Profile

Note: The information on this Profile reflects the circumstances of the ensemble at the time of the interviews. These circumstances will most likely change over time.

Location: Blue Lake, California (pop. 1,200)

Ensemble members: 12

Founded: 1977

Major activities: Creation of new work; Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre; Mad River Festival; Education Through Art; touring of repertory

Facility: Owns 114-seat theater, an outdoor amphitheater seating 350, two large teaching studios, offices, a guest artist apartment and small shop. Rents additional shop space, studio space, library space for school.

Annual budget: $1.2 million

Community Partnerships: Humboldt Folklife Festival, Blue Lake Elementary School, CenterArts of Humboldt State University, local food co-op and Credit Union, Institute of Native American Knowledge

Web Site: http://www.dellarte.com

Company Statement

By Joan Schirle, co-artistic director

January 2001

Dell’Arte, Inc., came into existence anchored in the great traditions which made up the European popular theater: Commedia Dell’Arte, melodrama, the world of the circus, fairs and streets, pantomime, music hall. It is a tradition that includes actor-creators such as Shakespeare, Moliere, Chaplin and Nobel Prize-winner Dario Fo, and includes literary masterpieces as well as the huge body of nonliterary theater that is topical, visual, nonverbal and original. Over 25 years, we have evolved our vision through impassioned practice. Through collaboration, our unique style began to emerge, a style that has been characterized as highly physical, imaginative, incisive and original. The content of our work is derived from the willingness of the artists to explore beyond narrow concerns, to look at the complex web of interaction between the forces that shape our lives. And to look at it, more often than not, with humor – to explore.

As we became more rooted in our community and our locale and our understanding of the traditions of local native peoples, we received the inspiration for our philosophy of "Theatre of Place": theater created by, for and about the area in which you live. For many years we have pioneered the idea that art that has its basis in rural, nonurban conditions can compete in the world arena on the basis of its quality, professional standards, artistic excellence and entertainment value. The list of international tours and the success of our training program have been testament to the viability of this vision.

We believe that artists must both earn the support of their community while continuing to challenge parochialism, bigotry, insularity and apathy. We balance exploration and experimentation with an awareness of what our audience wants, likes, hopes for, can tolerate, will be inspired by. We have built audiences for our comic work, our students’ work, for serious pieces, for challenging experimental work, family theater and children’s plays.

We believe artists cannot flourish in isolation; it has been consistently necessary to bridge our geographic isolation, to connect with other cultures, artists and trends through participation in international conferences and festivals, through our international students, guest faculty, through developing a study abroad program, through the efforts of the artistic leadership to travel, observe and study as well as to accept occasional work in institutions as far flung as the Yale School of Drama or a Danish theater academy or a major regional theater like the Alley in Houston.

We believe that American artists and audiences are among the most isolated and insulated in the world. By bringing artists from around the world to our festival, we expand the horizons of our staff, our artists and our community, and we introduce foreigners to a different vision of America than the mass of corporate cultural exports. The establishment of Blue Lake’s sister city in Sauve, France, came about through the efforts of Dell’Arte. Our festival slogan expresses our philosophy: "We bring you things from around the world and down the block."

As our professional school celebrates its 25th anniversary, we continue to believe the education of the actor is grounded in the "nonverbal humanities" and represents our attempt to provide a training for the global, flexible actor capable of carrying forward the tradition of independent cultural production through original work. Students receive rigorous training in physical theater skills as well as the means to investigate their own vision of the theater, their relationship to contemporary theater practice, audiences and community–while learning how to make a living at it. Our educational approach is holistic, embracing the ideas of partnership, respect, endurance and flexibility. Each year students from the graduating class are selected to intern with the summer festival. From one to three of them are then given work in one or more of our programs. Dell’Arte currently has six alumni employed in areas of Education Through Art, the performing company, the school faculty, Development and Stage management. Any student considered for employment must meet the criteria of talent, creativity, emotional maturity, intelligence, passion, willingness to participate in a variety of tasks, collaborative spirit, disciplined work ethic, self-motivation and a desire to work in a community of artists within a community.

We believe the development of a theater audience must begin in childhood and our work in the local schools serves the children, the educational system and helps create tomorrow’s audiences. We believe that one of our greatest contributions to our community is to participate as artists in their education through the local schools.

We are a laboratory for the idea of an artistic ensemble and for a community-based arts organization devoted to true interaction with our community rather than occasional "cultural stunts." After 25 years of evolving our practice, we have become a model to other groups, a source of inspiration based on our perseverance, our dedication to collaborative practices, our way of "thinking globally and acting locally" our dedication to standards of excellence, to quality of life, to sustainability, survival, adaptability and the spirit of improvisation.

• We believe in the transformative power of theater to affect artists and audiences.
• We believe in the importance of independent cultural production to our society’s health.
• We believe in the vitality of traditional popular forms and their power to attract, stimulate and entertain contemporary audiences.
• We believe in the importance of collaboration.
• We believe in the ability of the actor-creator to make art that reflects the complexity of living, that is particular and universal.
• We believe in the ability of artists to manage their own work.
• We believe in the value of our work to the field as a laboratory for exploration and development.
• We believe in the responsibility of the artist to community.
• We believe in reflecting the cultural, ethnic, social and historical diversity of our community as well as expanding it.
• We believe in the power of the arts to positively impact the education and lives of young people.
• We believe in the "nonverbal humanities" as a basis for the education of theater artists.
• We believe that we teach by our example as well as our pedagogy.
• We believe in the seriousness of comedy.
• We believe in the necessity to think globally and act locally.

PERFORMING COMMUNITIES
Carpetbag | Cornerstone | Dell'Arte | Jump-Start
LAPD | Pregones | Roadside | WagonBurner
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