An Evolution of Aesthetics

by Meghan Vogel (continued)

The kick-off to the week’s festivities was another dashing Dell’Arte production, “The Golden State.” Guests from across the nation crowded into Dell’Arte’s Carlo Theatre for this energetic Moliere-like tale of So-Cal greed. Before the show, Fields, Dell’Arte’s producing artistic director, welcomed festival-goers with a twinkle in his eye as he recalled how he first came to Blue Lake 30 years ago. The diversity of the area is what first attracted Dell’Arte’s founders, including co-artistic director Joan Schirle. Fields fondly refers to the place as “where the ’60s meet the sea,” a place of possibility and inspiration – the ideal setting for a gathering of imaginative ensemble theater folk to share their work.

The work of “real experimentation” is happening today in ensemble theater, Fields told the crowd. Through ensemble, artists have the ability to become artistically and culturally connected to the community in which they reside. “You know that this work in this time really matters,” he said.

As president of the National Ensemble Theater Board of Trustees Terry Greis added, ensemble work is perhaps the only place in the country where an action-oriented art form is taking place in relation to the community it seeks to serve.

Viewing the week as a chance for an evolution of aesthetics, Fields laid out the festival’s main tenet: To have an open conversation about ensemble work and practice in action.

As attendees mingled at the post-Golden State gathering, a tangible excitement was in the air – a sense of great discourses and new ideas to come.

“One of the most exciting things is that we’ve put 120 ensemble artists in the same place for one week,” said festival coordinator David Ferney. “You put interesting and smart people in the same place and you’re bound to just wander around and get into a great conversation with anyone. And it’s been great to expose national artists to Humboldt County.”

Gesturing toward the animated crowd gathered on a warm summer evening in Dell’Arte’s back yard, Dell’Arte company member Matthew Graham Smith said, “Just look at it. This is amazing.”

The theme of community was the thread that kept the diverse festival offerings together – and not just local communities, but the ensemble community as a whole.

“Some of the most innovative and exciting work comes from ensemble,” said Angie Kim, director of programs for arts and conservation at the Flintridge Foundation. “This is a chance to develop the field of ensemble theater. There’s energy around ensemble theater, a great fertile ground. This festival brings together ensemble as a community, and this is beautiful Humboldt County. It seems so fitting to have it here.”

Reversing ‘artistic myopia’

Unique to the world of theater is ensemble work. Such artist-driven work often slips under the cultural radar, which can be both a blessing and a curse.

The very nature of ensemble is low profile and community-created, a total rejection of institutional bastions. Ensemble is specific to the artists who create it, those who bring their own fluid, responsive and diverse social critiques to the stage. Since ensemble is rooted in the community collective, the absence of hierarchy allows artists to create little revolutions of social change, one community at a time. Working from the ground up at the tightest social level gives artists a chance to become a voice for the voiceless, to express ideas that are not yet part of the greater cultural consciousness. With such intensely focused local concerns, ensembles have the tendency to become isolated from one another. Taken as a collective, ensemble represents an incredibly rich and diverse body of work, spanning many different styles and spirits, as well as expressions of political, class, gender and racial concerns.

“The broad spectrum of American theater is rich with diversity in which we all can thrive,” said Joan Channick, deputy director of Theatre Communications Group. “Today everything we do relates to ensemble theaters.”
The purpose of the NET Fest, said Fields, was to bring together “the best of the breadth from Blue Lake to Brooklyn.” Ensembles, he said, often become mired in “artistic myopia,” and the NET Fest was a chance to share ideas and birth new ones.

“We’re talking about our very culture evolving,” said Roberta Uno, program officer for arts and culture at the Ford Foundation. “Something very special that ensemble theater brings is that you have a sense of location. You know where you are. ...Ensembles make it easier to tackle the layers of questions of the day because a team can work together cooperatively. I call it ‘collective creation.’ It’s looking at the question of where creativity resides. ... When we look at the possibility of plurality, we get some other voices in the room.”

Artists as activists

“We’re having this conference because we’ve moved to another level as artists and activists,” said Rhodessa Jones of San Francisco-based company Cultural Odyssey. Jones participated in the Art, Activism and Ensemble Panel, the most explosive and ground-breaking panel of the NET Fest.

Meena Natarajan of Pangea World Theater called the current times polarized, and said artists must meet the challenge of how to react to the current socio-political clime. Founder of the San Francisco Mime Troupe R.G. Davis said artists have the responsibility to criticize politics and to see “the negative as a potential for the positive” since the political climate can get quite depressing these days. Calling ensemble theater work “the most thankless work in the world,” Jones said it is a job that is necessary and rewarding. Steve Ginsburg of the HartBeat Ensemble concurred, calling theater a place “where living hope exists.”

