Dell'Arte International

Making A Charivari

2010-04-28T00:17:00.000-07:00

April is the cruelest month for first year students at Dell’Arte International. More tears are shed during April than at any other time of the school year. They are tears of frustration, usually followed by the tearful comment, “I’m just not funny…”

But by the final week of this five week study of Clown, the final public showing is in rehearsal and every student will have at least one brief moment of ‘funny.’

Photos: Students Rosi Hughes (England), Marie-Louise Hoog (Sweden) and Anne Waehrens (Denmark) rehearse their ride in the charivari. Ronlin Foreman gives notes to the cast. (Photos: Joan Schirle)

Clown is the last dramatic territory to be explored in the first year of DAI’s actor-training program, under the direction of Ronlin Foreman. Every bit of skill and insight developed during the previous twenty-five weeks must go into the work— movement, voice, acrobatics, dance, timing, focus, partnering, ensemble play—based in the foundation of our training: to listen, to see and respond, to find delight in the playing.

Each year’s Clown finale includes a charivari, a chaotic circus parade with music. This year’s charivari is based around a vaulting horse (built by our new Technical Director, Daniel Spencer.) Twenty-five clowns leap, dive, roll, straddle, somersault, bounce and more, in a torrent of comic acrobatics. Rehearsals are many, as timing is critical when clown bodies fly in from all directions. Enjoy this video clip, as acrobatics teacher Joe Krienke rehearses the charivari with the Class of 2010.

www.dellarte.com

Today was one of those days at Dell’Arte. . .

2010-02-04T08:45:00.000-08:00

by Joe Krienke, Director of Admissions

Two weeks ago was the deadline for application to our MFA program and the first round deadline for application to the Professional Training Program. It turns out that we have a record number of applications for this time of the year. Today, February 1, was my deadline for sending out acceptance packets, so for the last two weeks I have been jammed reviewing audition portfolios, conducting interviews, and doing my best to get the right people in the right program.

I arrive at the office this morning with two days of work to do in less than six hours. I begin organizing piles of applicants to accept, waitlist, decline… it seems like every file has at least three actions steps before I can send letters. My list is getting longer and longer and I realize that I need my laptop which is sitting in another office, so I dash out of the door through the hallway… and I am arrested by a vibration.

I’m still for a moment and I realize it is a song, and it sounds so good that it has to be a recording… but the vibration is so resonant that it doesn’t seem possible that a recording could sizzle the air like that. I am pulled back down the hallway and up the stairs a few steps… it’s clear now that this song is being sung in the building and my skin stands up.

I’m sucked up the stairwell toward the studio and the sound is breathtaking… it stops me at the studio door- I question whether I should open it. I want to be a part of it, to witness it, but I’m afraid my selfish interruption will ruin the thing.

I dive in and there they are, the first year students in Daily Practice with our Director of Training, Ronlin Foreman. They are all standing solidly on shared ground reaching out of their backs past the walls of the studio into the world around them singing:

…wings that will take me,
where I want to go.
I’d fly from the utmost,
way out into space-
no, no, no, no, no,
there is no hiding place.

Indeed there is no place to hide and it is glorious. If only the applicants I was writing acceptance letters to could see this… they would understand.

My hand reaches for my cell phone and I am able to catch the end of the song, the tangible silence that follows, and the joyous acknowledgment of the people in the room that they have just touched something larger than any one of them and yet so basely human.

When you’re at Dell’Arte there is always potential bubbling under the surface and somehow you never know what is going to happen on any given day… when you’re going to witness something simply remarkable… when it’s going to be one of those days.

www.dellarte.com

XANTOLO

2010-01-23T22:17:00.000-08:00

XANTOLO

An international collaboration in Bali, Indonesia

For the Huasteca people of Mexico, Xantolo is a derivation of the expression "all saints," which is what the Spaniards named the day of death.

The Mexican people transformed this manifestation into one of their most beautiful and popular festivals. During their Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) the heritage of Spanish Catholicism and the solemn ritual of their pre-Hispanic past merge into a single party in which the dead return to eat and dance with the living.

Is this a Death cult? On the contrary, it is a celebration of life ... and the masks are there to confuse Death. Therefore, in the Xantolo everyone wants to wear a mask ... to dance almost to death without ever being recognized.

That's the game-- death wants to live just for the love of being alive, and the people who play with her know they'll never die. --Alicia Martinez Alvarez

Day of the Dead masks come to Bali

Cremation ceremonies honoring the dead and marking their passage to the unseen world are a major part of the Balinese ceremonial and family life. During DAI's annual Study Abroad: Bali 2010 program, our special guest mask teacher from Mexico City, Alicia Martinez-Alvarez, has been teaching us how to dance the masks of the Day of the Dead festivals from several regions of Mexico.

PHOTO:
Alicia Martinez-Alvarez coaches the Xantolo dancers.

Alicia will offer a demonstration of Dia de los Muertos masks to the Balinese mask community on January 28.

