-knit community and learning-focused environment of Cirque du Soleil.

“The day shift was fun because I got to know the teams, like the automation team or the rigging team, and we also had the time. So, I could ask how something works, and they’d say, ‘I don’t know. Let’s take it apart. Let’s open it up. Let’s figure it out,’” says Deptula.

“During show shift, I also got to shadow the other departments. I spent a day where I got to go around with the stage managers and the artists, I spent time in wardrobe, and even a day in carpentry,” says Deptula.

It was the community that made Deptula feel at home across the country, and the experiences they showed her that let her live out her dream.

“Before I started, I was definitely feeling that element of questioning if I have any business being here. Once I got there and found my footing, I realized that I belonged there. It’s so educationally focused, to the point that they were more annoyed with me if I didn’t have questions,” says Deptula with a laugh. “But they seriously wanted to hear all of the questions that I could possibly come up with.”

Though “O” was her home base for the summer, Deptula had the opportunity to work a shift at each of the five shows along the strip in Vegas, along with attending shows by the Blue Man Group, which is also owned by Cirque.

“Blue Man Group was also super cool because a guy on their automation team let me run cues and push buttons, so I got to move stuff around. It’s so cool, because I’d be at rehearsal or the show watching them act as Blue Men but then go warm up my dinner and a Blue Man walks by and is like, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’” says Deptula.

The surreal stories that Deptula now gets to share about her summer with the circus are a result of the hard work she committed to her passions and the ability to explore these creative pursuits through her education.

“UConn’s program offers me the ability to speak and understand such a wide breadth of things without being pigeonholed into one thing. There’s just this zest for life and intellectual curiosity that they instill within us,” shares Deptula. “For instance, my longest class is an entertainment engineering class, and it feels like my shortest, because I just love what I do.”

A goal of the Entertainment Engineering specialization is to offer experiential, project-based learning that allows students to apply what they’ve learned through actualized projects and prepare them for their future careers.

“My students understand that this program is a unique opportunity, and my hope is to attract who have that passion and desire to learn. Molly is exactly that kind of student, with such outward enthusiasm and a strong work ethic,” says Ed Weingart, the head of the Entertainment Engineering specialization. “Her ‘try to stop me from learning’ mentality is what earned her this internship.”