 This event, there's two HowlRound and I have no idea how far it's going up. We're sorry we're not equipped to create a chat situation, but what is it I'm supposed to say about Twitter, Janessa? You can tweet us at www.thelarte.com or at HowlRoundTV. This is the nature of this event this morning. I'm going to, I'm going to get to talk. I'm going to read part of it. This whole presentation started by an invitation from an international committee conference for me to come to Windsor, Ontario, Canada, where they were doing a big do-do on a committee. And of course they, okay, let me not be prejudicial in any of my speaking here. They invited a number of eminent comedian experts from Europe. But of course, what they invited me, so I wanted to put together a presentation that would put into the world the importance of Delarte's co-founder, Carl Matthews Clemente, to the American, the North American theatre, to education in this country, to active education, to the movements known as New vaudeville to surface all of that. It's a bit of an untold story. I'm not the only one right now trying to tell it. John Acorn who's here today is producing a film on it. And I'm going to show you a clip of that in the course of this. So if this was put together for that, I had to kind of retool it for this. It very much emphasizes Carl's relationship to the Italian Commedia. And the work of Delarte International here in Blue Lake, our explorations of Commedia as opposed to the general theatrical stuff and the pedagogy and all that here, for the sake of making a point. So at the end of that, I think because there's bits of video embedded in here, at the end of that, the floor will be open for people to give perspectives on Carl. And there are several, five, six, seven, eight people in this room who knew him, some intimately. And... He said no. We have to identify himself. John is here. Raise your hand. So because I really hope that we can have some talking, I'm going to launch right into this very quickly. So Delarte International, this place, who the hell's responsible for this? As you out there may or may not know, we're having a 40th anniversary reunion. We've been in Blue Lake for 40 years. 40 years of collaborative creation and ensemble practice. The man. Arlequino Appleseed, Carlo Bazzoni Clementi. I want to tell some of our international audience, well, why this name? It's based on a legendary American mythological figure called Johnny Appleseed, who was in legend. And there's even a song, Johnny Appleseed. Anybody else know that song? I'm dating myself. I know it. Thank you. Johnny Appleseed was actually a nurseryman who throughout Ohio, Missouri, all that Midwestern United States was able to plant apples and to begin to understand how to grow apples. And apples are one of the four great foods that made us want them. Apples through sweetness, marijuana through intoxication, potatoes through nourishment, and tulips through beauty. And I'm recording Michael Pollan's documentary now. But appleseeds, apples were one of the most important things in America. Everybody drank apple cider. So someone who spreads seeds, who plants something, is the genesis of this title, because it has something to do with America, Appleseed, the Johnny Appleseed, and something to do with Italy, Arlequino Appleseed. So, here we go. And now I've got to go up and down to do this and that. We might wonder how Comedienne Del Arte came to the new world. Was it through the characters of Harlequin and Colin Bond in the 19th century, Pantos, or through Italian troops that set off for gigs across the Atlantic as so colorfully envisioned in Renoir's The Golden Coach? Was it via the golden age of silent film comedies, or did Comedienne attach itself like a plea for the clothes of some Italian immigrant looking for a new life? Carl Mazzoni Clementi was certainly an immigrant, parliament pilgrim in 1957. He was also a pioneer and a poet. The spirit of a poet, he spread the seeds of Comedienne Del Arte in the new world. With the spirit of a pioneer, he stayed to tend those seeds. No roots, no fruits. Author John Townsend wrote to Carlos Stigl-Handen, they brought him just saw that. Commedia to the United States starting in 1958. So, let's talk about the caravan. Carl Alessandro Luigi Mazzoni Clementi was born on December 12, 1920 in Carava. In the shadow of Galileo's tower across the street from the 16th century birthplace of Angelo Bialco, thought of as great actor-dramatist who wrote in peasant dialect under the name of Luzante. Carlos died 80 years later in his adopted home in Northern California, having sowed the seeds of Comedienne Del Arte from coast to coast, ignited a movement that has become known as New vaudeville, established a company, a la Coupe Olde and the Coupe of Hands, and began the first training center in North America dedicated to the work of the actor-creator. It would be