Alicia is the director of the Laboratorio de la Mascara, a center for research into the mask; she taught in DAI’s MFA program in 2006. She has brought with her 16 traditional wooden festival masks from the regions of Mexico where Day of the Dead festivals take place. During the cultural exchange, "XANTOLO," she will speak about the Mexican death rites, show photos and videos, and dance several of the masks.

Participants in DAI's Bali program, including our DAI’s 3^rd year MFA students, will also dance these masks. Balinese mask dance as well as mask carving have been part of their program as well.

Photo: Program participant Marte Synevaag, a costume designer from Norway, dresses one of the students in festival mask.The dancers must be completely disguised, with natural materials added to their costumes as final touches.

XANTOLO is a three-way collaboration between DAI, Laboratorio de la Mascara, and Setia Darma, the House of Masks & Puppets in Mas, Gianyar, Bali Indonesia. Setia Darma is a new museum for wooden masks and puppets from around the world . At the end of the event, the 16 masks will become the first Mexican masks to join the permanent collection at Setia Darma.

The address of the House of Masks & Puppets is:

Br. Tengkulak Tengah, Kemenuh, Sukawati

Br. Tegal Bingin, Mas, Ubud

081 760 22234

Photo: Alicia adjusts costuming for one of the oldest festival masks, the Goat.

Photos: Patrick Pasquier, Joan Schirle

www.dellarte.com

managing your talent

2009-11-04T10:03:00.000-08:00

"To grow and develop and sustain as an artist is harder than being young and willing to starve doing what you believe."
-Richard Foreman, Ontological-Hysterical Theatre

The self-management of your talent is a giant challenge in making a life as an artist. Promoting yourself as a professional actor, director, writer or teacher takes bravery and strategy. Thanks for this contribution from Dell’Arte MFA ‘06 grad Stephanie Roberts, now an assistant professor at the University of Missouri/Kansas City. She reflects on one of Dell’Arte’s key pedagogical proposals—“Effort, Risk, Momentum, Joy”—and how this progression continues to guide her work as a theatre-maker. --Joan Schirle

From Stephanie Roberts....

At Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, where I received my MFA, we sweat. A lot. After an attempt to be the ocean, or an eagle, or a forest fire, we would wait, out-of-breath and spent, for the critique. It usually went something like this: “Our proposal of the theatre is that it has the power to move the world; Effort, Risk, Momentum, Joy!” It was these critiques that kept me going and, as a generative theatre artist, that still keep me going in this uncertain, and often-undervalued profession.

Effort, Risk, Momentum, Joy, a credo proposed by Dell’Arte founder Carlo Mazzone-Clementi, has guided me not only in creating and teaching theatre, but in promoting myself as a professional artist.

EFFORT

“I’m very lucky.” I say that a lot when talking about my job as an assistant professor at UMKC Theatre Department. I teach Clown, Commedia, Mask —all of the things that I love—and I’m grateful. And yet…I worked damn hard to get this job! It was the effort of two degrees, countless classes and workshops, years of performing, directing, teaching and volunteering my time, and pages of applications, resumes, and letters of interest. Yes, there have been serendipitous events that have brought me here, but those moments would not have happened without the effort and discipline required of the profession. As baseball great, Don Sutton said: “Luck is the result of busting your fanny.”

RISK

“I hate networking”. I look back at how many times I have said or thought this. What I really meant was: “I fear networking”. It took years for me to realize that networking doesn’t have to mean being pushy, self-serving, and forcing myself on others. It sounds absurdly simple, but I finally got it when a friend said to me: “They’re just PEOPLE!” Putting it in this perspective has made the risk less risky. I go to theatre events that interest me, I introduce myself to people who make theatre, and I tell them about my own. In this way I’ve changed my vocabulary and turned “Networking” into “Building My Community”.

MOMENTUM

In physical theatre one uses the momentum of the body to facilitate a dynamic action with ease. I’ve found that producing and promoting oneself is often a matter of giving in to the momentum of the project. Here’s an example: A year and a half ago I had an idea for a theatrical band. I told a colleague about this idea, who emailed a Conservatory of Music professor, who posted the idea on an email group, which led to me finding two musicians. I kept talking about the project, which led to more band members, which led to jam sessions, which led to rehearsals, which led to a gig, which led to recording our songs, which led to a MySpace page, which led to more gigs, which led to more exposure…and so on.

JOY

As my students are sweating with the effort of their work I remind them to smile. And in an instant the work becomes…lighter. As I write press releases, and create facebook groups, and battle with deadlines and schedules and unexpected events, I sometimes look above my desk at a photograph of my mentor. He is naked, covered in white (butoh-style), mouth agape, eyes wide open, and wearing a huge red nose. I am reminded that this, all of this, is taken on for the sake of joy. The joy in creating and sharing my work. A joy that is the result of the effort, risk, and momentum of the creative act.

Stephanie Roberts (MFA ’06) reflections on Dell’Arte’s “Effort, Risk, Momentum, Joy” initially appeared in the blog introducing UMKC artists: Used by permission.

