Interview Summaries

By Linda Frye Burnham

All interviews were by Mark McKenna. They took place between January 9 and 14, 2001, in Blue Lake, California. All have been edited for length by CAN. The full, unedited transcripts are available on request.

Interview with Ron Brunson, retired postmaster, member of the Grange

Ron Brunson has lived in Blue Lake in 1970, and served as postmaster for 19 years. He is also a member of the Grange, formerly a farming association, but now a service organization. Brunson describes Blue Lake as "dead," even "deader" if it weren't for Dell’Arte. He chronicles the decline of the timber industry and the railroads in the area and the ensuing drop in population and school enrollment. Still, he calls it "better than the rest of the United States," citing the weather, the proximity of the Pacific Ocean and fishing.

Dell'Arte's Mad River Festival closing ceremonies, "The Blue Lake Pageant" Photo: Sedric Nin [image gallery]

Brunson remembers the founding of Dell’Arte by Jane Hill and Carlo Mazzone-Clementi. He has done volunteer work for the theater, including mowing the berry vines in the back yard, where the amphitheater now sits. He recalls the community's early resistance to the group. "The community was scared of them because they didn’t know what to expect," he says. "They didn’t know what they did." Now, he describes them as "very embedded in the community," but it wasn’t always so. "I think it took about eight years for people to realize that they were good young people," says Brunson, "there is no bad habits, there’s no drugs. At first I had my doubts, too. In fact, I think it is by word-of-mouth by people like me in the community saying, ‘Hey these are good people.’"

Brunson has had contact with the Dell’Arte students through handing them their mail and hosting them at an annual student dinner at the Grange, where students tell where they are from and what their goals are. "They are good for the community," says Brunson, because they "have to eat and buy stamps," and because part of their commitment is service to the community. "I think it is one of the highlights of the Grange that they get involved."

Describing Dell’Arte’s theater work, Brunson declares, "Some of them have been outstanding, others have been mediocre." His assessment of quality is: "Funny mainly. Oh! The year that they jumped off the building and rode a horse down in. They were good shows. They are a little raunchy sometimes, but they were good shows."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Ron Brunson, click here.

Interview with Stephanie Caughey, donor/audience member

Caughey is a real-estate agent in Humboldt County, who moved to the area at 17 from Pasadena, Calif. She supports Dell’Arte by promoting more interaction with the region’s school children, out of appreciation for Dell’Arte and its contributions to community life, but also because it’s good for her business. Caughey financially supported a trip to a Dell’Arte Christmas performance by her daughter’s, school, Sunset Elementary, and hopes to do the same next year for "all the kids in Arcata." She also appreciates interaction with the students, especially those from Europe, and Dell’Arte’s inclusion of audience participation and interaction in their performance, which she says is unique among local theaters. Caughey is a real cheerleader for Dell’Arte, and says, "That is the kind of stuff I want to support and be a part of for the rest of my life."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Stephanie Caughey, click here.

Interview with David, a man in the Logger Bar, audience member

David has lived in Blue Lake four years, but has know about Dell’Arte since they started, when he lived in Arcata. He says the most important thing they have done is "bring excellence" to the area, which encourages excellence in everyone. He relates a story about a one-man show by a visiting artist about his father’s "survivor’s guilt" around his experiences as a Jewish photographer in WWII. This resonated with David’s companion at the performance, whose father had a related experience, and the friends and the artist talked about it. David also remarks on the artist’s technique, combining juggling with a Beethoven symphony to startling effect.

When asked for criticism of Dell’Arte, David gives a example of a language mistake he caught in a play about the logging community, which brought him to "the suspension of disbelief." This shows Dell’Arte "haven’t always done their homework," and he gets "the impression they are slightly condescending towards loggers." He says it’s a close-knit community, and "Outsiders, you gotta knock on that door a long time." He says he will suggest to Joan Schirle that she check manuscripts with "an honest-to-God logger," which shows he feels he can approach the theater with criticism.

To read the entire (edited) interview with David, click here.

