Dell'Arte International

Dear grads and friends,


Tomorrow night we will involve the entire staff as well as our Board of Directors in an exercise known as the "Histogram." We will build a visual timeline around the Carlo Theatre of what has happened since Dell'Arte was incorporated in 1971-------------that's a long time! Should be a re-e-e-e-ealy big piece of paper, since it includes the significant events of Company, School, festival, youth program, people, productions....wow… Since we are looking back, I'd also like to give you all a cross section what is happening right now and what’s to come at the School and in our Dell'Arte community.......


STATE OF DELL'ARTE: what's going on?
from School Director and Founding Artistic Director Joan Schirle

2008 was a year of transitions, most of them the result of planning (a few that were a surprise to everyone) and looking always how to honor our past as we continue to venture into the unknown………to how best improve our training, our programs, and our service to the audience, our community and the field.

Some of the '08 transitions:

• We completed the transition from a 2.5 year MFA to a 3 year program, making this the first tine that we have a Third Year MFA class in residence for the entire year. With three full classes of students sharing the spaces, supporting each others’ work, and passing on their traditions, the creative energy is in full force.

• For the first time our Third Year MFA students performed as DACompany members during an internship with the company devising and touring our holiday show (2nd year MFA's have done this twice). “The Glasnost Family Holiday” was a huge success, fuelled by the marching band created by the MFA’s during their 2nd year.

• New staff faces: Kristin Shumaker, Production Stage Manager; Gannon Rogers, Marketing; Kate Braidwood (MFA ’08), School Administrative Associate; David Jervis, Development Director.

• Stephanie Thompson as Associate School Director has taken on a large share of the administration of the programs in addition to her teaching work. Arranging schedules for all three classes is a huge job and just one of the areas where Steph has taken charge, in addition to her teaching work.

• Joe Krienke is within a few weeks training of becoming a certified teacher of the FM Alexander Technique. This means that we will have three—count ‘em THREE—Alexander teachers on our faculty (Joe, Philip, and Joan), a rather amazing teacher/student ratio given that most schools which do include AT in their training programs have only one! In a future blogpost, I’ll talk about what this means to our training model and why the work is so foundational.

• The Dell’Arte Company is in a state of re-visioning, a place of introspection and questioning its role in the overall organization, its role as a producing/touring entity, and its relation to the deeper ensemble concepts now embodied in a 3-year MFA program. Question: How can a company model which we can no longer afford-- a resident company of actors working fulltime together –transition into something which offers an ensemble model to a 3- year MFA program in which young actors DO work together fulltime?



• We have expanded our Board of Directors, revised our by-laws, and will continue to restructure our organizational systems to account for these facts: we are lots bigger than we were ten years ago, we’re over 30 years old, we have lots more to discover, and our greatest laboratory is the organism of company/school. DAI co-founder Jane Hill has been a major consultant in the Board evolution.

• With great systems organization by Tyler Olsen, an alum and fulltime staff member, we rearranged a lot of the spaces. We now have two campuses--the old Oddfellows building plus the new River Campus in the industrial park, with a real acro studio, maskmaking studio and much more. Facilities Manager and alum Jerry Lee Wallace never lacks for work to do in the areas of repair, remodel, renovate, set painting, design, and on and on.

And now in 2009..........

An unplanned transition: the economy! • The Recession makes us nervous—will we still have students next year? Will students still be able to get their federal loans? Will more theatres close their doors, more universities shut down their arts programs? Stay tuned…..

• Our summer intensive last year was hugely popular and now in its third year—this year focusing on the styles—it’s already ¾ fully enrolled, so at least the economy isn't killing us there.

• Further development of our voice program: In 2006 I received a grant from the Fox foundation via TCG for professional development. It was my choice to focus on voice study. I proposed to investigate the work of some of the major actor training methodologies in voice with the intent both of strengthening my own work as an actor and spending several years developing a voice pedagogy for the Dell’Arte programs that addressed the needs of the actor as mover, deviser, and poet. My studies to date have included work with master teachers Patsy Rodenburg, Catherine Fitzmaurice, Richard Armstrong, and research into the breath work of Carl Stough. I’m about to experience Estill voice work at a course in Boulder. I have been working with other faculty members to place this work into their voice work, whether singing or speaking, and to increase the amount of verse work in the MFA program.

• This final year of my Fox grant will focus on voice and text, as well as the production with D’A that is part of this grant--a project with Ronlin, Laura Munoz, and alum Richard Newman, based on 3 plays of Lorca--first showings in October 2009.

• It is a source of great satisfaction that our graduates doing are well in the world. We are working on a new webpage to keep us all up to day about the work of grads in groups as diverse as Cirque du Soleil to Second City, to tenure-track positions in graduate programs across the US, to the founding of new ensembles around the world. Gannon, our new marketing director, has generated a series of ads in American Theatre featuring photos of our alumni and proudly proclaiming in how many areas of the field you are visible. And we will continue to feature more of you in this way..........

• I am continuing to work on the book on Carlo’s work with The Showers—the basic exercises that are legacy of this school. • With Ronlin Foreman, we continue to define and refine the development of our school as a place for the training of the actor-poet, for the continuous research into methods of devised work, and the relationship of movement to the nature of theatre itself. These are lofty goals—they go hand in hand with the nature of ‘arte’--the skill of the professional—and we continue to train actors for a professional life, to make a living doing this work.



• Our MFA 3's went on the Bali program this year and had amazing experiences. Bali study will become part of the MFA3 curriculum for the next few years, but the program remains open to anyone-- we welcome musicians, dancers, maskmakers, designers, directors and ALL who have an interest in the arts of Bali.

• The Company is re-mounting our 1979 success, "Intrigue At Ah-Pah" which we toured for many years. An all-alumni young(er) cast will play Scar Tissue, Pops, and Beau and the other roles in this 30th anniversary production directed by Michael Fields. The subject: dams on the North Coast rivers, the decline of steelhead and salmon fisheries wrapped in a mystery thriller. All of that is more current than ever, as the fight to remove the dams on the Klamath is hot news to this day. The show opens the Mad River Festival this year. See the website for dates.

• Our faculty will welcome back Laura Munoz in the Fall. Laura has been teaching at Brown, where former School Director Daniel Stein has been named Head of Movement at Brown/Trinity Rep. Alum Lauren Wilson will guest teach with us in the Fall and then join the fulltime resident faculty in January. Alum Matt Chapman is joining our full time staff in a combination of recruiting and faculty duties. Visit our website for a look at the full staff and faculty list.

• Our thanks to staffers who have moved on recently—the Gleason sisters, Barb Geary, Meg Vogel, Tisha Sloan, David Ferney. And our thanks to all of you who continue to email, to dialogue with each other, to let us know what’s up with you, and who continue to promote the work of the School out in the world. We appreciate you! That's it---there's much detail left out but you can always look at our website for more info on things, check our DAInternational blog, and even join our Facebook group.... Wish us luck with remembering all that stuff for the Histogram!!!

And Happy Easter, Passover, Rites of Spring.....
best to you all,
Joan

Copyright Dell'Arte International 2008
PO Box 816, Blue Lake CA 95525
(707) 668-5663
www.dellarte.com