July 8, 2004
IN
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On the cover - Performers
from Dell'Arte's The 30 Show, clockwise from top left: Donald
Forrest as Albert Rixall in Wild Card; Michael Fields as Buddy
O'Hanlon in Wild Card; Daniel Stein as Moliere in Shotgun Wedding;
Joan Schirle as Scar Tissue; Ronlin Foreman and Donald Forrest
(in Bigfoot suit) in Whiteman Meets Bigfoot; ensemble, from left,
Steve Tenerelli, Joan Schirle, Bruce Marrs (behind mask), Matthew
Graham Smith, Ronlin Foreman (behind mask), Anna Svensson and
Keight Gleason; "The Loser Song" singers from La Bottega
da Caffe, from left, Barbara Geary, Jackie Dandeneau and Dawn
Falato.
by EMILY
GURNON
photos by BOB DORAN
IT WAS OPENING NIGHT LAST WEDNESDAY
OF The 30 Show, Dell'Arte's celebration of its 30 years
in Blue Lake, and the accolades were flying. Humboldt County
Supervisor John Woolley took the stage with a resolution commending
Dell'Arte, and then Zuretti Goosby of Sen. Wes Chesbro's office
began another one, this time from the state Legislature.
Resolutions
all sound the same, Goosby said. "So I've improvised the
whereases. Whereas 30 years is a long time to be in the performing
arts business in Blue Lake -- I guess it's time for Dell'Arte
to pack it up and get outta town!"
It just goes to show that, at
Dell'Arte -- despite its having reached middle age -- not even
political proclamations are dull, nothing is sacred, and humor
touches even the most serious work.
But the fact is, 30 years is
a long time to be in the performing arts in Blue Lake, and
the timing of the retrospective signals what Founding Artistic
Director Joan Schirle calls a "reconfiguration" of
the company.
"We are looking at how
we can keep our ensemble together when everyone doesn't live
in Blue Lake," she said. "Our original ensemble, we
all lived here, and it was easy for us to create plays and tour
them from here." Today, because of rising real estate prices
and a severe shortage of rentals, "We can't support a full-time
ensemble in Blue Lake anymore."
Above Photo: Part
of The 30 Show ensemble, left to right: David Ferney,
Anna Svensson, Stan Mott, company founders Donald Forrest, Joan
Schirle and Michael Fields, and Michael's children, Maya and
Sean Fields.
At
right: Michael Fields as Mr. Natural.
Instead, several of the actors
support themselves with jobs in other parts of the country, coming
back to Blue Lake in between.
"We are actually having
discussions all summer long about what will be a way for us to
continue working as a company, where there's a commitment on
both sides," she said.
One of those discussions took
place last Monday, as Schirle, Producing Artistic Director Michael
Fields, and many of the actors and crew from the company's last
piece, Shadow of Giants, ate pancakes and imagined the
future.
"The questions we were
talking about this morning have to do with, what is the next
evolution of the company, given the people who are now part of
it?" Fields said. "What is the next direction of work
it will take, given the people who are part of it? Those are
the great questions."
Dell'Arte was founded in 1974
by an Italian actor named Carlo Mazzone-Clementi, and his wife,
Jane Hill, who had moved to Humboldt County so that Hill could
take a teaching job at College of the Redwoods. They bought the
old Oddfellows Hall in Blue Lake with the intention of creating
a theater and school there in the "commedia dell'arte,"
or artistic comedy, tradition -- a theater-for-the-people style
that involves ridiculing authority and human foibles. As the
organization grew in acclaim, eventually gaining international
renown, many have asked an obvious question: Why Blue Lake? The
couple believed that theater could thrive in a rural setting,
where artists could concentrate on their craft without the distractions
of the city. Besides that, Mazzone-Clementi said, it was "paradise."
Mazzone-Clementi remained involved,
off and on, until his death in 2000, and the leadership of the
company rested for many years in the hands of four others: Schirle,
Fields, director Jael Weisman, who left several years ago, and
co-artistic director Donald Forrest, who left in 2002 after a
back injury but has returned for The 30 Show.
It
wasn't always easy to be a theater company in a small rural logging
town of 1,200 people. "It was difficult initially for Blue
Lake to have this organization start in the midst of it, because
it was so weird in 1974," Fields said. "It was so bizarre.
You should listen to the upstairs room when we're doing melodrama
classes or something with 30 people, and people are screaming
and howling in agony as part of an acting training. A woman walked
in the office one day and asked, `What room are they worshipping
the devil in?'