Dell'Arte International
Blue Lake, CA 95525
www.dellarte.com

2009-10-15T15:05:00.000-07:00

A New Season...
from founding artistic director Joan Schirle

It's the beginning of our season, so we haven't posted for awhile, but you can look for us to be more present as we go through the year. Our summer involved very full workshops, a lot of travel, a new play development, and even some down time. There were lots of weddings in the Dell'Arte famiglia this summer and new arrivals, including a new son for Marketing Director Gannon Rogers, born Oct. 10. Our Mad River Festival brought back for a 30th anniversary one of the Dell'Arte Company's most popular works, Intrigue At Ah-Pah, a Scar Tissue Mystery-- it proved as topical and entertaining now as it was in 1979.

We kicked off the 2009 Mad River Festival with a Lifetime Achievement Award and salute to the great stage, film and tv actor Rene Auberjonois, who credits early work with Carlo as key in his development as a transformative actor. (Photo: Rene with Michael Fields, Joan Schirle, and Jane Hill)

Part of my summer involved the continuation of my voice studies, made possible by the generosity of the Fox Foundation/TCG grant for professional development. I was able to return to workshops with a couple of my favorite voice teachers, Richard Amstrong and Patsy Rodenburg, and to encounter for the first time the voice work of Dudley Knight and Phil Thompson. Richard's wonderful workshop was in Banff, Canada--a glorious spot in the middle of Canada's national park. The other two workshops were in New York, and this year with Patsy I did her Level 3 workshop where we spent four days doing nothing but Hamlet. It was a superb workout. Dudley and Phil have a very physical approach to the work with articulators, accents, and phonetics. Though it was a lot to digest in their six-day workshop, I came away with a much greater awareness of how each of us physically produces our unique sound through the combination of our many parts as well as our experience of language.

Our 2009-10 season opened Friday night with the play the Company has been working on all year, INVERTED ALBA: A Fable & Rondelay After Images of Federico Garcia Lorca. Though still an infant in the way devised plays are when they first emerge, INVERTED ALBA is on its way to being a full-fledged original piece, and we have two more weeks of playing it before revising it yet again prior to beginning its touring life. Working on Lorca for this long has made me think even my own thoughts more poetically; his images are so strong and so evocative, it makes me want to write of insects, flowers, rivers, and how the dawn counts out the tree leaves.... And his prose is as clear and articulate as his poetry. It has been quite a ride to work on this piece with Ronlin Foreman (who also directs and designed the piece), Laura Munoz and Richard Newman as actors and co-writers, and with design team as we moved into production time. I'll write more about this production in my next blog, but I'd just like to thank Sabrina Hamilton of the Ko Festival for giving us the chance to work on the piece for three weeks in August in Amherst. It was there that we were able to develop the movement figures for the piece, working with Donlin Foreman, Ronlin's twin brother, and an amazing dancer/mover/teacher. And that time away from home gave us the research and writing time to forge the many aspects of Lorca's work into one unique piece.

Photo: Donlin Foreman working on Inverted Alba with actors Richard Newman & Laura Munoz, at the Ko Festival

Dell'Arte School is starting its 35th year, with the 3rd year MFA's developing A Commedia Christmas Carol as interns with the Company; the 2nd year MFA's are working on Adaptation Projects with new resident faculty member Lauren Wilson. Lauren's play, The Golden State, which was commissioned by the Dell'Arte Company in 2006, was published by Dramatists Play Service this year, and we'll present a reading of her new play, Suicide Pact, on November 13.

Another new addition to the MFA curriculum this Fall is Archery, taught by our resident Tai-Chi/Alexander Technique teacher Phillip Gerstner. I told him that there are probably dozens of acting schools that require their students to read "Zen & The Art of Archery" but I don't know any others that actually have them learn the art!

Meanwhile, the wind is kicking up outside for the first storm of the Fall...gotta go turn on that heater pilot light and take down the porch umbrella.
Joan

Clowns Without Borders South Africa - Update from Sudan, Part 1

2009-05-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

Jamie Lachman and
Elisa Lane are both graduates
of DAI
School of Physical Theatre.
Used with permission.

Dear Friends of Clowns Without Borders South Africa,

I hope this email finds you well. CWBSA thrilled to announce that we have been extremely busy sending clowns here, there, and almost everywhere!

While Lulu Ngcobo, our Programmes Administrator, and I were representing South Africa at the annual CWB International Meeting in Brussels last week, we had a team (Sibongile Tsoanyane and Kim Paul) in Lesotho working with children and guardians affected by HIV/AIDS and one in Sudan (Gavin Stockden joining Elisa Lane and Gwen Rooker from CWB-USA) performing for orphans, refugees, and even prisoners.

Next week, we begin a 3-month training of Ingwavuma Orphan Care in our intervention methods with the Njabulo Residency Programme. All in all, we are thrilled to be working in so many different areas awakening joy and laughter in the hearts and minds of children and their caregivers.

Below is a brief update from Elisa Lane about their first week on Project Sudan. They have been working with the International Rescue Committee and Confident Children Out of Conflict to bring emotional relief to children affected by the war in Sudan. Hope you enjoy!

