Dell’Arte International Announces Newest Board Members

BLUE LAKE, CA – Dell’Arte International’s Board of Directors today announced five new members who will help advance the nonprofit’s work of exploring theatre making, theatre training and the relationship between artist and community. 

“We’re excited to expand our board with these leaders who have diverse experience and will bring an array of talents and insight to help strengthen the art of nonprofit governance at Dell’Arte,” said Managing Director Alyssa Hughlett. “We have worked purposefully to ensure our board and leadership include professionals from higher education and the arts communities, as well as long standing Humboldt County residents and award-winning alumni.”

Dell’Arte International in Summer 2020 committed to an internal racial and cultural assessment process and has moved forward with corresponding recommendations to revise term limits and recruit new board members to bring greater equity and representation to the board. 

The Dell’Arte Board of Directors will continue its effort to fully develop its membership into Spring 2021. Faculty Chair Elizabeth Colón Nelson said, “We are committed to meeting and expanding our stated equity goals, and supporting a cultural transformation at Dell’Arte in order to serve and embolden a diverse and inclusive next generation of theatre makers, practitioners and community engagement artists.” 

“I am personally thrilled to welcome such a strong group of leaders to the Board of Directors as Dell’Arte navigates some of the most challenging months in its nearly 50 year history,” said Bonnie Neely, former board chair who recently stepped down after 13 years of service. 

The new board members began their terms, not to exceed seven years, on January 25. The new board members are:

Stephen Buescher – A graduate of Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, CalArts, and now a TCG New Generations fellow, Stephen Buescher is a director, choreographer, actor  and professor. He has worked as an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) advisor to the San Diego Repertory Theater and is chair of EDI in the Department of Theater and Dance at UC San Diego. Stephen has choreographed numerous performances at the American Conservatory Theater and recently taught master classes focusing on Black and Artists of Color for Theater Communications Group and the Craft Institute. 

Issac M. Carter, Ph.D. – Isaac M. Carter is the founder and coach for the Coaching Imperative.  He is a Critical Educator, DEI Strategist, Equity Coach, Leadership and Organizational Consultant, Certified EQ Practitioner & Assessor and Black Male Feminist. For over two decades, he has steered change management in for-profit and non-profit sectors. His training incorporates Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and Leadership Success, and Organizational Development. Dr. Carter is the co-editor of the forthcoming volume “Unhooking from Whiteness,” Sense, 2021. Issac helps individuals and institutions understand, embrace, and leverage diversity through implementing DEI strategies, team building, emotional intelligence and one-to-one cultural agility coaching.

Jeremy Michael Clark, Ph.D. – Dr. Jeremy Michael Clark holds a Ph.D. in Human Resource Development from the University of Minnesota, an M.A. in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University and a B.S. in Business Administration and General Management from Humboldt State University. He has experience in banking management and finance, consulting and served as Managing Editor for Advances in Developing Human Resources, a leading academic journal in the Human Resource Development field. Dr. Clark’s research focus is on diversity in organizations and he currently works in the Department of Human Resources for the County of Humboldt. He resides in Eureka with his wife, Haley, their two children and their beagle.

Heather Equinoss – Heather Equinoss is a collaboration doula, consultant and visual facilitator whose work is in service to a simple core belief: that the health and wellbeing of people are inextricably connected to one another and the planet that sustains us. She brings 20 years of meeting design, graphic facilitation, and community engagement experience in public, nonprofit, and community settings and specializes in supporting multi-stakeholder, multi sector collaborations. She is a partner in CoCreative Consulting and Equinoss Consulting. She and her family live on Wiyot land on the redwood coast of California.

Libby Maynard – Libby Maynard is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Ink People for the Arts, a nonprofit that connects the community to resources for cultural development. A visual artist with nearly 40 years’ experience working with community and arts organizations on the North Coast, Libby is also a nonprofit consultant. She earned a master’s degree in art from Humboldt State University and has attended Wellesley College and the International School of Bangkok in Thailand. 

The Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre offers the only accredited MFA in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre in the world. Its training programs attract students from across the globe, with more than 1,000 graduates from 41 countries since the formation of the school in 1975. It is one of three institutions of higher education in Humboldt County, along with Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods. 

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Theatre Communications Group (TCG) Global Connections program and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) will provide combined travel support of $6000 for Schirle to explore a potential theatrical component to accompany Norheim’s “Life-Boats” on the second phase of their journey during the 2017 Cultural Capital celebration year. The Life-Boats will sail out of Danish waters into European canals, symbolizing the river as a mover of artists and ideas transcending national boundaries.

“Thanks to TCG and APAP we’re beginning a long-range, long-distance project that connects to Dell’Arte’s current local artistic initiative, The River As Home,” said Schirle. “Norheim’s work is inspirational, and I love her approach to art as accessible, mobile and multi-disciplinary. This summer we’ll develop a proposal for 2017, when my dream is to take a group of women artists from both North and South American watersheds to participate in the Life-Boats’ journey into Europe’s waterways.”