Left: Joan Schirle
as environmental investigator Scar Tissue, promotional photo
from early '80s, courtesy of Dell' Arte
"Now people have more understanding,
I think," Fields continued. He credited much of Dell'Arte's
acceptance by the town to its involvement in the local schools.
(The organization has installed resident artists at Blue Lake
and other schools, teaching theater to children.) "That
has changed our relationship to the town in a much deeper, much
more effective way than any kind of promotion or anything like
that," Fields said, "because the kids feel fine with
it all."
Nothing succeeds like success,
and Dell'Arte has managed to score one major grant after another
from heavyweight groups like the National Endowment for the Arts,
the James Irvine Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Wallace
Funds and the Pew Trust Artist-in-Residence grant.
Today, the nonprofit organization
is thriving, though, like all nonprofits, it has felt the effects
of the poor economy in recent years. It is also seeing the fallout
from the Bush administration's tightening of visa restrictions.
Artists from other parts of the world are having a hard time
getting into the country; some are barred altogether.
Still, "the organization
has probably tripled in size in the last five years, in terms
of money, in terms of budget [it's now $1 million], in terms
of people working here," Fields said. "In terms of
activity, it's even grown more than that."
Part of Dell'Arte's tradition,
and its strength, has come in its emphasis on collaboration among
all members of the group -- actors, writers. directors, crew
members. Actors and designers often take part in writing the
plays, for instance. That's not the way the theater world, or
the world in general, usually works, Fields said. It's certainly
not the corporate model, where everyone has their assigned role
and the top doesn't talk to those on the lower rungs.
In a more structured setting,
"you eliminate the input from the least likely person who
will change the entire way that things are seen and that things
are made," he said.
Though the collaborative model
can also make for conflict and division, Dell'Arte has managed
to hang together and survive, even bringing in a new generation
of artists.
"There really aren't very
many companies like this anywhere, certainly not of this age,
because most groups that collaborate in creation ... and in organizational
structure break apart," Fields said. "And -- fortunately
we don't have cars, so we can't leave -- there's a sense of something
deeply unusual and powerful in the fact that there is a generational
span here right now that very few places have."
A look at those involved in
Shadow of Giants illustrates the changing face of Dell'Arte.
The play was written by 26-year-old Matthew Graham Smith, who
also played three roles in it. The lead was played by 33-year-old
Dawn Falato, the oldest member of the cast.
Many of the up-and-coming performers
and crew members attended the Dell'Arte school. They have grown
under the tutelage of Schirle, Fields and Forrest, but that does
not mean they agree on what should come next.
Tyler Olsen, who played Bald
Eag in Shadow of Giants and appeared in two other productions,
said he thinks the company is somewhat amorphous. "It shifts,
it's kind of a shape-changer. It's more of a net than a title.
It has a bunch of things in it, and some things drift through
sometimes and come back into it, but it's more of a net."
The ensemble in background as Donald Forrest and Michael Fields
fact off in a scene from Korbel 1.
Lauren Wilson, a 10-year member
of Dell'Arte who wrote the company's upcoming play, The Golden
State, wasn't so sure.
"I don't necessarily agree
with that," she said. "I think there should be more
of a point of view, rather than a smorgasbord approach. I think
the smorgasbord is great for Humboldt County, but not for taking
it on the road.
"You can see in The
30 Show just what strong performers the three company members
are. For me, now that they are not the focus of the company,
how do we define ourselves? Is it an acting method? Is it the
content? Or is it the working method, how we create the material
collaboratively? And those three things are kind of open to question
right now, what direction we're going in."
Some people in the new group
are very interested in political theater, Wilson said. "I
am really interested in work that's less rhetorical ... more
character-based work." Joan and Michael were able to combine
those two. "They weren't afraid to tackle controversy. They
did that in a really successful way: (using) vivid characters
through whom the politics were expressed."
Shadow
of Giants, a play about the epic
battle between treesitters and timber companies, is an example
of the political theater that Wilson spoke of. Playwright Matthew
Graham Smith was trained at Dell'Arte and has been involved with
the organization for three years, though he calls New York his
home.
"It's such an interesting
time of transition," Smith said. "There are a lot of
directions it could go." He said he looked forward to a
retreat the company is planning for September. "We're going
to start from scratch and figure out what direction we're going
to go in."
Left: Whiteman
(Ronlin Foreman) encounters a family of Bigfoots in a scene from
Whiteman Meets Bigfoot, a 1980 production based on a Robert Crumb
comic book.