Interview with Dawn Falado, Aaron Cromie, Balazs Lazar, students at Dell’Arte

The three students hail from Hungary, Philadelphia and Chicago. They describe their training regime, giving the schedule of a sample day. Each talks about how and why s/he came to Dell’Arte: Cromie and Lazar learned about the school through meeting Dell’Arte company members on their home turf; Falado shopped for a program where she could study movement theater and make her own work in a "permissive" atmosphere. They speak of their appreciation for their rapport as a group and the "international range" and high motivation of the student body.

They find the program unique for its full-time focus, Blue Lake’s lack of distractions and the area’s inspiring natural beauty. Falado and Cromie hope to bring the atmosphere – and perhaps some fellow students – back to Philadelphia with them and start their own project, "seeing what kind of influence we can have in our own communities," says Cromie. "That seems absolutely realistic. We are chomping at the bit. We are definitely looking homeward with what they are equipping us with here." Falado is impressed with the cordial relations among the theater, students and people of Blue Lake, and notes, "I think the company is able to provide really low-cost theater for the community and the community comes to see it, community that if I transplanted them and their occupation back to where I live, wouldn’t be a theater-going community. To me, that is inspiring." Lazar is impressed with Dell’Arte’s plays about local issues and their ties with "the place they are living and working."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Falado, Cromie and Lazar, click here.

Interview with Michael Fields, managing artistic director

Fields addresses the changes in the ensemble’s decision-making structure over 25 years. Everyone had "equal pay, equal authority over everything" for the first 15 years, but not all carried out their responsibilities, and there was "a micro-management that was happening at the Hub level.." Much of the friction came from growth in the organization and "the diverging maturity of the artists." Now organizational and creative functions are more separate, and "we are trying to give more day-to-day responsibility and authority to individuals, so that they are not hamstrung by a body of people and can’t act," says Fields.

Artistically, Fields rejects pigeonholes and divides the company’s work into three "components": experimental plays, family-theater works, and "theater of place" – the latter "reflecting the community back," such as the "Korbel" series. There are also community participation elements, like festivals, "engaged to give the community participation in the art that happens here." He describes plans for "The Detalian Project," a new "theater of place" work about a casino to be built in Blue Lake, which has already involved Native American politics. "We are stepping in a lot of shit with this, but I think that is very interesting. That is another aspect of reflecting the community back. Not as ‘this is the way it should be,’ but reflecting that conflict back." Fields claims he has "lost all my p.c. [political correctness]" in favor of facilitating "more of that kind of back and forth."

He says the community is "involved in every discussion of how we choose the work … how we train artists," and students are required so many hours of community service. Dell’Arte’s community relationship is very personal, and "associated less with a concept and more with a person." Dell’Arte has been shaped by the physical environment and the particular "counter-culture" atmosphere native to the region. "A community like Blue Lake and surrounding region was very conducive to what we’ve been doing, in a way that I think we never would have kept the company together in a city," says Fields.

To read the entire (edited) interview with Michael Fields, click here.

Interview with Donald Forrest, co-artistic director, director of Education Through Art

In this interview, Forrest focuses on Dell’Arte’s artistic values. He says the original three or four Dell’Arte actors were willing to put down roots in Blue Lake and "take less money and prestige than jobs might have offered in L.A. or New York." because "you could control the artistic product in a way that you couldn’t in any other place." When more people were hired, they were added to the acting company, not the administrative staff, including some from the San Francisco Mime Troupe. He describes Dell’Arte style as working on "an older model than the traveling commedia dell’artes," with values from ancient Greek theater that emphasize virtuosity. He calls their style "a throwback to the future," in that audiences of the future will demand "the old shamanistic role of the theater to grapple with the unknown, with the fears of a community, the hidden secrets of a community." He says there aren’t many other places to go for this kind of training. "You need to have the soul of an actor, the heart of the poet, the hands of the mime and the body of a gymnast."