Peace and laughter,

Jamie

May 21, 2009 - Juba, Southern Sudan

Visiting Youth in Prison

Today we performed in Juba, Sudan, for the very first time, for an audience of youth prisoners. Beforehand, our minds raced with the possible challenges we would be met with once we were inside. We heard that young men had remained shackled together during a cholera outbreak. We imagined hardened criminals. What actually happened there has changed us.

As we entered the courtyard we saw the prisoners roaming around. Wewere informed that all the prisoners were invited to attend the show,not just the youth. Some men were shackled, others had intense tribal scarring on their foreheads, and some had what appeared to be staph infections. The youth were all sitting on the ground in the only spot of shade in the whole courtyard, and the youngest of them looked to be about 10 years old. They had been waiting for us. We sat in front of them while our partner organizations, Confident Children Out of Conflict and International Rescue Committee introduced us and gave an informational talk on Aids.

We begin our show by playing our musical instruments, and the prisoners’ immediate response was laughter. Throughout the show eyes were wide and grins were huge. They supported our performance with punctuations of applause and laughter. We were a hit!

All the inmates we brought onstage for the audience participation sections were respectful, cooperative, and funny. The section they liked the most is when our South African clown partner, Gavin, juggles three toilet bowl cleaners. They were also impressed by his ability to ride a unicycle!It’s probably the only unicycle that has ever been to Sudan.

After the show, the prisoners surrounded us, wanting mostly to try out the unicycle, but also to say thank you and to ask us many questions. I probably should have felt nervous about being surrounded by murderers, criminals, and lunatics, but these men and boys made us all feel very much at ease.

When I looked into their eyes smiling back at me all I could see were humans. Warm, kind, welcoming, humans.

PS Also at the prison, I broke my personal record for most terrifying
outhouse used. But that is another story entirely that I’ll save for
only the bravest souls.

- Elisa Lane

Please Support Us!

Clowns Without Borders depends on the generosity of individuals like you to continue bringing emotional relief and laughter to children and their caregivers affected by crisis.

85% of every contribution goes directly to project costs in the field.

We maintain a strong commitment to making your donation go straight to the communities where laughter and emotional relief are needed most by keeping our administrative expenses as low as possible.

http://www.cwbsa.org/

Jamie McLaren Lachman

Founder and Director

Clowns Without Borders South Africa

www.cwbsa.org

"no child without a smile"

CWBSA is sponsored by Imperial Car Rental-Europcar for ground transportation in Southern Africa.

What Memories Are Important?

2009-04-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

Dell’Arte Third Year MFA Student Brian Moore chose to do his Thesis Project based on stories of the Great Depression. Here is Brian’s account of working with non-professional actors in their 90’s. The Thesis Projects run May 14 – 24. Used with permission. --JS

What Memories Are Important?

By Brian Moore

The original intent of my thesis was to write a play that used only historic documents and interviews as text, such as the transcribed and recorded interviews conducted by Studs Terkel for his book Hard Times. Since I proposed that idea my thesis proposal has morphed a bit, or grown. My intention is to still us historic material to create a play, but the material I am now working with is not words captured on paper or on the tape recorder, I am working with flesh. My cast is made up of 7 – 10 senior citizens who have survived the Great American Depression. They come from all over the country and have one way or another ended up at Timber Ridge Assisted Living Center in Eureka, California.

In my original proposal I mentioned that I wanted to use a more mature cast. When I imagined this I saw three to five actors in their late sixties. I thought that using older actors would add more gravity and authenticity to the characters we would bring to life. They would be older but I never imagined them to be so old that they would have lived through the Depression! Maybe they would remember stories their parents told them, a sort of survivor once removed. These actors would be able to move about on stage, stand on set pieces, memorize lines, and put on the mask of the character.

The cast I have found, chosen, and am determined to work with is not the one I imagined. The majority of them are well over ninety. Some have Alzheimer’s, most have trouble getting around without a walker or a wheel chair, they all have trouble seeing and hearing, they have been living together for years but can’t remember each others name, and some don’t know where they are all the time.

Unfortunately, along with their myriad of problems, ailments, and disorders they also have everything I would ever want in a cast for this show. They show up to rehearsals three days a week eager to work with my partner Liza and I. They jump into exercises with commitment and laugh hard and often when they can’t remember what I told them twenty seconds before. Though they might not remember what day of the week it is they remember the Depression viscerally; I couldn’t get that from a recording. They are eager to share their stories with me and with each other.

When we share stories the memory of one participant often brings someone else’s lost memories to the surface. There is a drama that you see occur in the body when something lost is remembered. You can see the memory travel up the spine taking the storyteller by surprise when it reaches her lips. The other day we were talking about the tastes they remember from the Depression. We were going around the room when suddenly I saw the tiny frame of 89 year-old Helen shudder violently. Her face twisted into a terrifying mask, and I was afraid she was having a stroke. She opened her mouth spat and said “Rutabaga! I remember the taste of rutabaga! For weeks and weeks that is all we had to eat. I’ll never ever eat one again. Even today.” When she finished she sat back and smiled, happy to know that memory is still there.