As Schirle and Fields themselves
recognize, they are getting older. (Schirle is 60; Fields 50.)
Schirle became director of the school last fall, when the new
two-and-a-half-year Master of Fine Arts program was inaugurated;
the program has been accredited by the National Association of
Schools of Theater. And she and Fields will turn over some of
the more physically demanding work -- the slapstick gags and
falls that are so hard on the body -- to younger members.
"Part
of the interest is to get people who have the facility to do
the rigorous performance that Dell'Arte is known for and train
a new generation," Smith said.
Right: Dell'Arte
co-artistic directors Michael Fields and Joan Schirle don clown
noses for a photo session with Robin Robin.
Schirle and Fields also talk
a lot about "succession," Schirle said. "Not for
next year, not for another few years, but who are the younger
members of the organization who have the interest and the dedication
and the skill to look at the organization as a whole and guide
it in the next few years?"
Other changes are also in the
works. Last year, the company purchased the empty lot next door
to its headquarters in downtown Blue Lake. It hopes to build
a new $2 million studio and, upstairs, apartments for students
of its International School of Physical Theatre, many of whom
come from across the globe to study there. (In addition to the
new MFA, Dell'Arte offers a one-year certificate program in physical
theater performance.)
But the building project is
a huge undertaking, Schirle said, and the company will have to
think long and hard before actually committing itself. "Let's
say we build, take out a 30-year loan. Somebody -- and it's not
going to be me, and probably not Michael -- somebody is going
to have to see that through." It takes business acumen and
financial savvy to pull that off, and not everyone has those
skills, she said. "So when we talk about things like, can
we take on another building project like this, when money is
tight ... As a living organism, is this a burden that we [shouldn't]
take on, or is this something that will create so much to the
organization that we must do it?"
Left: Dell'Artian
Stan Mott, a lifelong Blue Lake resident, serenades the crowd
before The 30 Show.
The
company will also focus more on expanding the reach of its work,
said Booking Manager David Ferney, who has been with the group
in various capacities for 18 years. "Support for theatrical
touring has really waned" in the last 10 to 15 years, he
said. "Presenting has become more commercial and more conservative."
But it's vital for Dell'Arte to get its work seen, attract students
and "creatively evolve your work," Ferney said. To
that end, it is working toward having an annual season in San
Francisco in the next two to three years, as well as more performances
in New York and elsewhere.
Whatever changes are in store
for Dell'Arte, it is clear that not all fans of the company will
be happy.
"We have a huge fan base
who has loved the work that we have done that's issue-related,
especially local-issue related. And then fans who've loved the
more visual, experimental work we do," Schirle said. "Any
fan group, they expect you to stay the same, always. Sometimes,
the most vital and positive work you can do is to try to take
care of your own demons, so that you can go on and serve the
community in a broader way. Sometimes you've got to scrape the
barnacles off the roof of your brain through confronting something.
If we can't take care of ourselves, keep our own inspiration
alive, then we burn out."
Quoting one of her most celebrated
characters, the Eureka private eye Scar Tissue, Schirle said,
"Memory Lane ain't one of my favorite streets." Granted,
The 30 Show is a look back at some of the best work the
company has produced, a showcase of Dell'Arte's brilliance and
innovation. But the past is just that, Schirle said.
"What's necessary about
the past is to learn from it and to not forget the people who
started the things. But it's also important to not dwell in the
past, to not say, `Those were the best days,' or `We did our
best work then,' but to imagine that the best work is yet to
come."
Above left: The cast and
crew of Shadow of Giants. Back row from left: Dawn Falato, playwright
Matthew Graham Smith, Barbara Geary, Tyler Olsen, Sayda Trujillo
and director Michael Fields. Front row: Keight Gleason and Teia
Rogers.
Above right: Promotional button
the The Scar Tissue Mysteries
Left: Joan Schirle and Michael Fields in a scene from Korbel
1.
Right: Stephen Buescher as
a cowboy in a scene from Korbel 3 (ensemble in background).
Above: A scene from Malpractice. On couch, Jackie Dandeneau;
standing, Stephen Buescher and Daniel Stein.
LOCAL ARTIST MICHELE MCCALL-WALLACE
WANTED TO CREATE A VISUAL COMPONENT FOR DELL'ARTE'S MAD RIVER
FESTIVAL THIS YEAR, AND SO, ALONG WITH TESTIMONIALS FROM STUDENTS
AND OTHER ARTISTS, SHE INCLUDED COMMENTS FROM LOCAL RESIDENTS,
WHICH SHE COLLECTED BY GOING DOOR TO DOOR IN BLUE LAKE.