Forrest discusses the characters in Dell’Arte’s plays as based on the people of Blue Lake, and tells a humorous story about how the actors "censor" themselves when they approach material that could be offensive to the community. He describes the characters from "Korbel" and "The Road Not Taken" as "truly outrageous, extreme archetypal characters, and yet they are painted with love." He says they got into trouble politically with their plays, but "even though we got state and federal money to do our plays, no one could ever accuse us of doing propaganda because of our dedication to our ancient form."

The Dell’Arte company found it slow-going trying to create change in Blue Lake. "You couldn’t come up here with a purple beard wearing a skirt and talking about nuclear power to people who had kids in school and worked here. It had the opposite effect." Forrest believes the only answer was "to become part of the community … in that older shamanistic sense" and to "have material that was good enough to entertain them." He says Dell’Arte must "continue to push the form," and that "it takes a lifetime to build an audience, and one bad show to send them away."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Donald Forrest, click here.

Interview with Julie Fulkerson, board member

Fulkerson, a former mayor of Arcata, has known Dell’Arte from its beginnings. She points out the things that have made them stand out as different in the arts-rich environment of the North Coast: their artistic quality, their choice of Blue Lake, their issue-oriented work, and their ability to attract diverse, working-class and family audiences. She describes her performance experience in "Korbel," and her duet with her political opposite as a an example of Dell’Arte’s ability and mission to bring together people across social and political boundaries.

Fulkerson, when asked about problems with the company, points to the aging of the founders and the lack of room for newcomers to rise to positions of responsibility. "I think that is a big challenge when the organization is based on the people and not some big mission or principle." She volunteers a story about attending a "Cornerstone" project meeting with Michael Fields in San Francisco, where larger arts organizations were brain-storming on "how to sell the arts to the residents of California" through business strategies. She found this "counter to what you would want to do if you were trying to reach people’s need for creativity and art in their lives." The conversation "made me realize that Dell’Arte are really doing theater for everybody, for people. That sounds cliché, because that is what theater is for."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Julie Fulkerson, click here.

Interview with Roy Furshpan, director of CenterArts, Humboldt State University

CenterArts it he primary performing-arts presenter in Humboldt County and, says Furshpan, one of the smallest campuses in the California State University system with one of the largest programs. He describes CenterArts’ success in bringing challenging work to a mostly rural audience. CenterArts presented Dell’Arte’s work from the very beginning, and the relationship grew stronger through funded programs, such as the Redwood Curtain Project, supported by a major foundation’s audience-development grants. They used the program to commission new work by Dell’Arte and to work with community partners to inform the work and bring in new voices. This program was very satisfying for both partners and they keep their "ears open" for new partnering opportunities.

Dell’Arte is the "artistic visionary" for CenterArts’ summer institute of physical theater, and they plan to continue the institute even after the initial funding runs out. When asked how the two organizations complement each other, with "CenterArts and Dell’Arte as Batman and Robin," Furshpan responded, "Who would be Batman and who would be Robin? I think they would be the Joker." He indicated that CenterArts has certain types of infrastructure and facilities, and Dell’Arte provides "tremendous knowledge of their field." Regarding their development, Furshpan says, "Humboldt County is really proud of Dell’Arte, that there is this company out in little Blue Lake that is internationally known."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Roy Furshpan, click here.

Interview with Jim, audience member

Jim is a Blue Lake resident who describes the uniqueness of the local environment in detail and pinpoints Dell’Arte’s influence in it. He talks about the recent crops of younger students as "children of privilege," some of whom tend to misunderstand the atmosphere of Blue Lake when they arrive – in September at the start of hunting season, when local young men are seen on the street with rifles. Jim analyzes this atmosphere as not dangerous, but particularly safe, in a way that is peculiar to small towns. He says it has a strong effect on the students who stick it out for the whole school program, and often stay on. "To miss that is to miss one of the wonders of Dell’Arte." He says Dell’Arte has been as influential on the psychological health of Blue Lake as the new industrial park has been on its economic health. When asked what he might dream for the next 20 years, he describes revolutionary theater it the French tradition, and would like "Dell’Arte to be harbingers of equivalent liberation for Blue Lake, Humboldt County, California and so on."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Jim, click here.