The power and the fragility of memory is what surprises me every time I work with the cast. For some the past and the present slide into each other. Tom Morgan talked to us the other day about hobo-ing around the country when he suddenly realized everyone he ever knew was dead. He was sitting forward on his chair caught up in his story. The revelation doubled him over at the gut, sunk him back in his chair and brought tears to his eyes. The man is 99 years old and the best times of his life were cutting hair in Arcata.

Some others can’t let go of the past and carry it with them everyday. Lori, a nurse at the center, approached us as we were leaving one Thursday. She told us about her father, and how he lived on an Indian reservation during the Depression. She recorded some of his stories before he died two year ago of leukemia. She asked us if his stories might be something useful to the play. When we said yes she began to cry, explaining to us how much it would mean to her if he lived on in that way.

What memories are important? Right now we are headed into hard times, and these might be worse than the last. Talking to members of my generation, and interviewing students at nearby Humboldt State, I have found that almost all the information we have received about those times is from the media. Here I have the direct sources, and they won’t be around for long. I have the chance to ask them how they did it, and they have the chance to tell us what they think will be important for us to remember. History has come to the present to speak to the future.

Photo of Brian Moore by Jen LaMastra.
Photo of 96 year-0ld cast member Ann Cusamano by Brian Moore.

Our "school of fools" Nov/Dec 1983 By Alain Schons, School Director

2009-04-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

From 1981 - 1984, Alain Schons was director of our school, then called “The Dell’Arte School of Mime & Comedy." As a designer and teacher, Alain was a key player in the early years of the company; he also initiated organization of the curriculum around a consistent program and a resident faculty/ensemble rather than Carlo’s personality alone. As we were about to inaugurate our first Advanced Program in 1983—decades before we began the MFA—he wrote for our Fall newsletter about the direction of the school. His words still seem fresh as we continue our research of the school into the training of the actor. Alain now lives in Sauve, France, which is officially Blue Lake's sister city--see photos below.
---Joan Schirle, Founding Artistic Director, School Director

STATE OF THE PROGRAM

Nov/Dec 1983

By Alain Schons, School Director 1981 - 1984

When I took the direction of the Dell’Arte School a few years ago, Don, Joan, Mara, Michael, Steve, and I* were very much aware that what the school needed was a consistent and progressive curriculum that would not solely rely on teachers’ personalities or box office value. The reputation of the school had to be built on the three components that make up any school such as ours: the program, the faculty, and the student body.

My analysis at that time was that we had an excellent faculty indeed. It was the other two components that were lacking. I therefore decided to put all my energy into the content of the program. By doing this, I was hoping that a solid curriculum would attract more committed students—young performers that were not just interested in playing the resumé game, but anxious to expand their knowledge through a demanding program in physical performance.

My thought at the time was that by strengthening the curriculum, student enrollment would increase and the faculty would become stronger. To bring about such a change was not an easy task. Leaving old habits and individual resistances aside, there were no models to follow. Some in our close entourage were even predicting that the school would fold because of what they perceived as a radical change. They were obviously not taking into account the belief we had in our strength as teachers and artists, our vision of a theatre to come, and of course, our organizational talent and capabilities to achieve our goals.

Most schools that are similar to ours rely on the presence of one strong personality to give a specific philosophy to their school program. They generally function as a private business with the single vision that this entails. It is fair to say that those same limitations constitute their strength as well as their weakness. It would be futile to try to deny here that such schools do not fulfill an important role in training physical performers. The point I would like to make though is that the Dell’Arte School has chosen a different and more ambitious path. For several years our school has tried to fulfill a wider range of needs of today’s young professionals. The challenge confronting us looked almost like a contradiction between the need to accentuate a pluralistic approach to each subject taught and the necessity to maintain a specific school philosophy.

After my teaching experience at the experimental university of Paris VIII (1959 through 1975), I became more and more convinced that what was needed were small schools that would not separate theory and practice in an academic fashion and would actively keep up with the methods and philosophies of small professional “grassroots” companies. Those companies--theatre, mime, comedy (or a mixture of those three) constitute the majority of the live performance force today. Very few schools are or have been functioning while recognizing this fact.

The historical models that influenced me the most during my formative years were “L’Atelier de Charles Dullin” and the “L’Ecole du Vieux Colombier.”** Both schools were closely associated with small theatre companies working as ensembles. Their belief was that the only way to free theater from its psychological or literary excesses was to start with the training of performers, emphasizing physical training, and giving those performers the possibility to apply their art in a performing company. The Dell’Arte School thinks that those principles remain as valid today as they were years ago. The presence of a high caliber professional company guarantees a pragmatic approach to our curriculum. The fact that most of our faculty is actively involved in the profession also contributes to that approach. This type of thinking has helped us over ten years to modify our curriculum and to be more deeply involved in the area of performance. Most of you who have worked with us in recent years will be able to relate to what I have said here.

At this point in our history I am glad to be able to say that those choices were sensible ones. The one-year program has reached its maximum enrollment and our advanced program is taking off in January, 1984. I am deeply grateful to all those who are helping me to run our “school of fools.” They know who they are. To all of you out there, struggling in the vast world of theatre, mime and comedy—your school is alive and well. Your work as performing artists is the best advertisement our school could have. We need you. Keep up the good work!

