Korbel V: The Secret

Since 1992 there have been five episodes (including an unnumbered one) in Dell’Arte’s soap opera saga of the working class Dugan family in the fictional North Coast mill town of Korbel. Korbel V: The Secret, now on stage in the outdoor Rooney Amphitheatre at Dell’Arte in Blue Lake, is intended both as a continuation and “an entirely new Korbel for the present day which would stand on its own,” according to writer and director Lauren Wilson in her program note.

 Tommy Dugan (played by Michael Fields) is back, living in a ramshackle trailer in the woods. Also returning are his estranged wife Lu Ann (this time played by Zuzka Sabata) and Tommy’s dead mother Dorothy (Joan Schirle.) The new principal characters are Tommy’s callow young companion Lowell (Anthony Arnista), and Bert (James Peck), a self-styled militia leader exiled from the UK. Yan Christian Collazo plays fledgling sheriff’s deputy Manuel, Ryan Musil is the mayor of Korbel, and Bert’s militia co-conspirators are a supermarket manager from Glendale (Andrew Eldrege) and a crafter and mom from McKinleyville (Emily Newton.)

 Korbel V begins with Manuel reciting a prologue in rhymed couplets that suggests the prologue to Shakespeare’s Henry V with an assist from Carl Sandburg. It’s the first of several echoes and quotes from Shakespeare and others.

 The deputy concludes: “Here’s Korbel, this is fog, and here is sun.” At that moment on opening evening, sunlight broke through the overcast and bathed the stage. How did they do that? (Yes, the line was scripted.)

 The action begins with Tommy in a terminal funk: 17 years unemployed, a failed marriage and a pot-grower son who won’t speak to him are bad enough, but now his doctor demands he stop drinking. After a clumsily creative suicide attempt fails, Tommy learns that the Korbel Timber mill is closing and will evict families living in company housing. Suddenly he finds purpose: to go on a hunger strike to save the mill, emulating the hero he saw on the History Channel, “Mohammed Gandhi.”

But his resolve is tested when Lu Ann shows up, promising love as well as reconciliation with his son, who has provided his mother a lavish Eureka lifestyle financed by what she calls his “firewood business.” Meanwhile Bert organizes an armed revolt against government oppression. By the end the stage is littered with a Shakespearian tragedy-load of bodies (though not all of them dead), and a certain body part familiar from Macbeth.

 There are magical moments: Fields and Schirle acting together is irresistible, and Fields delivering Tommy’s final soliloquy is memorable. The principal actors built real characters (especially Arnista as Lowell and Sabata as Lu Ann) and the supporting players were generously funny, particularly Eldrege as one of the conspirators.

 Less high-spirited than some past summer shows, this play is well crafted and directed, with the usual comic local references, physical humor, surprise effects and other treats in sight and sound, including music by Tim Gray, performed by Sabata and the band of Maria Joy, Mike La Bolle and Tim Randles.

 But I found the two overlapping storylines disappointing, with too little of Tommy’s story and too much of Bert’s (even with its perceptive twist at the end.) Bert’s paranoid rants seemed too frequent, long and unvarying, familiar from weary years of talk radio and Internet rhetoric, except for the copious instances of “wanker” and “bollocks” spewed by this incongruously English character.

 “The Secret” in the play’s title refers most obviously to the movie and book of that title about the power of positive thinking that Lu Ann praises. While some in the audience got the reference, I’m not sure why a 2006 self-help fad features so prominently.

 At the end of the play it seems the Dugan saga is over—but maybe not. One more dancing Dugan ghost has been added, but somewhere offstage is a next generation. Korbel V: The Secret runs through July 6.

 Coming Up Next at the fest: Taken Away, an acrobatic theatre event, opens June 21 for five performances. Clowns Without Borders gets the Prize of Hope on June 28 and a benefit headlined by clown Mooky Cornish on June 29 at 2 p.m. Then Cornish performs at the Blue Lake Center of the Universe party at 4:30.

 On July 2, Mad Lab consists of three works-in-progress by Dell’Arte alums: “Camel Camel,” a vaudeville review by Glitter Gizzard, Janessa Johnsrude and Meghan Frank; “Life Lessons with Pat McKensie,” a satirical comedy by Emily Newton; and “La Fenetre,” a clown comedy by Darci Fulcher and Emily Newton.