Interview with Ernie Johnson, Blue Lake mailman

Johnson echoes Postmaster Ron Brunson’s opinions on Dell’Arte’s artwork and value to the community. He talks about going to the shows with his father and his friend, and speaks fondly of the students, their diversity, their expression of their own cultures and their willingness to be involved in the community. He enjoys performing, even though he is "not trained at all. I go just for fun. My own wife asks, ‘Why do you do this? You know it is going to get to ya.’ But I gotta do it." He says some Blue Lake people still resist going to the shows: "Some are still stuck in the ’40’s: ‘Those guys are weird. I’m not going to go see them, bunch of damn hippies,’" but declares, "It is good for this community, for sure."

To read the entire (edited) interview Ernie Johnson, click here.

Interview with Julian Lang, director of Institute for Native Knowledge

Lang is a Karuk Indian living in Humboldt County who has collaborated with Dell’Arte on several theater pieces. In this complex interview he analyzes the nature of their interaction in terms of the difference between "art and culture." He recognizes the importance of story in both. Lang hopes to revive and perpetuate the Karuk culture and transmit it to the younger people in the tribe. His first work with Dell’Arte was an attempt to reinstate an ancient ceremony in his tribe’s tradition. At the ceremony’s core is a traditional story, and Land describes the value of using theater to explore the story, "a story that was really asleep and then it became awake." He sees Dell’Arte’s goals as artistic, not cultural in the same sense, but the work served both their goals. He credits Dell’Arte with being sensitive to concerns about cultural appropriation.

Lang describes certain conflicts in the collaboration, for instance, the traditional process of telling a tribal story from beginning to end is counter to Dell’Arte’s brand of theater, a European "subterfuge" that "is always like, ‘When does the little guy spit in God’s eye,’ or something like that. Waiting for that kind of moment. When do we get to turn it into a Dell’Arte kind of thing?" Lang also finds a difference in pace and temperament between the cultures, and tells the story of working with a theater person who was "hyperactive and was constantly fiddling" and whose process "boiled constantly." This interfered with continuity, Lang noted. "We need to be able to move somewhat slower. The community needs to know what we are doing." Most Dell’Arte artists, Lang feels, are "excessive" but "very even," and attributes it to their commitment to a rural environment like Blue Lake, instead of the aggressiveness of the urban. He saw their "craziness" as something they needed to tell the story.

Lang says two other benefits for the Native group have been the development of "shadow theater" and technical assistance with performance by his group of young Native people. He hopes to do a play in which all the acting is done by Indians, and technical support by non-Indians. He sees the play as not just entertainment and "Coyote stories," but the transmission of the mystery of his culture. "You can understand it on the one hand, but on the other hand, it is too deep. That is what our future is, doing the deep stuff." He sees Dell’Arte as a means to that goal, and now defines collaboration as "taking experts and combining it with our own artistic process."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Julian Lang, click here.

Interview with Bridgett Bamer MacCracken, booking manager, production manager, tour manager, stage manager, actor; Steve Buescher, associate school director, teacher, performer; Emilia My Sumelius, performer, assistant teacher; Marya Errin Jones , alumna, guest artist

These people tell how and why they came to Dell’Arte and why they stay, what they hope for the future. Most talk about artistic issues: the style of physical theater, the openness of the company to improvisation, the value of apprenticeship with the company, the value of touring with them. They speak of Dell’Arte being "maxed out" organizationally, unable to take on any more work "unless we hire more people." They talk of burnout for the company "if people’s artistic side isn’t fed."

They address the problem of passing the torch – "We are the ‘next generation’ and they consider themselves the ‘prestigious" company’– mentioning that "they" (the company members) have a new mission statement and five-year plan. They express the wish that there be more time to explore the work. "We throw things together and they are good, says Emilia. "It just feels like we could have gone a lot deeper." Jones refers to "other groups that have only done five shows in 25 years, how does that effect the work that they develop? Wouldn’t it be amazing to work on a project with Dell’Arte for a year or two years?"

To read the entire (edited) interview with MacCracken, Buescher, Sumelius and Jones, click here.