* The resident Dell’Arte Company members in 1983: Donald Forrest, Joan Schirle, Mara Sabinson, Michael Fields, Steve Most
**The school of Jacques Copeau.

Photos: Joan Schirle

2009-04-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

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

Performance Lab

2009-02-10T15:23:00.000-08:00

Every week at D'AI first year students present performance work for critique to the faculty, we call this forum Performance Lab. MFA students in the second and third year of the program attend Performance Lab and are asked to submit a weekly journal with reflections on the lab and how it relates to their own journey through the Work. This week's BLOG is taken from Gabe Mckinney's MFA2 Journal, posted with his permission:

I turned thirty years old this week. That's a shocker. Why journal about it here? Because it affected my work and I hope that it will continue to. To say that I'm unhappy about turning thirty is foolish; one is the age one is and nothing can be done about it. Clearly. Perhaps the real issue, and the thing I can say, is that I feel like I cannot account for my twenties as an artist. This is a heavy realization to carry around. I realized this week that I have to get serious about what I'm doing here, why I'm here and what I want out of a life in theater.

These are not things I do not already think about. I think about them often, in fact, but there is something so…terminal about becoming thirty. The twenties, that time of experimentation, exploration, explosion, is over. Now I have to stand up and account for what I have discovered in the past three decades. I feel I have not discovered much of worth, and the failure is a result of my own laziness, muddle-headedness, bad timing and bad decisions. None of the wishes I had for myself by this time in life have come to fruition. That's hard to admit and deal with. And I'm realizing that if they remain only wishes, they never will come to fruition. They must become tangible, realizable goals. Like a friend once told me, "You have to be successful at something. You can't just be 'successful.'"

Like I say, all of this influences the work. The panic of thirty set in this week. And this week, I got serious in some way I was not before. Maybe not "serious," maybe it is more that I got clear with myself. Clear about what needs doing. Clear that I have to be clear with myself and others. Clear that I cannot continue to compromise my impulses and instincts. Clear that I have to get my shit together, cull my resources and visions and opportunities and put something out into the world. I came to realize that, truly, nobody cares about my potential anymore, even me, especially me. I have to actually start doing something or shut the fuck up for good.

Performance Lab

After last week's realization that I do not know how to watch Performance Lab, I tried to come in with a new strategy on Friday afternoon. I came in with one overarching question through which I would filter all of pieces in the performance lab. And the question was this:

"What is the nature and purpose of theater?" I decided to use the success and failures in Performance Lab as opportunities to explore this question for myself.

I ended up making seventeen theses based on my observations that afternoon, some more interesting than others. Interesting were the ideas that I had heard before and always accepted as true, but arrived at this time by my own observation. An example of this was a note I made: "to fulfill the promise of a mask, be it an actual mask, the structure of the piece, a character, or the act of performing." This fact of theater rang truer to me in the moments I observed it failing and succeeding on Friday than it has before.

The most interesting one, or the realization I was most compelled by on Friday insofar as it relates to commedia is "To be and do what we cannot in this world." The joy of the commedia mask, in some way, is the freedom and catharsis that comes people with saying and doing things they cannot get away with in the real world. There was something so very satisfying for me to hear Cassidy's Punch call Ryo's Dottore "An old fuck." There was a crack in it that was solid and affirming, like a baseball player making contact in the bat's sweet spot. The timbre and musicality of the line was music to my soul. And it is something that I should probably say more often, but do not. Lesson learned, Punch. Lesson learned.

At any rate, I am going to continue to come to Performance Lab with this question and see what other insights or visions or myths I arrive at. Coming to an understanding of the nature and purpose of theater will be my modus operandi at Performance Lab for the foreseeable future. If Performance Lab is truly a lab for the first year students, a lab of doing, there is no reason it cannot be equally a lab for my observing.

Lessons Learned

2008-12-31T15:00:00.000-08:00

This is a road story. After 30 years of being on the road with Dell'Arte you can imagine that there areliterally hundreds of these kinds of stories. Each of us over time, and given our selective memories, may tell them a bit differently. But in many ways they chronicle the development of a performance perspective as much as any theory derived from conceptual thinking. It is a perspective that was developed over time, with attention to craft, and a commitment to an ensemble of people who strived to create a body of work and a way of working that was vital to them and hopefully those they played for. Most of what we discovered was born out of doing. I admit to being an autodidact - one who learns best by doing and certainly from making mistakes in that doing. While we all had substantial training in theatre before we started, none of us had done something quite like making a company before. Yet, this is the journey that many of our students chose to undertake when they leave Dell'Arte. And a great, important, vital journey it is.

The story: 1980. Venice, Italy. The Dell'Arte Company's first international festival invite to the Venice Biennale. And Carlo Mazzone Clementi was to perform with us for the first time. We were invited to do two pieces, LOONS RAGE (commedia and Native American characters in a work about nuclear power) and BIRDS OF A FEATHER (a Stan Laurel piece we had updated). We'd talked to some people, read some stuff - and thought we knew exactly how to do this international festival thing.

