The 39th annual Dell’Arte 2019 Holiday Show: Return to Oz is now at one of the many traveling and free venues coming up before its return to Blue Lake in two weeks. The storyline of Dorothy as an angst-ridden, friendless, guitar-playing teenager (you likely know one or used to be one) begins with her unhappiness […]
Dell’Arte
Posted inArts + Scene
Brave Girls
Return to Oz After battling high winds on State Route 299, I was braced for Dell’Arte’s 2019 holiday show, Return to Oz, and the on-stage hurricane that carries Dorothy away from the world where Auntie Em, Uncle Henry, and everyone at school think she’s a little crazy and back to a version of L. Frank […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Honoring Humboldt’s Knight of Musicality
This year’s Mad River Festival kicked off on a rather different note than previous years. Instead of the usual biting satirical drama, Dell’Arte is celebrating someone who’s been a key part of more than 50 Dell’Arte productions in Blue Lake and around the world. Indeed, if you’ve listened to any music created, recorded or performed […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Photos from Dell’Arte’s Tim Gray Tribute
“Turning Gray Skies Blue: The Music of Timmy Gray” is a moving tribute to the talented man who composed music and wrote lyrics for 20-plus years of Dell’Arte Company performances in Blue Lake and around the world. See the slideshow below for highlights of the rehearsal and performance. The cast of 12 past and current […]
Posted inNews
Radioman Goes Live
A couple of months ago, Eric and Viviana Hollenbeck were having a quiet dinner with longtime friends Michael Fields and his wife Lynnie Horrigan. They talked about the Blue Ox Historic Village the Hollenbecks have run for decades and a bit about Dell’Arte International, where Fields works as the artistic director and Horrigan does costume […]
Posted inArts + Scene
When Worlds Collide — The Last Weekend of Mad River Festival Theatre
#//<EMBEDDED>//# and Life Beneath the Stars at the Arcata Playhouse, Eli and the Bear at the Carlo Theatre in Blue Lake all challenge our perceptions of reality and our role in the world. #//<EMBEDDED>//# For anyone concerned with humankind’s increasing overlap with, and dependence on, internet-connected machines, this is must-see theatre. The central character, a […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Mad About Dell’Arte
Humboldt County’s own Dell’Arte International received a shout-out from the San Francisco Chronicle this week in an article highlighting the performing art center’s 47-year history, nearly all of which has been spent in the bucolic city of Blue Lake. Currently ongoing is its 28th annual Mad River Festival, which features original theatrical works by the […]
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Behind the Mask of the Universal Soldier
The connection between the title of this year’s Mad River Festival summer show Ruzzante Comes Home from the War and Dell’Arte International may seem a bit of a stretch, but digging under the surface uncovers a timeless tribute to theatre of place. The original version of this play was written in the Commedia dell’Arte style […]
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Will We Ever Get Out of Here? A review of Dell’Arte’s Let Me Out!
Let Me Out! explores what happens when theater meets role-playing game meets escape room, wrapped up in a murder-mystery evening that may or may not be trapped in an endless repeating cycle. The outcome of a year of research and development by Dell’Arte graduates Eric William Jones, Marguerite Boissonault and Linnea Ytterlid, Let Me Out […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Perfect Spring Trips
What better way to feel grounded in nature than to park a blanket and basket outdoors and commence to eat, drink and be merry? Fear not, hungry and thirsty traveler, we’ve got you covered. First, load up on sandwich supplies at the corner delis favored by locals. Second, set your course for the aptly named […]
Posted inPerfect Trips
Perfect Spring Trips
What better way to feel grounded in nature than to park a blanket and basket outdoors and commence to eat, drink and be merry? Fear not, hungry and thirsty traveler, we’ve got you covered. First, load up on sandwich supplies at the corner delis favored by locals. Second, set your course for the aptly named Picnic […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Hail The Snow Queen
Dell’Arte’s 37th annual touring production is a delightful take on a familiar story of good triumphing over evil, with plenty of magic and other shenanigans along the way. Director Michael Fields and the cast of third-year students have taken Hans Christian Andersen’s original Snow Queen story and compressed it down to a little over an […]