Interview with Libby Maynard, Ink People Center for the Arts

Ink People is a community arts and cultural center in Arcata. Maynard describes its wide-ranging studio and community programs, including access to technology. She has known and collaborated with Dell'Arte from their beginnings. She describes the "Mask-ibition," an international show of handmade masks, which Dell’Arte has been helping with for 14 years, jurying the competition and modeling the masks.

Maynard describes in detail the challenges and influence of Dell’Arte’s schools programs in Blue Lake. She talks about the town’s drug problem in the past, related to the timber industry, and how Dell’Arte helped deal with it in the school. In the next 20 years, she foresees a countywide cohesion of school programs by Dell’Arte, Ink People and Artsline (from Humboldt State U.), "filling up the schools with art, really integrating it into the curriculum." She says the only "mistake" she has seen Dell’Arte make is the struggle to free the current company from the influence of the late founder, Carlo Mazzone-Clementi, and she predicts they will "they will realize what he took with him and what they didn’t quite capture, perhaps."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Libby Maynard, click here.

Interview with Stan Mott, janitor

Mott is an actor of 62 who grew up in Blue Lake, and whose father worked in a timber mill and mother was the school cook. Mott left to explore acting in the big cities and returned in his 50s, when his activity with Dell’Arte was limited by his diminishing physical abilities, he says. He performed in the Dell’Arte theater when it was an IOOF Hall, and attended his grandfather’s 80th birthday there. He has appointed himself janitor and "there are a lot of personal memories that cause me to want to keep it looking good." He appreciates Dell’Arte’s attention to local issues, which "also reflect national issues." He refers to the "Korbel" series, first the ramifications of the decline of the timber industry, and then "the problem of pollution in an area that is poverty-stricken."

Mott has worked twice at Dell’Arte in a group setting, and appreciates their collaborative approach. He compares it to other theaters, where he was worked with "the classics, it had been through the mill, people had already generated ideas. But here, there is paper all over the wall and things are being written down so that ideas don’t get lost." He says the most significant contribution of Dell’Arte has been "a breath of fresh intellectuality, or psychological maturity and social understanding into the town." Mott says he grew up as the "town sissy" whose "nature was a very soft, yielding one, full of love of everything that was around me. It was my nature. I think it was because I had songs in me, and this constant dream of something beautiful." Dell’Arte, says Mott, has contributed to an " understanding and acceptance, tolerance." He says their only mistake was "not having bought more property in the past and having the space to expand."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Stan Mott, click here.

Interview with Kevin O’Brien, principal at Grant Elementary School

O’Brien teaches in a middle-class school in Eureka, the seat of Humboldt County. "A fan" of Dell’Arte since he lived in Blue Lake during college and post-college years, O’Brien organized a Dell’Arte performance at Eureka High School, a theater event for the "feeder" schools in the region. He described the value of live theater for his students: "Many of these kids, especially the younger ones, haven’t had that experience of going to a theater. The social nuances of their behavior in a theater, seeing live performances. It was a first for many kids." He called Dell’Arte’s work "a quality above other theater groups," and lauded them for their adaptation of a repertory piece for the school audience.

The students’ access to such performances is a money issue, he said, and his school budget is being cut back because enrollment is declining. "There is a lot that has to be funded that would tend to take priority over theater productions," said O’Brien. "That tends to leave the arts out while we are at the front line dealing with kids who really need the exposure to the arts as much for the character education as anything else." He also recounted the advent of strong "accountability" measures in the schools, with the threat of a school-voucher program that could further decrease public-school enrollment. "The effect of the arts on the human experience is a difficult thing to measure, although we know there is an effect there," he said. "The rash of extreme violence in high schools gave an initial push, with more money going into counseling and human services. My feeling is, more than counseling, we need to expand the arts and improve the quality of life. Give kids, right from the beginning, a vehicle for allowing the expression of the human condition. That expression leads to communication and stress reduction and internal conflict resolution."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Kevin O'Brien, click here.