In 24 hours we had a huge success and an abject failure. We were scheduled to play at two different theaters in Venice in the same day. We had shipped our material in too big of a box and it was quarantined in Italian customs. Our equipment was finally shipped to us on a gondola after being broken open. We watched the hardware bag gently fall into the canal as it was delivered to the loading dock. On a combination of adrenaline and guts we did LOONS RAGE to great acclaim at 4pm. At midnight in a different theatre we did BIRDS OF A FEATHER to an unreceptive audience and silence. The humor did not translate. Carlo had difficulty with a mask he had commissioned by Dontato Satori that we had never seen and he had never worn. Two Americans in the balcony thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen. They were a minority.

But we hung together. Enjoyed the roller coaster ride of the day. Acknowledged we didn't know as much as we thought. And then saw for the first time over the next week performances by Dario Fo, Franca Rama, El Commediants, Bolik Polivka, Marcel Marceau and a production of La Donna Serpente that I vividly remember to this day for its powerful mix of a dynamic visual world with great acting heart. We also participated in the spectacle of Carnival in Venice where, behind the mask, all is possible. Late night before we left, we did both our shows for the waiters and staff at the hotel that had fed us and treated us like kings for two weeks. It was a kitchen performance, sans set. It was the best we had ever done. They loved it.

We came back eyes opened and inspired by what we had experienced. It deeply influenced all that we created next. And there were some simple lessons we carried home:

Travel light but with great theatrical design.
In the heat of it - Keep your partner's back. You can and should talk about it after its over.
Know that you don't know it all. Be prepared to be "Surprised" as Carlo would say.
Get yourself places where you can learn from the best and yet stand for what you do at the time you do it.
Don't assume because someone said it will be this way, it will be that way.
Believe in the long run - the short term is just a step on hopefully a long life in this work.

We at Dell'Arte are now talking a lot about the future of this place. To do that it is necessary to look back as well as forward. And as I look back, I believe more than ever that this place, these theatre-makers, this training, is one that pushes the edge of the permissible, pushes the edge of the possible and consequently is the source of the future of this work. Is it perfect? No - thank God. It questions itself every day-and in that effort, it is vital. alive, vibrant. I have been lucky to recently receive this grant to advance my skills as an artist/manager/director to better help navigate this organization as it evolves into its 4th decade of life. It is not what I set out to do at 22. But I cannot imagine a more vital journey in a more incredible environment with exceptional partners in the effort to accomplish something that we believe is essential. And there is so much left to learn.

all the best to you all in the new year.

Michael Fields

Suddenly I Actually Saw It

2008-12-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

This week the D'AI Blog is taken from an email that was sent to Associate School Director Stephanie Thomspon by Zoe Teets, a Professional Training Program alumni who graduated in June 2008. Like many Dell'Arte alumni Zoe finds she sees the world differently than almost everyone else around her...

Hi Stephanie and all the Dell'Arte faculty,

I've been thinking of Dell'Arte a lot and wanted to give you an update about what I've been up to and how I am.

I applied to a University in my hometown of Cincinnati, OH in late June and got accepted, which means that I get to live at home and save tons of money. Things weren't going well at all until I auditioned for a play. When the director saw Dell'Arte on my resume, she told me she trained with Carlo! I was so shocked and pleased to have a Dell'Artian at school!

One of the audition requirements for her was a movement piece. I planned a very short piece with my clown pretending to ice skate on the wooden stage. The director smiled through all of it, but the other students looked at me like I was insane. Everyone else did a "movement piece" with mime and a place and event...like burying their pet or getting pulled over by a Policeman. I think my clown playing loud music and excitedly using the entire stage and her whole body not only shocked them but also disrupted their quiet, quaint stories.

During the second part of the audition the director told me that she knew how I felt. I thought to myself "I doubt it," and then she said, "I know your head exploded in Blue Lake. I know you see everything in a different way now, and you're walking around here and can't understand why other people don't see things the same way you do. You have a different sense of humor, you're a different person, and you don't fit in here, I know." Then she offered to be my mentor and help me retain the things I learned at Dell'Arte, while trying to remember how to be around people who haven't had the same experience. I was amazed. I felt so overwhelmed because I do see everything in a different way now.

The other day in History class, we were discussing briefly the arts in Greece and a picture of the Discus Thrower on the board. I have seen that sculpture a thousand times before, but suddenly I actually saw it. I saw how beautiful the spiral of his body was; I suddenly saw how his arms are like wings, and his feet bizarrely at ease.

I remember a time when I was training at Dell'Arte that it got so difficult that I thought, "I never want to do this again." I wanted to give up theatre, never touch it again and have horrible posture that no one ever corrects. Once I left Blue Lake and got a real break, I felt extremely desperate for theatre! Now I'm addicted. I've had nearly nonstop rehearsal since September in three overlapping shows and I am already signed up to assistant stage-manage the next one. Four plays in a row for a freshman is unheard of. Not only have I found a group of people I can play with, but I also got nominated for the Irene Ryan scholarship and get to go to the American College Theater Festival in January to compete for it. (Wish me luck!)

