stage matters / By Bob Doran

Homegrown Theatre

Dell’Arte’s Mad River Fest kicks off this Saturday with a ceremony honoring René Auberjonois, star of stage and screen (big screen and small) and, like Fields, a former student of Dell’Arte founder Carlo Mazzone-Clementi. Regarding the rest of the fest, Fields says it will be a bit different.

“First of all, we’re running Ah-Pah for three weeks. We’ve never done that before. Last year we were selling out Korbel and it seemed like people missed it, so we’re going longer.”

That also means there’s less coming in from out of town. New York’s Under the Table, a theatre group including Dell’Arte alums, presents The Only Friends We Have, “an antisocial comedy,” the weekend after, July 16-19.

The X-rated Red Light in Blue Lake returns in a slightly different form on Friday, July 3. “I’m taking a stronger hand in the late night cabaret this year, the adult one,” said Fields. “I want to put it more into the burlesque tradition, which I think will be sexier and more elegant; more hot, yet cooler.”

There’s also a special return engagement of The Body Remembers, a piece on the Great Depression first done in May with old folks from Timber Ridge Assisted Living Facility. It shows once only: a matinee Sunday afternoon, July 12, at 2 p.m.

Changes are afoot for the Annie and Mary Day Parade as well. “We’re getting rid of the pageant,” said Fields. “There will be one parade, not two. The Saturday before Annie and Mary Day [July 18], we’ll take our parking lot and this yard and help people design floats for the parade. We want people to participate instead of us putting on a show. We’ll help people design their cars, their dogs, themselves to make it more of a participatory event for the community.”

Just about any time you talk with Fields about Dell’Arte, he’ll return to that idea of community, and the unifying notion of “theatre of place.” Same with the entire Mad River Festival, which he describes as “more of a homegrown product” than ever before. “In many ways, the festival is about this place,” he says in conclusion.

For tickets or further information about the Mad River Festival go to www.dellarte.com or call 668-5663.

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