Interview with Peter Pennekamp, Humboldt Area Foundation

Peter Pennekamp has deep roots in the Humboldt area and an association with Dell’Arte that goes back to its beginnings. In this long interview, he tells many stories about his personal history with the company, and his interaction with them as a presenter and a funder. He talks of the antagonistic character of their late founder, Carlo Mazzone-Clementi, his eventual departure from Blue Lake, and the establishment of Dell’Arte in the progressive, theater-rich environment of Humboldt County.

Pennekamp goes into specific detail about the particular character of, and politics surrounding, Dell’Arte’s "Theater of Place" and art for social change, with stories of their plays about the timber industry, environmental issues and cultural differences in the region. He focuses on the (in his opinion) subtly powerful ways in which these plays involved community and caused lasting change, especially in his own political life and action. He describes the ways he feels Dell’Arte has made itself an indispensable part of the community without compromising its artistic vision or its politics.

One involves a national conference of funders’ representatives held in tiny Blue Lake, and the street festival put on by Dell’Arte in their honor, featuring 20 accordion players in the top-story windows of the town, a ceremonial salmon barbecue, a children’s clown parade, acrobats, stiltwalkers, "Indians, loggers and artists, fire chiefs. I had people telling me afterwards that it was life-transforming being there." In a complex analysis, he describes Blue Lake’s community development plans, tied to Dell’Arte, and compares the company’s institution to other arts companies in rural communities, where "art provides a voice where there isn’t a voice."

He discusses the possibility of "transmission" of Dell’Arte to another generation, and the unlikelihood of mission continuity across generations in any but the most rooted, traditional communities. Instead he lobbies for a strengthening of the whole field of artistic endeavor. Finally, Pennekamp addresses art for social change as resistance to oppression, versus a more positive "standing up for what you believe in," powerfully quoting Sweet Honey in the Rock’s Bernice Johnson Reagon on the subject: "You know what was wrong with the way we approached it? We went out to do battle everyday to win, rather than because it was the right way to lead a life." Says Pennekamp: "Dell’Arte has repositioned the work. The reason it can work is because the very notions underpinning it are different. It is not about adaptation. It is a whole different standpoint. One that is affirming."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Peter Pennekamp, click here.

Interview with Charlene Sanders, Second Grade teacher at Blue Lake Elementary, and Doug White, superintendent principal at Blue Lake Elementary

Sanders and White describe a ten-year relationship between the elementary school and Dell’Arte’s Education Through Art program, from drama classes during the school day to full-scale dramatic productions with the study body. The relationship decreased three or four years ago with the advent of a statewide class-size-reduction program and the instigation of a "real edict to put more time and energy into the reading and math programs." The school was still able to "squeeze in" drama activities with Dell’Arte, but interactivity with the curriculum was reduced as teachers were directed to "go by the book."

Sanders and White are vocal about the benefits of the programs with Dell’Arte, which are experienced by every child at the school. They both attest to the widely observed "outgoing-ness" of students who have experienced Dell’Arte’s brand of physical theater, an eagerness to express themselves with their bodies and get up in front of groups. They also see improvements in children who had trouble with focus in the classroom, and are now learning self-control. They describe some of the activities in the Dell’Arte workshops, grade by grade, from "the kindergarten acting out a Shel Silverstein poem" to Shakespeare in the upper grades. The school also relies on informal technical help from the Dell’Arte staff during special events.

Sanders also values opportunities for her students to see performances by Dell’Arte’s own students, who come from all over the world. "Sometimes we don’t understand what they are doing," said Sanders. "So it is great: We always come back and discuss it. It is just such a mind-opening experience." She also notes that Dell’Arte is "the heart of Blue Lake," providing summertime activities for children who "don’t have the opportunity to leave the community because they don’t have transportation to go other places," and helping to address some "delinquency problems." Both noted that because of Dell’Arte, Blue Lake is "much less conservative probably, much more open to difference."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Sanders and White, click here.