“Ensemble artists transcend obsessive self-absorption by direct contact with the community. As artists we have to get out of our heads and into the streets,” said Michael Goodfriend of the Irondale Ensemble Project. “If you are an artist and you’re trying to tell the truth you are an activist.”

In the world of ensemble, within that creative energy, lies the possibility to make ideological assertions and challenges, which can have reverberations outside the closed-off world of traditional, staid theater.

With a strength of character unmatched by most, Jones recalled how she first began “making theater with a bunch of hippies in an upstate New York barn. Social activism – that’s what they called it. ... With the same energy let’s get real and move the planet.”

Knocking socks off

And the planet was moved – at least that portion of the planet that had the good fortune to witness the crème de la crème of North American ensemble theater. “I’m stunned at the breadth of offerings,” said Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble’s Gerard Stropnicky.

Dell’Arte’s “Golden State” opened the festival to golden applause, followed by “Paradise Lost” in Redwood Park on Wednesday. The outside setting amongst the majestic redwoods was a treat for all, many of whom had never experienced the magic of a redwood forest before.

SITI Company’s “Death and the Ploughman” brought “Paradise Lost’s” spectral metaphysics to Humboldt State University’s Van Duzer Theatre. After Johannes Von Saaz’s 15th century opus, the audience was brought back the world of stark 21st century reality with Campo Santo’s gut-wrenching “Fist of Roses” performed in Dell’Arte’s Carlo Theatre. (Festival attendees were shuttled between venues all week via bio-diesel bus – this touch being what festival logistics coordinator Tyler Olsen called “injecting the flavor of Humboldt.”)

“Fist of Roses” hit hard from its first shock-inducing line. An investigation into masculinity and violence using personal narrative, live beat boxing and flawlessly choreographed movement, Campo Santo’s performance struck deep emotional chords.

“Campo Santo! What a find,” Stropnicky said. “Just brilliant! It knocked my socks off.”

Such a sentiment could be expressed about any of the stellar performances the NET Fest presented. The San Francisco Mime Troupe’s world premiere of “Doing Good” was a fast-paced political exploration of the new world order fueled by the oil economy through humor, physicality and cutting-edge satire.

ABOUT Production’s “By the Hand of the Father,” a musical tribute to the 20th century journey of Mexican-American men, created a softer, more sentimental tone, yet still had the same striking socio-political ramifications as “Doing Good.”

And there was no comparing the Rude Mechanical’s “Cherrywood: A Modern Comparable” to anything. This absurd and abstract tale of a housewarming party is candy-raver eye happy as it spins a web of cultural malaise. The play’s program notes cite everything from performance artist Joseph Beuy’s 1974 shamanistic “I like America and American likes me” action piece to Modest Mouse’s song “Doin’ the Cockroach” as influences.

The last major performance of the festival, “Slanguage” by Universes, snapped the audience into the immediacy of the here and now. Its fusion of jazz, poetry, hip-hop, politics and indigenous folk traditions was an incredible ride through the psychological terrain of urban America. Its breath of fresh air and electrifying inspiration received a thunderous standing ovation. Then it was off to another festive celebration at the Logger Bar, Blue Lake’s lone watering hole, one last time before dispersing from Humboldt.

“Dell’Arte and Blue Lake may be rural, but they’re still right on the edge,” Stropnicky said.

Networking at the NET

Idris Ackamoor of Cultural Odyssey was found one night at the Logger relaxing by the rural haunt’s wood stove. And while the century-old bar is jam-packed with antique saws, black and white photos of clear-cut forests and logging memorabilia, Ackamoor, a snappily dressed and obviously urban man, was far from out of place that evening. Having just returned from a theater festival overseas, he conceded the cultural melding and diversity of the NET Fest felt “very European.”

“Dell’Arte is very well known, but to come to Blue Lake you’ve got to want to,” he said. “There are some very enthusiastic people into theater here, and it’s important that ensemble is coming out more. There is a need for ensemble to really have support to get the work out there.”

At night the Logger became a cosmopolitan cafe where people from New York to Mississippi to Austin to San Francisco listened and learned from one another. Heated artistic conversations abounded in the crowded dive bar, and breakout impromptu musical performances could often be heard coming from the back deck.

“To feel this collective vibe of creativity has been insane,” said Dell’Arte production intern Belva Stone.