The Global Connections program was designed by TCG and is funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. The initiative awards twelve grants of up to $5,000 each to foster new relationships with international colleagues that will inspire each other’s work and aesthetics by creating opportunities for cultural exchange. Now in its fifth year, this round of the Global Connections program awarded a total of $58,990 to eight projects, with over $630,000 awarded to date.

“In a time where international relationships seem defined by violence and mistrust, it’s inspiring to see these theatre artists bridging cultural differences to exchange knowledge and collaborate on new work,” said Teresa Eyring, Executive Director of TCG. “Thanks to enduring support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this round of Global Connections will connect U.S. theatre-makers with peers in over ten different countries, sharing a
diverse set of artistic practices.”

The Cultural Exchange Fund of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provides travel grants for building partnerships and relationships with international artists and presenters that will lead to expanded presenting and touring opportunities for deserving work, and support for long term development projects, residencies or commissions.

Schirle co-founded the Dell’Arte Company, which has performed at many international festivals as well as developed productive partnerships with local community groups. She has generated many international collaborations with artists from countries as diverse as Brazil, France, Sri Lanka, Mexico, and Bali, Indonesia. She has been honored for her work as an actor, playwright, director, deviser and teacher, and recently completed filming Mary Jane: A Musical Potumentary, in which she stars as Mary Jane, a role she created for the stage version at the Mad River Festival.

Dell’Arte International (DAI) comprises the Dell’Arte Company, Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre and the annual summer Mad River Festival. DAI is the premiere North American center for the actor-creator, offering a professional training program and an MFA in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre, which was the first accredited program of its kind in the United States. Information about these programs as well as summer Intensives and a Study Abroad: Bali program are at www.dellarte.com Information about Life-Boats: http://www.life-boats.com/

Photo: Joan Schirle visits two of the finished Life-Boats at Marit Benthe Norheim’s studio in Jutland, Denmark.

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More info: http://www.maryjanemusical.com/new-events

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Because of his exceptional talent as an actor and theatre-maker, and because of the lack of available financial resources in his home country, Tafadzwa Bob Mutumbi has been awarded Dell’Arte’s Merit and Need Advanced International Scholarship, so as to enable him to continue his theatre education at the Dell’Arte. The Scholarship will fund Tafadzwa’s tuition in the Advanced Ensemble Program at Dell’Arte for the next two years.

As a citizen of Zimbabwe, Tafadzwa is ineligible for traditional financial aid or to work while in the States. In order to accept a scholarship and complete his theatre training, Tafadzwa needs to raise enough money to cover his living expenses in the US for the next two years: Dell’Arte, Bob and his ensemble-mates are launching an Indiegogo campaign to meet this need.

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From Aasen Theatre: “The Prize of Hope is given to a person or a theatre who has worked for human hope—in a daring, loving, vulgar, serious, poetic way, with sparkling energy– in a world where people use their eyes, ears, and voice against the consumerist thinking that is culture’s greatest threat.”

The 2015 Prize of Hope is awarded to Théâtre du Soleil and its director, Ariane Mnouchkine, whose artistic home is “La Cartoucherie,” Vincennes, Paris, France. Théâtre du Soleil is a flagship artistic organization advancing an exciting popular theatre, demonstrating the artistic power of a continuous collective. For 50 years they have been guided by their vision and along the way created a body of work woven of many dreams and driven by a fierce hope. Soleil actor Duccio Bellugi will accept the award and present films of the company’s history.

Dell’Arte’s Founding Artistic Director Joan Schirle will travel to Denmark to join in awarding the 2015 Prize of Hope and to celebrate its 25 years of recognition to theatre artists. “What a year for anniversaries,” said Schirle, “with Dell’Arte celebrating its 40th year, our Mad River Festival its 25th, the Prize of Hope its 25th, and Théâtre du Soleil is 50! I am especially proud to be presenting the 2015 Prize to Ariane Mnouchkine, who has been a personal model for me as a woman who founded a company, guided it for 50 years and still remains at the center of a vibrant artistic process. “

Théâtre du Soleil was founded by Ariane Mnouchkine in 1964 as a workers’ collective. Her aim was to create theatre outside the halls of institutional theatres, which she saw as stuck in the past. She had attended Jacques Lecoq’s school and was inspired by Jacques Copeau’s showdown with the established theatre. Mnouchkine gathered a group of young actors to work with her at a time when similar movements were happening in theatre around the world: Odin Theatre in Norway (Denmark 1966), Theatre Fool in Sweden, the San Francisco Mime Troupe in the USA and the Sun Chariot in Denmark.