Interview with Joan Schirle co-artistic director and director of training, and Bobbi Ricca, administrative director

Joan Schirle and Bobbi Ricca discuss changes in the Dell’Arte company and the future of its relationship with Blue Lake. Schirle reviews the Dell’Arte ensemble model, and its early reliance on programs of the times like CETA, which gave the company a "leg up." She tracks the communal decision-making and working modes of the company, its decision to institutionalize, and its eventual cession of most of the power to one person (Michael Fields). She raises the question of "transmission," or the passing of the torch of the company’s mission to a younger generation, in different times than those that gave birth to Dell’Arte.

Schirle placed Dell’Arte in a "river of tradition" of physical theater with an "organic approach" going back to LeCoq and Dell’Arte’s founder, the late Carlo Mazzone-Clementi. She discussed the company’s legacy, and said she doesn’t think "we will be remembered for our theatrical vision" because "a lot of this other stuff has been equally important to us." Schirle expressed a commitment to the "visioning" that the company had done with the people of Blue Lake about the community’s future, but at the same time, indicted an uneasiness with her own professional future: "Personally, I just hope that I realize my potential as an artist before I die." She, like others, referred to her life as "a balancing act" between the company’s work and her own, referring to another company that allows members to take a leave to pursue their own goals, and come back again. "How do you be in and of the world," she asked, "and of your time and of your field, and still hold to those ideals that are practically monastic in a way?" She said the company was working with a consultant to discover their individual and communal long-range goals.

Bobbi Ricca also alluded to a need to "free the artists at the core to do more artistic work." Ricca also wondered about ways to identify the next generation of company leaders and bring the along. "I think we would all like it to go on in the same direction," she said. She pondered whether Blue Lake might find in theater an economic base, as did Ashland, Ore., with its Shakespeare festival.

To read the entire (edited) interview with Schirle and Ricca, click here.

Interview with Joan Schirle, co-artistic director, director of training

Schirle addresses ways Dell’Arte incorporates community decisions into their work, in terms of being "good neighbors," abiding by regulations and choosing child-appropriate material for family shows. Artistic choices remain with the company, but the community has direct input on projects like the new piece about the coming casino, and the interface with public-school curriculum. She describes in detail the political content and local relevance of certain works, like the "Korbel" series, how different parts of the trilogy touched on fear of change in the community, prejudice against "transgendered" people and foreigners, militias.

When asked to explore the company’s aesthetic in relation to the community, Schirle defines Commedia Dell’Arte as a historically populist form, "a work that speaks directly to the people of a place. … but there is no contradiction between doing the work that is of an artistically high excellence and great aesthetic value, and having it be accessible to the people in the places that you live," she claims. She says, "There is a strong interest within the organization for creating work that is experimental, that is not going to be popular. Populist work by its very nature tends to be something with which your audience feels comfortable. We have built an audience. I will say this about our community, they have affected us, but we have also affected them, in that we have fostered a sophistication, so that they are more open to a variety of forms." This creates "a much more real relationship with the community. It is not just the artist saying they will bow to the market forces."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Schirle, click

Interview with Daniel Stein, school director

Stein describes the school: international student body, growth, value of teaching students to create their own theater. He discusses the visceral nature of physical theater and its immediate connection to the audience, "the sharing goes both directions." He says what the field can learn from Dell’Arte is the artist-centered nature of the organization. He identifies the greatest challenge for Dell’Arte as growth into a larger institution, and the fact that they weren’t trained as managers, but artists teaching themselves to be managers, is what Carlo would have called "a ‘paradox,’ things that are apparently contradictory working perfectly together. I think that we end up doing a better job than people who were trained specifically to be managers, because we come at it from a thinking-outside-the-box point of view. That brings more creative solutions. It is when you are challenged that you truly discover what outside-the-box is."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Stein, click here.

Interview with Gene Supko, proprietor of the Logger Bar

Supko has been in Blue Lake since 1986, and owned the Logger Bar since 1994. He grew familiar with the Dell’Arte company and students as they came into the bar, and he enjoys seeing a new class every year, and the diversity it brings to the bar. He also attends the plays. He describes the citizens of Blue Lake as "hard-working people. All they know is get up and go work in the woods." He describes their attitude toward the school: "The concept of people going to school and learning how to be entertainers, to them this is more like a second job. Then you can’t take that away from them. That doesn’t make them ignorant people or nothing, they are just hard-working people. It is hard work out there in the woods."