This North Coast Weekend

Opening Thursday June 19 and continuing for three weekends at Dell'Arte is    Korbel V: The Secret.  It's the outdoor show that opens the greatly expanded Mad River Festival (more about that in my last NCJ column), and the latest in Dell’Arte’s outrageously epic working class soap opera that has seen death, a wedding, a birth and a fateful accident amidst much local color and family angst over the years. This summer’s story finds the surly and unemployed Tommy Dugan living in a ramshackle trailer, eventually confronting the Korbel Timber Company as it evicts workers’ families from company housing.

 It’s written and directed by Lauren Wilson, who wrote the memorable 2010 summer show, Blue Lake: The Opera. Returning to Korbel are Michael Fields as Tommy and Joan Schirle as his mother Dorothy, who despite having died in the first play has appeared in all the sequels, plus the traditionally large cast.  Music is provided by Marla Joy, Tim Randles and Mike LaBolle.

 In a TV commercial for the festival, Fields as Tommy Dugan describes the show: “They say it’s a comedy but my life ain’t so funny to me.” That nails the mood of this series. It’s been satirical, melodramatic, over the top, but with heart and eyes open to the Humboldt of the moment. “It is pure ‘theatre of place’, Dell’Arte style,” Fields said (off-camera). “I don’t know of another theatre that follows characters over decades with keen attention to the times, looking at it all through the lens of place.” Dell’Arte is offering a festival pass to any four shows plus some extra benefits. (707) 668-5663, www.dellarte.com.

Dixie Swim Club continues at Ferndale Rep and Les Miserables completes its run at North Coast Rep.

This North Coast Weekend (and Audition)

Murder By Dessert is performing another interactive mystery, and this one sounds particularly intriguing.  It's called Sherlock Holmes and the Steampunk Murder Mystery, and is described as featuring "the greatest science fiction authors of the late 1800s attempting to solve the murder of one of their own."  I don't know who that would be except H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, although it would be decades before anybody called it science fiction. But the Robert Downey Holmes movies are definitely steampunk.

  It's happening on Saturday June 14 at the Siren's Song Tavern, 325 Second St., Eureka, from 7-10 p.m. 672-5651, murderbydessert.com.  Jeremy Brett won't be appearing as Sherlock Holmes alas, but any excuse to post his photo.

If you're getting your stage information from the NCJ Calendar (print edition) you are going to be misinformed about this weekend.  (In general the Calendar, which used to be the gold standard for upcoming events, has been sliding downhill for months.)

So here's the weekend:

Thursday (June 12) at Ferndale Repertory Theatre is an Actors Benefit performance of the ongoing production, The Dixie Swim Club.  All proceeds on this night go to cast and crew. Otherwise the production continues Fridays and Saturdays at 8 and Sundays at 2 through June 22.

Les Miserables continues at North Coast Rep Friday and Saturday at 8, and Sunday at 2.

North Coast Rep also announces auditions:

The North Coast Repertory Theatre announces open auditions for the musical Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, with music by Alan Menken; lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice; and book by Linda Woolverton. The production will be directed by Lauren Wieland, with musical direction by Jonathan Webster and Dianne Zuleger. There are roles for 11 men and 12 women of a wide variety of ages. No roles will be pre-cast. The first round of auditions will consist of singing only, there will be no cold readings from the script. Please come with a prepared audition piece of no more than 2 minutes in length. An accompanist will be present. Please come prepared with sheet music. A CD player will be available. Please bring a resume and headshot if available. Auditions will take place on Saturday, June 28th at 2 p.m., and Sunday, June 29th at 6 p.m. at NCRT, 300 Fifth Street in Eureka. Call-backs will be on July 6th in the evening. Production dates are November 13th thru December 13th, 2014 with rehearsals beginning mid-August. Please contact director Lauren Wieland at laurencwieland@gmail.com if you have any questions.

The Big Mad (and This North Coast Weekend)

Korbel V begins this year's Mad River Fest

For more than a generation it’s been Mad in Blue Lake in June, ever since Dell’Arte created the Mad River Festival of stage performances. The festival got pretty hefty for awhile in the 90s and in more recent years it’s been smaller. But this year it’s bigger than ever, absorbing seven weeks of the summer with much more than the usual number and variety of events. It starts June 19 and ends in August.

