Recent Faculty

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Tony Fuemmeler

Mask Making & Performance, Commedia

  • Tony is a theater artist exploring transformation, expression, and story through masks and puppetry. Tony has designed masks, coached actors in movement, puppeteered, and directed shows around the country. He was also privileged to be the mask-maker for the youth musical MAYA in Mumbai, India in 2014. A graduate of the University of Kansas and Dell’Arte PTP, Tony has also trained in traditional mask carving and masked dance in Bali with Nyoman Setiawan and I.B. Gusto; neutral mask and bouffon with Giovanni Fusetti; and studied leather mask making and commedia with the Sartori family at the Centro Maschere e Strutture Gestuali. Tony continued his exploration in devising mask plays with the internationally renowned Familie Flöz. Outside of the theater, his masks have appeared in exhibitions such as Missing Your Face (2021), Maskibition (2020, 2012) and Reveal:Conceal (2019). He was also the lead artist for an international collaborative installation of emotion masks titled A Universal Feeling (2019–2024).

    Before returning to Humboldt four and a half years ago, Julie spent eleven years in the Bay Area where she was on faculty at American Conservatory Theatre and St. Mary’s College as well as a teaching artist with a variety of Bay Area schools and companies from youth to adults. While in the Bay Area she performed with We Players, S.F. Shakes, Idiot String, Cutting Ball, Impact Theatre, Shotgun Players, as well as in clown cabarets and devised theater festivals. Julie was a healthcare clown with the Medical Clown Project for six and half years and currently sits on their board. She is a certified Michael Chekhov Technique instructor and is a graduate of SOMA studios (Minneapolis) Alexander Technique Teacher Training program. Julie is a 2010 alumna of Dell’Arte International’s MFA and holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz. 

    Julie is committed to de-centering white privilege, cultivating belonging and solidarity through creative play, and is continuously honing her skills to be a thoughtful and adept co-conspirator in the movement for social justice.

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Cleo DeOrio

Summer Physical Theater Intensive Faculty 

  • Cleo DeOrio (she/her) is a Physical Theatre and Dance artist-teacher from Cleveland, Ohio. Cleo received a BA from Baldwin Wallace University, where she focused her studies in Directing and Choreography, and an MFA from Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, where she developed works such as Citizens of Nowhere and Visions of a Crying Girl. Cleo specializes in storytelling through movement, physical character development, partnering techniques, and devising. Visit her website at cleodeorio.com

    Before returning to Humboldt four and a half years ago, Julie spent eleven years in the Bay Area where she was on faculty at American Conservatory Theatre and St. Mary’s College as well as a teaching artist with a variety of Bay Area schools and companies from youth to adults. While in the Bay Area she performed with We Players, S.F. Shakes, Idiot String, Cutting Ball, Impact Theatre, Shotgun Players, as well as in clown cabarets and devised theater festivals. Julie was a healthcare clown with the Medical Clown Project for six and half years and currently sits on their board. She is a certified Michael Chekhov Technique instructor and is a graduate of SOMA studios (Minneapolis) Alexander Technique Teacher Training program. Julie is a 2010 alumna of Dell’Arte International’s MFA and holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz. 

    Julie is committed to de-centering white privilege, cultivating belonging and solidarity through creative play, and is continuously honing her skills to be a thoughtful and adept co-conspirator in the movement for social justice.

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Estela Garcia

Summer Physical Theater Intensive Faculty 

  • A Los Angeles born native, Estela Garcia is a performer, movement coach, deviser, community engagement specialist, mask maker, teacher and tinkerer of materials. She received her MFA from Dell’Arte in ensemble based physical theatre. In addition to being Movement faculty at CalArts, Garcia is a resident teaching artist for Center Theatre Group. She has been a guest artist at Cal State LA, The University of Irvine, Cal State Northridge, ELACC and East LA Magnet, where she helped lead the creation of Ensemble Created Devised Work. As an actress, Garcia is best known for her portrayal of surrealist painter Remedios Varo in a play by the same name that she created, last presented at 2018’s [LAX] Performance Festival. She played Josefina in Mojada by Luis Alfaro for Center Theatre Group’s partnership for the Digital Stage.

    Before returning to Humboldt four and a half years ago, Julie spent eleven years in the Bay Area where she was on faculty at American Conservatory Theatre and St. Mary’s College as well as a teaching artist with a variety of Bay Area schools and companies from youth to adults. While in the Bay Area she performed with We Players, S.F. Shakes, Idiot String, Cutting Ball, Impact Theatre, Shotgun Players, as well as in clown cabarets and devised theater festivals. Julie was a healthcare clown with the Medical Clown Project for six and half years and currently sits on their board. She is a certified Michael Chekhov Technique instructor and is a graduate of SOMA studios (Minneapolis) Alexander Technique Teacher Training program. Julie is a 2010 alumna of Dell’Arte International’s MFA and holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz. 

    Julie is committed to de-centering white privilege, cultivating belonging and solidarity through creative play, and is continuously honing her skills to be a thoughtful and adept co-conspirator in the movement for social justice.