Supko refers with gusto to his "cameo" at Dell’Arte in "Korbel," which drew a lot of bar customers to the theater for the first time and got a standing ovation. He describes himself now as "stage-struck." He went to Dell’Arte graduation and got another standing ovation from the students, which made him feel good. Supko analyzes Dell’Arte’s appeal when dealing with local political issues: "They incorporated that into the play, and if you weren’t from town it was funny. But if you were from town, you really had belly laughs because you knew the secrets behind it. They didn’t give a view on it, they just made it funny." He says Dell’Arte filmed the play and he plans to show it in the bar.

To read the entire (edited) interview with Supko, click here.

Interview with Mitch Traction and Jim Williams, audience members

Traction moved to Trinidad, ten miles north of Blue Lake, eight years ago, after living in Boston and New York, Williams is a local who knew the children of the Dell’Arte founder in high school, and knew some of the students while in college. Now he is a teacher, with a Dell’Arte artist in residence at his school. He has a friend who takes in the students as roommates every year. They talk about the artistic quality of Dell’Arte shows, especially the recent Christmas show, "The Rag and Bone Shop," about an antique shop in a small town being turned into a warehouse for "Giantcom." Says Williams: "It was [about] the importance of the old, the importance of continuity, of keeping the wisdom of the elders." Traction values the quality of the Dell’Arte school and its presence in "our little town," the local issue in the plays, and the students as community members.

Williams compares Dell'Arte to the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Both treat political issues globally, but "Dell’Arte could only be here. There is no way that the particular things that come out of Dell’Arte could be happening in another community. It is theater of place. They are a voice for these communities, for us. And a really creative one. They say what we have to say better than we could say it."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Traction and Williams, click here.

Interview with the Zettler family: Rebecca Zettler (mother), Laura Zettler-Mann (seventh grade), Aaron Zettler (tenth grade) and Kit Zettler (father), audience members

This Blue Lake family of four has been involved with Dell’Arte since the tenth-grader, Aaron, was in kindergarten. The children describe their roles in plays and in drama activities as part of the curriculum, bringing up specific plays. They believe their school is different from others because of the liaison with Dell’Arte, "more popular." Both children describe themselves as involved in theater at school, but not interested in becoming professional performers. Friends in other schools ask them about Dell’Arte. When asked how this affects their other activities, they both describe being confident in front of groups. "I am not afraid at all. I might make a mistake, and people laugh, but it isn’t really important," says Laura. "I just am a lot more free and open, I guess. I’m not afraid, out on the playground, to say something no one else would say. I’m just not that worried about it." Aaron describes goofing around with a friend at lunch, "acting," and having people laugh at them. "It is fun. That ties into Dell’Arte. You are not really worried about it. Show. Have fun and let people come to their own conclusions about whatever it is." Rebecca Zettler values the fact that a "poor school" like Blue Lake School offers children the rare opportunity to see live theater, right down the street. She appreciates that her children "have all met and all recognize other theater people. There is just another level of adult influence that is not teacher or parent or relative." Laura values the fact that Dell’Arte’s Donald Forrest knows every child in the school as well as she herself does.

Regarding Dell’Arte’s social-change theater, Kit Zettler says it is "preaching to the converted, and doesn’t really change things." More effective has been Dell’Arte’s "research" in the community, that has earned the people’s trust that they will "tell our story." The whole family, who volunteer together for the Mad River Festival, take great pleasure in describing the town’s response to Dell’Arte’s clown antics ("Oh my god, what has landed?") and their impact on both the economics and the spirit of the town. "They do a little show on the stage and the last part of the show is ‘Come Follow Me.’ Pretty soon you are walking behind them and you don’t even know where you are," says Kit. "Suddenly everybody has got a mask on and they are dancing down the street behind the samba people. Wow!"

To read the entire (edited) interview with the Zettler family, click here.

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