 There’s more music: in additional to the traditional Folk Life Festival (July 14-19) there’s also a Blue Lake Blues Festival (August 2) and the Eureka Symphony performing Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf on July 25. (Last summer’s Dell’Arte Life Achievement Award winner and Dell’Arte founder Jane Hill was recently named Eureka Symphony’s first-ever executive director.)

 A major catalyst for the festival’s expansion is a big ArtPlace America grant, which accounts for several Blue Lake-centered events, many of them free, including Trash Mash-Up community workshops July 10-13 and the “Blue Lake: The Center of the Universe Party” on June 29.

 There are additional Blue Lake venues, such as Perigot Park and the banks of the Mad River, where Laura Munoz will lead “One Multitude,” a “movement choir” of 50 participants of all ages performed at sunset on June 25.

 There’s a new performance venue as well. In addition to the Rooney Amphitheatre and Carlo Theatre, several shows appear in the new Pierson Building Center Big Hammer Tent, adding a circus big-top topography to the summer Madness. That’s particularly apt since this summer’s Prize of Hope (given by Dell’Arte in conjunction with the Danish Institute of Popular Theatre) goes to Clowns Without Borders International. The award dinner is on June 28.

 On June 29, former lead clown for Cirque de Soleil Mooky Cornish leads a benefit performance for Clowns Without Borders before entertaining at the Center of the Universe party in the big tent. Cornish also performs a solo show, The Glories of Gloria Revue, July 10 through July 13 in the Carlo.

 In addition to the annual Red Light in Blue Lake adult cabaret (July 5) and the acrobatic performance (this year called Taken Away, performed five times between June 21 and 27), there are several other stage events. Mad Lab (July 2) is an evening of works-in-progress by Dell’Arte School grads Meghan Frank, Janessa Johnrude, Emily Newton and Darci Fulcher.

 July 23-27 is the official world premiere of Elisabeth’s Book, created by performers Joan Schirle, Laura Munoz and Ruxandra Cantir and director Alain Schons, with original music by Schirle, Gina Leishman and Tim Gray.

 On July 31, Jeff DeMark brings his band The Gila Monsters (Rick Levin, Ron Sharp, Jean Browning and Paul DeMark) for an evening of music and stories about summer called Acting On A Dream (and of course, there’s a story about the title.)
Besides Jeff, storytellers include Marvin Samuels, Lizzy Moonbeam and Charlie Gilbert.

 It all starts with the big show in the amphitheatre beginning June 19 and continuing for three weekends. Korbel V: The Secret is the latest in Dell’Arte’s outrageously epic working class soap opera that has seen death, a wedding, a birth and a fateful accident amidst much local color and family angst.

 This summer’s story finds the surly and unemployed Tommy Dugan living in a ramshackle trailer, eventually confronting the Korbel Timber Company as it evicts workers’ families from company housing. It’s written and directed by Lauren Wilson, who wrote the memorable 2010 summer show, Blue Lake: The Opera.

 Returning to Korbel are Michael Fields as Tommy and Joan Schirle as his mother Dorothy, who despite having died in the first play has appeared in all the sequels. Music is provided by Marla Joy, Tim Randles and Mike LaBolle. In a TV commercial for the festival, Fields as Tommy Dugan describes the show: “They say it’s a comedy but my life ain’t so funny to me.” That nails the mood of this series. It’s been satirical, melodramatic, over the top, but with heart and eyes open to the Humboldt of the moment.

 “It is pure ‘theatre of place’, Dell’Arte style,” Fields said (off-camera). “I don’t know of another theatre that follows characters over decades with keen attention to the times, looking at it all through the lens of place.”

 Dell’Arte is offering a festival pass to any four shows plus some extra benefits. (707) 668-5663, www.dellarte.com.

 Coming Up: Thursday (June 12) at Ferndale Repertory Theatre is an Actors Benefit performance of the ongoing production, The Dixie Swim Club by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Mamie Wooten. All proceeds on this night go to cast and crew. Otherwise the production continues Fridays and Saturdays at 8 and Sundays at 2 through June 22. This comedy portrays four North Carolina reunions of five women who met as members of their college swim team and got together one weekend a year for 33 years. Directed by Leira V. Satlof, it features Marilyn McCormick, Marilyn Foote, Rae Robison, Dana Zurasky and Natasha White. Scenic design is by Ray Gutierrez, with costumes by Lynnie Horrigan. 786-5483, www.ferndalerep.org.