Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre

The Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre is located in Northern California in the town of Blue Lake, California in Humboldt County, California near the major population centers of Eureka and Arcata. Dell'Arte offers a NAST-accredited three-year MFA in Ensemble Based Physical Theatre, a one-year Professional Training Program, Summer Workshops, and a Study Abroad program in Bali. The school also has a professional company in residence, the Dell'Arte Company.

Founded in 1971 by Carlo Mazzone-Clementi and Jane Hill to bring the European physical training tradition to the United States and to develop actor-creators through training in mime, mask, movement and ensemble creation, the original productions were in San Francisco. In 1973, Mazzone-Clementi and Hill came to Humboldt County where Hill had a teaching position at College of the Redwoods. Together they put on the Grand Comedy Festival at Qual-a-wa-loo with Mazzone-Clementi serving as the festival's artistic director for six years.

In 1974, the couple purchased the Oddfellows Hall in Blue Lake and the Dell'Arte School opened its doors in 1975.

in 1976, Mazzone and actors Joan Schirle and Jon'Paul Cook founded the Dell'Arte Company with the goal of establishing a company/school-school/company along the lines of Jacques Copeau's Vieux Columbier, and the hope to create a resident ensemble, the Dell'Arte Players Company. The first tour was mounted in 1977. Artists engaged for the first production, The Loon's Rage, included director and co-author Jael Weisman, designer Alain Schons, and actor Michael Fields (in 2013 the Company's Producing Artistic Director), who continued as the nucleus of the new company, with Donald Forrest joining in 1978.

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