The following are some of their responses, which are now posted
on the walls of the theater and heard on an audio tape inside:
" I love them here now.
I think they are the most wonderful people in the whole wide
world. You meet different people all the time, get the different
cultures here, get to know them and then they leave you but then
it will start all over again for a new (school) year. "
--32-year resident
" I don't think you want to talk to me. I was born and raised
here. Dell'Arte has taken over this town and everybody has let
them. I don't have that much good to say about them. They do
some good, but they do a lot of harm, too. Annie and Mary Day
is not even worth staying in town for. They done kids good, brought
them out of their shells, but personally, I don't think much
of them. "
--Longtime resident
"Oh, Dell'Arte, faggot school -- I used to say that same
thing because everybody said it. Now, as an adult, I'm embarrassed.
When we were younger, it wasn't a school, it was weird people.
"
--Resident
" Overall, having Dell'Arte in Blue Lake is a great thing.
It sort of realizes the ideal of a community. In Blue Lake you
have all kinds of people doing all kinds of things. I really
love that. Once a place is too homogenized, once it's all the
same kind of people living there and you don't have the diversity,
I don't know how real a place it is. Blue Lake, whatever else
you might say about it, is pretty real, and Dell'Arte is definitely
a part of that. "
--6-year resident
" We think it's real important; the theater of place is
really wonderful, that there is something about our own community
inserted in the play -- very directly. That's wonderful. Usually,
important people from the community are in the plays either a
county supervisor or the local mayor. If the real people aren't
actually in the play, they're being parodied in the play. And
that's good, that's good for everybody. "
-- 26-year resident
" They like to sing out on the balconies late at night.
They like to sing a lot of show tunes and `70s tunes. One time
they kept singing `Fame' late into the night. We left a note
on the door the next day that said, `Dear kids from Fame, we
know that you are going to live forever. We would like it if
you could do that a little more quietly. "
-- 6-year resident
" When we were in eighth grade we used to protest them because
we were up for change and we were intimidated by their artsy
nature. "
-- 19-year resident
" One of the first shows they did was down at CR, that was
with Carlo and Jane. It was a musical. Now I wish they'd get
back to that, to musicals. I don't like some of the stuff they
do now "
-- Resident
(On having Dell'Arte in the community)
" I was thinking about that the other day as I was walking
down the street. There were clowns in the street and I didn't
give it a second thought. That's Blue Lake. "
-- 11-year resident
" When they came, it was
very strange for most of the town. A few years ago, when they
first started the mask making and then the pageant up to Dell'Arte,
and I saw everybody meshed in the crowd it was a wonderful turning
moment. I realized how great Dell'Arte had held its own and overcome
that. "
-- 26-year resident
" When I first met them
I was tending bar at the Logger. They tell me The Road Not
Taken was made partially after me. I've known them for quite
a while. They have been pretty good neighbors. The only thing
that I can think of that has bothered me at times four or five
years ago, they used to stand and throw an ax against the fence.
I don't know what they were practicing. And the music is a little
loud sometimes. Out of all the years it's been no problem.
"
-- 37-year resident
" They're trying to take
things over. I don't like them, they should go back to where
they came from. I don't know if they think that what they are
doing is theater, but the grammar school puts on better plays
than they do. "
-- 41-year resident
" I like Dell'Arte because
we get to do a Dell'Arte program at school. It's a lot of fun,
we have a good time. "
-- 9-year resident
" Seriously? When they
first moved in I thought it was a bunch of weirdos. I thought,
holy smoke, we got people dressing in leotards and all this stuff.
But it has turned around. I got a 7-year-old daughter and everything
has changed. They put on good shows. It's a family thing and
it's awesome. When they first moved here, yeah, it was a big
thing, but it's fantastic for the community, I think. "
-- Lifelong resident
The 30 Show, a hilarious compilation of scenes
from Dell'Arte plays over the last three decades, continues this
weekend, through Saturday, July 10, at the Rooney
Amphitheatre in Blue Lake. For tickets, call 668-5663, ext. 20.
Even if you have never been to a Dell'Arte production, you won't
feel left out: Go to this one.
SEE ALSO:
June 1995: COMING OF AGE IN BLUE LAKE: Dell' Arte
turns 21
June 1995: Publisher: Paris & Blue Lake
June 16, 2000: BEHIND THE MASK: CARLO MAZZONE-CLEMENTI
1928-2000
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