This North Coast Weekend (and Outside News)

The final theatrical presentation of Dell’Arte’s Mad River Festival is The Submarine Show, performed by Dell’Arte alums Jaron Aviv Hollander and Slater Brooks Penny. Its comic mixture of mime, acrobatics, storytelling and audience interaction was developed at San Francisco’s Kinetic Art Center, where Hollander is Artistic Director. It was named Best of the San Francisco Fringe Festival in 2011. This one hour, family-friendly show is presented Thursday through Saturday (July 11-13) at 8 p.m. plus a Sunday matinee on the 14th at 2 p.m., in Dell’Arte’s Carlo Theatre. www.dellarte.com. There’s preview video at www.submarineshow.com.

The Submarine Show is presented by the Mad River Festival and the Nancy LaFrenz Memorial Scholarship, which supports original work created by alumni of the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre to be performed during the annual Mad River Festival. Nancy’s classmates, the Dell’Arte graduating class of 2002, set up the scholarship fund to keep her memory alive forever. Nancy LaFrenz (1974-2005), died from cancer early in her life, and the memorial fund helps other emerging artists cultivate their professional careers.

The Heir Apparent continues at Redwood Curtain.  I reviewed it in this week's Journal.

Among the theatrical news from Out There this past week:  President Obama presented the 2012 National Medals of Arts and National Humanities Medals.  Among the honorees were several theatre artists: writer and performer Anna Deavere Smith (pictured),  playwright Tony Kushner,  and writer and performer Elaine May.