Interview with Mitch Traction and Jim Williams, audience members

By Mark McKenna

Mark McKenna: How are you affiliated with Dell’Arte?

Mitch Traction: I am not affiliated at all, I am part of their audience. I live in Trinidad, which is about 10 miles north of Blue Lake. I moved to this area about eight years ago. I had lived in Boston prior to that and grew up in New York. Moving out here, within about 48 hours of my move I ended up at an outdoor performance by some graduates of Dell’Arte. I laughed harder than I think I had ever laughed at comedy in Boston. That sort of hooked me on Dell’Arte. I probably come three or four times a year, with groups, on my own. They are brilliant to watch. I am a Dell’Arte junkie.

Jim Williams: I think this is my fourth show. I’m local. I was born and raised in the area. Dell’Arte has always been a presence. When I was in high school I knew some of the children of the founder, and when I was in college I knew some of the students. Now I am a teacher. A colleague of mine takes in a Dell’Arte student to room with her every year. Also Dell’Arte has an artist in residence at my school.

MM: How does their work with the kids have an effect at the school?

JW: Well, it is my first year there. What I have seen them do so far is a great Christmas program with all of the grades. The artist was able to do something with the kindergartners as well as with the eighth graders. He was able to make 10 minutes of kindergarten work fun and engaging.

Dell’Arte’s model is theater of place. They take that seriously. The holiday show this past year, that was magnificent, probably the best Dell’Arte production that I have seen. "The Rag and Bone Shop." The cast was all staggeringly good. The theme of it was – large corporation comes to small town. It was an antique shop that probably no customer had come into because it was off the road. This guy comes in and is going to turn it into a warehouse for Giantcom. It was the importance of the old, the importance of continuity, of keeping the wisdom of the elders.

MM: Is it preaching to the choir for you?

JW: It probably is, a little, for me. There probably is some self-selection in the audience that comes here.

MT: I think they do a fair amount of community outreach. I see them in festivals, they go into the schools. It is not like they are in some ivory tower and they are waiting for us to come to them.

JW: The holiday shows are free and they travel all throughout the county. I’ve seen a lot more diversity at the holiday shows, their outdoor performances in the park get a broad crowd. The eight-year-olds come and have a blast, and there are more messages there for the older folk.

MM: If I were to say what does Dell’Arte do, what would you say?

MT: I would say that it draws young people from all over for at least a year of intensive training. It is very exciting to know that all this training happens in our little town. Another thing that they do is very much use the town as a springboard for their work. The local politics, the environmental issues really do get incorporated into their work. It is my sense that the students that come here really do become community members, probably very quickly.

JW: I would compare and contrast them against San Francisco Mime Troupe. The Mime Troupe is tackling issues and they are heavily political and they are doing them in a global way. 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. They speak to those global issues and they deal with some politics probably in a gentler way than the Mime Troupe does. But again, it is theater of place. You can tell that they are an institution here. 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. It is powerful stuff. It was two days after I moved here that I stumbled onto this. I think it is really fortunate that this community has this, and I think it is a rarity. It would be wonderful if it could get cloned.

Mark McKenna is artistic director and an ensemble member of Touchstone Theatre, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris. He has taught theater classes at Lehigh University and the University of Pennsylvania, and the MFA Theatre Program at Towson State University. McKenna is active in the growth of the Network of Ensemble Theatres. He is a board member of Alliance for Building Communities, a regional community-development corporation.

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