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Contramestre Espaço Oliveira 

Summer Physical Theater Intensive Faculty — Capoeira and Acrobatics 

  • Mestre Espaço is a Brazilian Capoeira, Dancer, and Movement Artist, who has dedicated his life to the art of Capoeira ever since he discovered the practice at 18 years old in São Paulo, Brazil. After several years of intensive training, he began teaching Capoeira, choreographing, and performing with his group for cultural and folkloric events, television, and Carnevale. He left Brazil in 2006 to cycle for two years, pedaling through 10 countries and over 12,000 miles to California, with the purpose of teaching and studying at Capoeira schools all along the journey. In the U.S., he has taught Capoeira for schools, colleges, and nonprofit organizations, along with forming his own Capoeira academies for children and adults first in Petaluma and now in Arcata. Mestre Espaço is excited to be bringing the improvisational flow and deep cultural roots of the Capoeira art form to enhance theater studies at Dell’Arte.

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Debbie McMahon

Guest Faculty —  Grand Guignol

  • Debbie McMahon is a theatrical director, deviser and performer, and Artistic Director of Grand Guignolers.  With the Guignolers she creates and directs critically-acclaimed productions which utilize new blends of traditional physical theater genres—melodrama, commedia dell’arte, clown, Grand Guignol, dance, vaudeville and puppetry—in a 1920’s Parisian event-like atmosphere.  She graduated Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre after earning an M.A. in Performance Studies at NYU. Debbie is a Producer for Directors Lab West. She taught and directed as Associate Professor of physical theater at USC, has been a movement coach for numerous productions and has clowned with Cirque du Soleil.

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Michael Fields

Guest Faculty —  Grand Guignol

  • Michael Fields was one of the original Dell’Arte Company members and a teacher of Melodrama with a penchant for horror. As a member of Dell’Arte’s performing ensemble for over 40 years, and its founding producing artistic director,  Michael has been a recipient of San Francisco, San Diego Critics Circle and Los Angeles Critics awards for Performance and Writing. He has co-authored and performed in over 40 Dell’Arte productions and was past president of International Theatre Institute/USA and a member of the TCG board of directors. He has taught various physical theater forms and community engagement practices at CalArts, the Dutch National Theatre School, and Teater Studio in Stockholm, among many others. He has directed productions around the world, including the National Theatres of Denmark, The Netherlands and Sweden. He was also the director of CSSSA (California State Summer School for the Arts). He recently started his own producing group called LONGSHADR (www.longshadr.com).

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Avner Eisenberg

Guest Faculty —  Intro to Eccentric Performing Principles

  • Hailed as one of the greatest clowns of all time, Avner Eisenberg is often a featured performer in comedy, magic, clown, and theatre festivals. After earning a theater degree from the University of Washington, Avner studied in Paris with Lecoq and on his return to the US taught at Dell’Arte. In addition to a busy performance schedule, Avner has taught master classes in clowning and Eccentric Performing in the United States, France, Germany, Finland, Belgium, Japan and Spain. He has developed silent theatre skills as a therapeutic tool and also teaches workshops for students and professionals in health care, education and counseling, as well as theatre. He lives on an island off the coast of Maine and would really rather be sailing.  Read more about Avner on his website.

    Before returning to Humboldt four and a half years ago, Julie spent eleven years in the Bay Area where she was on faculty at American Conservatory Theatre and St. Mary’s College as well as a teaching artist with a variety of Bay Area schools and companies from youth to adults. While in the Bay Area she performed with We Players, S.F. Shakes, Idiot String, Cutting Ball, Impact Theatre, Shotgun Players, as well as in clown cabarets and devised theater festivals. Julie was a healthcare clown with the Medical Clown Project for six and half years and currently sits on their board. She is a certified Michael Chekhov Technique instructor and is a graduate of SOMA studios (Minneapolis) Alexander Technique Teacher Training program. Julie is a 2010 alumna of Dell’Arte International’s MFA and holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz. 

    Julie is committed to de-centering white privilege, cultivating belonging and solidarity through creative play, and is continuously honing her skills to be a thoughtful and adept co-conspirator in the movement for social justice.

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Ming Hudson

Summer Physical Theater Intensive Faculty 

  • Ming is a Vancouver based artist who pays rent on the lands stolen from the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. For 20 years, she has worked as a freelance performer, devised theatre creator, collaborative director, independent producer, and teaching artist locally, across Canada, and abroad. Her specializations are in physical theatre and the creation of new work as a collective ensemble. A graduate of the Advanced Devising Practice program at LISPA (now arthaus.berlin), Ming also holds a MA in Ensemble Theatre (Rose Bruford), and a BFA in Acting (UVic). Select teaching credits include: University of British Columbia, University of Victoria, Dell’Arte International, Canadian College of Performing Arts, Studio 58, Bard on the Beach, and The Arts Club. www.minghudson.com

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David Powell

Part Time — Voice Faculty

  • David is a classically trained vocalist, theatre maker, storyteller, and lifelong student of the theatre. He holds a B.A. in Music performance with an emphasis in opera at Cal Poly Humboldt, and an M.F.A. from Dell’Arte International. While expanding his career in New York he completed several postgraduate programs specializing in opera. Most notably performing at Lincoln Center, the Symphony Space, and the Columbia Masters theatre festival. David has taught theatre masterclasses in New York and Philadelphia and for over a decade has created new works with the Dell’Arte Company Players which were toured across California. 

    With his musical roots firmly in the Italian tradition of Bel Canto and theatre training in the lineage of Le Coq coupled with Alexander Technique, he has dedicated himself to the study of the instrument that is the body. David specializes in healthy vocal production to create sustainable sound in all aspects of performance. He teaches voice, character development through voice, soundscape creation, and the sculpting of theatre space through living sound. In addition to teaching at Dell’Arte, he works as a director/musical director for several local theatre companies, runs a private voice studio, directs the Christ Church choir in Eureka, and is a frequent guest artist with the Eureka Symphony.