My resiliency has really grown. I'm trying to listen to my instincts and act on them more to help figure out who I am. Things are going really well, but of course, I'm homesick for little ol' Blue Lake. I hope everything is going splendidly there!! All my best. All my love.

Zoe Teets
Professional Training Program, Class of 2008

www.dellarte.com

Welcome to DAInternational Blog

2008-11-11T17:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the DAI blog… where the faculty and artists of Dell’Arte can share their personal perspectives on the work, as well as reflections on our 35 year history. Articles, letters, class notes, and writings-in-progress will be excerpted for this blog, as well as brief postings. We will include links to our website where you can find the full text of excerpts of longer pieces, so that you can investigate further the ideas that interest you. As we approach our 35th anniversary, we are increasingly engaged in the work of transmission. We will be adding new posts weekly, and happy to have your comments.

Joan Schirle, Founding Artistic Director/School Director

“We pursue the ensemble not as strategy for presentation but as the force of a theatrical community … for giving access to greater insight, and force, for inspiration and exaltation.”

-- Ronlin Foreman

In our first blog post, Ronlin Foreman offers a perspective on collaborative creation, or ensemble devising. It seems fitting to start this blog with thoughts about how ensembles create. Our organization has ensemble governance, and for years the Company developed plays collaboratively, In Year Two and Three of our MFA program students devise full one-act plays; Year One MFA and PTP one year training require students to collaborate on thematic assignments weekly, in groups. Heated discussions arise, questions as well as requests for more ‘how to’s’ on collaborating. While we offer guidelines and ground rules for this ensemble work, we do not include specific classes in ‘how to collaborate’. Here’s why:

Training …the way of Dell’Arte
At this point in time (at the beginning at the 21st century, in America) we are taught that the only way to learn is by way of encouragement and compliment, with the least confrontation possible. In many of our fundamental assertions DAI is counterculture; it is also this way when it comes to our educational perspectives – we believe in the efficacy of provocative leading (offering direction with critique that is not a prescriptive solution –from the Latin, pro voce, for the voice). And, we believe in the positive aspects of via negativa, fostering personal responsibility for “physical self-discovery” (subjective knowledge) and “the self-discovered point” – the point at which curiosity, research and discipline convene, creating a source of “primary” knowledge (objective knowledge).

With regard to ensemble devising…
it is true and difficult that here at DAI we err on the side of less formal involvement in the process of ensemble devising. Taking our cue from the Lecoq model, which was implemented as a result of the students’ demand that they have an explorative stake in their own education, this “laboratory work”-- while furnishing a progression of themes-- was to be explored on their own. We offer a few models and encouragements with regard to “agreements,” preferring that the ensembles learn from actually engaging each other. If the group knows that we will intervene if difficulties arise, then there is little incentive to endure / persevere and require / teach oneself to learn from-- to learn in-- adversity. (We willingly assist in last rites, the burying of the dead, and believe in prayers for the resurrection...)

We continue to evaluate our level of involvement in group mediation and techniques for ensemble process. In the end, our love is “the work” done well, not logistics or manifestos or paradigms articulated. DAI is not simply a unique and interesting school for “being taught” ensemble practices and physical theatre techniques. Nor is it a prescriptive training the Actor/Creator. It is a Realm of exploration and investigation … of submission to the road. For some entering, it is an uncharted region that seeks recognition from the student, requiring the person to define/see themselves in reference to “the work” and “the group” over and against what had been/what was then -- because “the work” takes place in the present.

My philosophy with regard to ensemble cohesion and power is: the force of the objective -- the investment of all members toward the goal, i.e. on a soccer field, on a basketball court, in an operation room, in a court room, in a sick room, on the field of battle, in a prayer meeting, in the wilderness…. Cohesion and focus “happen” where self is sublimated in deference to “the other.” Where the risks are high and community necessary-- winning the game, saving the patient, supplanting the enemy, petitioning God-- it is easier to invest personal desire in a common goal. Generally speaking, the “stakes” in creating a piece of theatre in a school environment are lower even than in the society at large because “here” The Work is not about the struggle of the Poet to survive, but my rights and desires for the product versus yours. Except in cultures where Artistry and the Metaphysical are deemed necessary and real by the community, “agreements” and “contracts” are necessary in order to allow for community and the establishment of objectives. As opposed to “skill” or “calling,” the personal agenda--spoken or unspoken-- will fracture the ensemble and undermine community.

This is human nature. To program against it we would have to devote the training to interpersonal relations and group dynamics. We are not a Performance Studies school. Our training deals with the practical application of physical dynamics and alchemical proposals. We are a school of Theatre dedicated to the development of the Actor (animator) as Poet (author) creating not from a literary perspective but from the body in time and space -- characters in situations and circumstances. We pursue the ensemble not as strategy for presentation but as the force of a theatrical community … for giving access to greater insight, and force, for inspiration and exaltation. We study how / why playmaking is important in our world.

--Ronlin Foreman

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