Ever wish you could get paid to dress in costumes and wreak havoc in downtown Seattle and the U-District? Four UW drama students got to do just that this last weekend.

Theatre Mama, a promotions company based in New York City, hired the students to don halos and wander the streets of Seattle armed with juggling clubs and stilts in an effort dubbed “Angel Action,” which was created to endorse the new Cirque du Soleil’s new show, Corteo.

“Angel Action was designed to help promote the new Cirque show, which opened last Thursday, and just brighten everyone’s day by breaking their usual routine,” sophomore Kelsey Von Stubbe said.

The group’s antics in downtown Seattle were certainly sensational.

“Angels dressed in white from head to toe,” Von Stubbe said. “There were stilters, jugglers, acrobats, actors and all sorts of talented local artists. We were posing on top of stairs, singing on street corners and hanging from street lights, overall causing quite a scene.”

Theatre Mama has hosted similar events in cities across the country, including Boston, Chicago and New York, where the troupe was featured 23 times on Good Morning America.

The celestial troubadours were drawn from a pool of local artists based on word-of-mouth recommendations.

“Over 300 people applied, and 40 were chosen,” Von Stubbe said. “We split into groups of 10 and roamed the city all day.”

The angels traversed much of Seattle, performing in Redmond and at Husky Stadium, in addition to downtown.

“Downtown was a blast,” Von Stubbe said. “But running on three hours of sleep and promoting the show for 14 hours was certainly exhausting”

One of her fellow seraphim agreed.

“We were basically asked to fly out into Seattle and play,” junior Nicole Pita said. “How could that not be fun?”

On Saturday, Pita’s group of angels visited Husky Stadium for the spring scrimmage.

“We handed out clown noses to all the kids in the stadium and fliers to all their parents and any college student who would accept them,” Pita said.

After fraternizing with Husky fans, the group fluttered over to Capitol Hill, where it made appearances in cafés, distributing fliers and rocked out to music.

On the whole, the angels accomplished what they set out to do.

“The main goal of Theatre MAMA was to revive an old-fashioned sense of excitement felt when the circus came to town,” Pita said. “I think we were very successful, because even if someone didn’t accept a flier, they all smiled at the sight of a flock of angels.”