Presenter Len Jenkin with Dell’Arte board members Eva Marie Johnson and Cal Pritner

2005 Recipient

Dell'Arte International is the United States center for the development, exploration, training, creation, and performance of the traditions of physical theatre and their contemporary applications. Based in the small town of Blue Lake, California, Dell'Arte is one of the largest employers in the arts in the state north of the Bay Area, working in partnership with many local organizations and government agencies and offering training programs, research, original touring productions, education programs, a summer festival and work in economic/community development.

The Dell'Arte Company is a professional touring company that since 1977 has created over 35 award-winning works and has toured extensively to international festivals. Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre is a professional actor-training program accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre. Dell'Arte Youth Academy uses innovative physical theatre practices to enhance the education and lives of young people, creating effective partnerships among professional artists, classroom teachers, and schools, and offers exemplary out-of-school theater programs. The Dell'Arte Mad River Festival is a month-long summer event that has been bringing together performers and audience members from "around the world and down the block" since 1991 for performances of theatre, music, comedy, storytelling, clown, puppetry and more.