Looking for a non-traditional workspace since 1964, the collective finally came across La Cartoucherie, an empty, derelict military factory and barracks in a forest outside of Paris. To open their collaborative creation “1789” in such a space in December 1970, members of the troupe had to become plumbers, masons, electricians and carpenters, as well as convincing the public to come to an unheated space to watch a show. It took until 1985 to get an agreement from the City of Paris to allow them to have legal residence in La Cartoucherie. As with every show, their latest production of Macbeth (already seen by 32,000 people) begins with Mnouchkine welcoming the audience to a lobby full of murals and posters, giving the audience a chance to peep at the actors making up—all based in their idea that theatre should involve an integration of audience, story, actors.

Mnouchkine and Théâtre du Soleil have received multiple international awards, and recognition in many world tours of their innovative productions, including House of Atreus, Mephisto, The Age of Gold, The Terrible But Unfinished History of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia as well as Shakespeare plays, and several films like Moliere, a six-hour bio-pic for French television.

Founders of the Prize of Hope are Lars Olsen and Birthe Rosenfeldt-Olsen of the Danish Popular Theatre Institute. The Danish ceremonies take place at Aasen Theatre in north Jutland, and on alternate years in the USA at Dell Arte International. Previous winners have been Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, Tim Robbins and the Actors’ Gang, Jane Lapiner and David Simpson’s Human Nature Theatre of Petrolia, Eugenio Barba and Odin Teatret, Geoff and Dan Hoyle and many directors, actors, writers, and designers.

The festivities begin at 1:30 PM on Pentecost Sunday on May 24, 2015 and include a banquet, awards ceremony, theatre, exhibitions, music and bonfires until sunrise.

Aasen Theatre is located in North Jutland at Brødholtvej 120, DK-9740 Jerslev. Information on the 2015 Prize plus a list of previous Prize of Hope winners (in English) is at http://www.aasen.dk/index_uk.html

For information write info@aasen.dk

For a schedule of the day’s events and registration information, see below.

Schedule For Prize of Hope Activities

Prize of Hope at Aasen Theatre, Sunday, May 24, 2015, 13:30.

13:30
Performance: Hr. Teater: “Bagage”
By Helga Rosenfeldt-Olsen & Liv Øster Müller Bedtsen

14:15
Cheers, and welcome to Aasen
By Birthe Rosenfeldt & Lars Olsen
Serving elderflower wine, rhubarb cake and coffee.

Exhibitions
Show posters from Théâtre du Soleil
Torbjörn Alström, Artmask: Masks
Ellen Høyer: De 101 væsners syndrom

15:15
Performance: Teater Arrièregarden: “Alt er sagt, siger de”
By Sofie Faurschou & Linn Haldrup Lorenzen

Théâtre du Soleil
By Duccio Bellugi, Théâtre du Soleil.
Showing excerpts from the films: “Ariane Mnouchkine: L’aventure du
Théâtre du Soleil”, “Un soleil à kaboul”, “Même la nuit” and “Au Pays du Théâtre”.

19:00
Dinner
Prize of Hope to Théâtre du Soleil
The Prize of Hope art-piece crafted by Klaus Tams. The award will be given at around 19.45.

22:30
Dance – bonfire – soup

4:30
The sun dancing.

Practical information:
Registration:
Payment on arrival. Registration deadline May 12, 2015 by mail / phone. Bring bedding, sleeping bags, maybe a tent. Please register to Aasen, (it is not enough with an enrollment on Facebook). Mail: info@aasen.dk or sms +45 61717343 or telephone +45 98831888

Fee: 350 kr incl. quota (quota 125 + Banquet 225) 350 kr for non-members. 225 kr for students and 75 kr for children (4-13 years, under 4 free).
Quota 2015: Theatres & Institutions kr .: 600, –
Persons kr .: 125, –
Support Member kr .: 225 –

Danish Bank Account: Reg. no. 4940 account number 0002496399
payment outside Denmark.
Danish Bank A / S – SWIFT: DABADKKK – IBAN: DK69 3000 0002 496 399
Giro payment: +01 <+2496399 < Institut for Folkeligt Teaters teater- and institutional members: Sort/Hvid, København, Teater Nordkraft, Aalborg, Odin Teatret, Holstebro, Den Danske Scenekunstskole, Skuespillerskolen, Odense, Aalborg Teater, Aalborg, Mungo Park, Kolding, Vendsyssel Teater, Hjørring, Teater Uno, Göteborg, S, Intercult, Stockholm, S, Holberg Teatret, Sorø, Grenland Friteater, Porsgrunn, N, Dansk Amatør Teater Samvirke, Rødekro, Kaospiloterne, Aarhus, Nordjyllands Idrætshøjskole, Brønderslev, BAS, Brønderslev, Teatret, Hans Rønne, Aarhus, Danseteatret NordenFra, Hjortshøj, Teater TT, København, Dell’arte International, California, Brønderslev Erhverv&Turisme, Brønderslev, Det Flyvende Kuffertcirkus, Bælum.

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