Sad News From Dell’Arte: Another One Bites The Dust

I am a proud graduate of the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre. I graduated in 1991, and went back twice for summer intensives, once with Carlo Mazzone-Clemente and once with Daniel Stein.

Indeed for years, I was the unofficial moderator of the Dell’Arte alumni network, a yahoo group that was quite active at one point, It had nearly 900 people in it, and daily active postings.   After the death of yahoogroups, we moved it to Facebook, but it never quite made the transition of activity that it once had.  I also started a discord server for alumni, another project that never got a lot of traction.

A recent posting on that mostly moribund Facebook group alerted to me an email that a lot of graduates and alumni apparently had also not received- that Dell’Arte will no longer be offering classes, that they have let go of the ensemble leadership ideal that had been in place for over 30 years, and that they will start renting their building out to other venues.  They will still be operating a couple of grant related programs out of the building, but Dell’Arte as it had been in existence since the mid 1970’s is basically over.

This is not entirely unexpected.

They had temporarily ceased the schools activities after Covid, and I think that in addition to circumstances like COVID, the fact is that physics had a part to play in this. (An object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion).  Once they stopped doing what they were doing, it becomes that much harder to get back on the horse, and to solve the problem.  It’s a sad spiral.

They just recently finished the Baduwa’t Festival (formerly the Mad River Festival), and apparently that was the nail in the coffin.  The organization has a huge amount of debt, and the assets are primarily a large and unwieldy OddFellows Hall from 1913.  (In 1990, I helped re-tar the roof, and was the head of the wood chopping crew— at the time, the studios were heated with stoves that needed to be started and fed every morning, and that labor came from students.)

Suffice to say, without programming or students to provide income and a large amount of debt, I fear it is not long before the building will be sold.

MOURNING DELL’ARTE

I am morose about this result, both personally and professionally.

This is the third of the clown/acting/theatre schools that I have graduated from that has closed down.  Ringling Clown College closed in 1997. the Trinity Rep Conservatory closed a couple of years ago, and now Dell’Arte.  If the University of Pennsylvania closes down, perhaps the X factor is in fact me!

Dell’Arte as a school and a theatre was a powerful force for good in the world, was a leader in Ensemble Theatre creation, an innovator in actor oriented theatre, and was perhaps the leading practiioner of something called the Theater of Place, an idea of linking the ephemeral theatrical work inextricably with the place in which it was being made and performed.
During their heyday, Dell’Arte had international aspirations and reach, touring all over, running programs in Denmark and in Bali, and was one of the cultural hotspots of the Redwood Forest.  It had high ambitions and although small and always financially precarious, seemed like they could go on forever.  But alas, not so much.

Here’s a portion of the email sent:

Like many in the arts, Dell’Arte has struggled to fully recover from the lasting impacts of the pandemic, compounded by a significant decline in available grant funding. Despite the tireless efforts of a dedicated core group of artists and staff, it has become clear that we can no longer sustain the organization at its current scale.

With that reality in mind, we are taking steps to responsibly scale back operations to a size that is more financially viable and sustainable for the future. Moving forward, our primary artistic focus will center on the grant-funded Prison Arts Program, a project we remain deeply committed to. In addition, we aim to stay connected to the local creative community by making the Odd Fellows Hall available for a variety of rentals and events.

We have made the difficult but necessary decision to pause our training programs and the development of new works through Dell’Arte.

As we navigate this transition, our hope is to shift to supporting small ensembles and individual artists, including alumni, aligning our efforts with our current capacity and resources.

Another major change, driven by financial realities, involves our governance structure.

Dell’Arte has long operated under an ensemble leadership model, but due to recent staff reductions, we are no longer able to sustain this approach.

We are now working toward a more sustainable leadership model that reflects our present realities and ensures the continued integrity of our mission.

We want to extend our deepest gratitude to the ensemble Leadership Council consisting of Tony Fuemmeler (Director of Training), Julie Douglas (Director of Arts Engagement), and Kimberly Haile (Operations Manager) for their extraordinary dedication, creativity, and heart. It’s because of their vision and hard work that Dell’Arte has made it through these challenging times.

Tony and Julie have left their staff positions as of August 1st and while we’ll miss them deeply, we are profoundly thankful for the lasting impact they’ve made on Dell’Arte and the broader community. Julie will continue to pursue building a Healthcare Clowning program through grant funding. Kimberly will lead the organization into the next chapter, as she shifts into the new role of Interim Managing Director.

As theatre director Peter Brook once said:

“The act of theatre is the act of giving. A performance is not something done by one group of people for another group. It is a collective act, an offering.”

 

To our Familia, thank you for being part of the Dell’Arte journey-one that we believe is evolving

I am hoping that someone can pick up the mantle and save the day, but am also fairly certain that whatever happens, there is no going back.  There is only forward.