“It’s nice to be at an artist-run gathering,” Uno said. “Usually when it’s about the arts there are no artists present or creativity is not involved in conversations about the arts. It’s rare to be able to be at a gathering made by artists, driven by artists. This is a real feeling. This is about artists sharing their works.”

Structured forms of networking were to be had in the festival’s numerous lab presentations, panels and performance demonstrations. The Meet the Funders Panel answered tough questions about funding for the arts, and ensemble funding in particular.

“Ensemble theater puts the money in the hands of the artists to assemble a laboratory of projects,” said Sandra Gibson, TCG’s director of artistic programs. Making a case for the arts is a challenging affair, remarked Cheryl Ikemiya, program officer for the arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. But, she said, the festival had “raised awareness for ensemble theater in the United States.”

Like the broad scope of its theater performances, the NET Fest’s panels covered almost every topic pertaining to ensemble theater – from training ensemble members of the future, to the direction of ensemble as a whole to books covering the scholarly development of ensemble theater. “This, I think, is some of the most important dialogue that is happening in the arts community today,” Goodfriend said.

Performance presentations included another round of pioneering deliveries from diverse companies. Traveling Jewish Theater’s “Blood Relative” explored the human element of the conflict in the Middle East, while Coatlicue Theater Company drew on Native American traditions through the interweaving of myth and personal narratives.

Cultural Odyssey rocked its audience with the presentation of “The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women,” a work created to explore the psychological humanity of women behind bars. NaCl Theater leapt between realism and surrealism to deconstruct the beatific horror of intimate relationships. Sojourn Theatre demonstrated what it takes to make theater accessible, and Theater Grottesco emphatically pointed out that fat men cannot only dance, but that they should.

The conversation at the festival’s wrap-up meeting had the potential to go on all night. Ideas, comments, names, phone numbers, Web sites, e-mail addresses, networking ideas and criticisms were all tossed into the ring. It was a final chance to delve into all that ensemble theater can be, and participants were eager to keep the discourse open and ongoing. From the festival’s anticipatory first night, right until the last “chainsaw” was gulped (the NET Fest’s “official drink– a whiskey and beer back special at the Logger Bar), it was evident the seminal seeds of a cultural movement were being sown. “This week has been an affirmation of togetherness, consciousness, artistry, intelligence and freedom,” Goodfriend said.

Dell’Arte delivers la familia

“I will never forget this week together,” said motherly archetype Naomi Newman of Traveling Jewish Theater during the late-night cabaret.

The cabaret went into the wee hours of the morning as participants eagerly entertained and were amazed by one another. Traditional cabaret faire along with avant-garde works were served up in an intimate setting, allowing performers and spectators alike to get to know each even better.

“It is clear to me that the work Dell’Arte has done is astounding,” said Theater Grottesco Artistic Director John Flax.

Goodfriend called the festival the paradigm by which all other theater festivals should be structured, saying Dell’Arte should “write the handbook for these types of festivals.”

Playback NYC, a freestyle improv company, recapped the week during the last presentation. Relying on audience participation for its cues, the artists quizzed the audience for thoughts and feelings. One woman simply stated, “la familia.” Ensemble innovators had been brought together as a family through the shared pain and pleasure of their work.

The NET Fest ended with a regional Native American salmon dinner roasted above open flame in Dell’Arte’s backyard. Arcata’s Interfaith Gospel Choir performed during the last celebration, a reaffirmation of the positive energy the artists had created. As the night wore on, the festivities continued under the summer stars as dancing and fire spinners cut lose.

After dinner, Schirle whipped out her accordion while one half of the brotherly duo M.U.G.A.B.E.E. MauriceTurner wailed on his trumpet, something he was never seen without during the duration of the week. Drummers, singers, other instrumentalists and dancers joined in. On Dell’Arte’s balcony above the Rooney Amphitheatre, a breath-taking sight was to be had – dozens from every generation, ethnicity and class background coming together in a Dionysian celebration of their craft and life itself.

“This week has been about complete beauty,” said the other half of M.U.G.A.B.E.E. Carlton Turner. “We’re taking back this sense of community to where we are from – to know we’re standing in solidarity and we’re not alone in this work. I’ve been inspired to continue with the struggle, of giving a voice to the voiceless. The struggle to change is the most important thing. We’re raising hope, raising the bar.”

Arts and culture journalist Meghan Vogel holds a degree in art history from UC Berkeley, where she specialized in avant-garde movements of the 20th century. She can be reached at: megmvogel@hotmail.com.