misleading to say that Carlos' approach to life, to art, to comedia was in any way orderly or well planned. His life was full of accidents, surprises, contradictions, and interviesal. His teaching was never academic, never formulaic, and above all of his value, spontaneity has befitted larger-than-life in-the-moment personality and the spirit of comedia inside him. From his arrival on the east coast of the United States in the biggest of cities to his settling on the west coast in one of its smallest, a town of 1,250 people, behind the Redwood Curtain of Northern California, he was thought by some to be a genius, and by others to be a mad man. What others call my retreat, I call my advance. Growing up in Padova, Carlos heard many tales from his grandfather, Viralamo Clementi, who spoke Ruth and Pino about the endearing customs of the hill-folk immortalized by the nobleman's playwright. Carlos' father was Neapolitan, his mother Padova. I digress for my text just to tell you that there's some magic tool in here which I don't know how to use. It's called a pen. Can you see my... Yes, there it is. I can't find it from here. There's a minute. I just want to show you something. Yeah, that's a pen. Watch this. Now, can you see the little mole on the cheek? Carlos would say, wonder, he showed me this picture. This was the first map. Learn to project through the map. So, his grandfather was incredibly significant as was his father. Carlos' father was Neapolitan, his mother Padova. Her father, Viralamo, was one of Carlos' primary inspirations and natural teachers of Comedia del Arte. My grandfather was Comedian. I would not have survived my childhood without him. He was a storyteller and impersonator of tremendous elocution and clever imitation. He could imitate birds, animals, or humans. So, with an ear for dialects, including his mother Padovonville dialect, Carlos eventually spoke French, Spanish, could read Greek and Latin, as well as play in the dialects of Viralamo, Tuscany, Neapolitan and more. His father, a military sharpshooter, put his sword in Carlos' hand at the age of five. I find this a fascinating photo. It was in Carlos' effects, many of which are grateful to his family for having provided to us. If I could find that damn hand again, there it is. Okay. Let's just go to the next slide. No! I think that this is Carlos' dad. It's all done with mustache. But I find this extraordinary, fascinating photograph and I want to look at how Stas operates in groups. I mean, who is the father of tension? A little dude with a cigarette. And I don't know Italian army uniforms. I don't know what rank is, so I don't know if that guy does better. Do you know German? Well, the black guys are the fascist officers. These guys? But they're not black guys. So that's a specific high rank fascist for a police officer. I think he's actually the guy. Three guys on the right. The guy to the right is who? Which one? That one. That one. That one. That one. That one. Thank you. Okay, great. Let me erase that. That was also a very nice one. But as Giovanni points out, Italy at this time was under control of the fascists. And... So, his death was sorting Carlos' hand at the age of five. Known as the earthquake kid, Carlos loved climbing trees and jumping from them. He learned to run fast to escape beatings from his parents. With such strength in his legs that he was able to sprint 100 yards in 11 seconds, competing against the best runners from the USA in 1945. His five years of army service convinced in 1939 while Italy was in control of the fascists, and in the last years of World War II during the German occupation, he joined the resistance. The dialects came in handy, he said. He was once caught by a band of German and Italian soldiers, noting that some of them were tusken. He conversed with them in their dialects. They were convinced he was one of them and let him go. In 1944, Carlos discovered that he was an actor and a poet. His formal acquaintance with the history, characters, and atmosphere of the Commedia dell'Arte began as a member of the Teatro Universi Petaleva. He had briefly attended the University of Bologna, but did not return after the war. He was even more excited by the artistic and political atmosphere in Paglia. He joined the Democratically Oriented Action Party, and in 1945 met Gianfranco Davosio, director of theater at the University of Paglia, which was one of the leading opponents of the city's fascist regime. Carlos took part in radio broadcasts from the voice of Paglia University. He was one of the two voices. He formed in reviews and sketches, and was one of the five member nucleus of the Paglia University players directed by the Bologna. These players, they were not all students. They were people who coalesced around this nucleus. So it was a really mixed and incredible group. Until this time, Carlos had no knowledge of Commedia dell'Arte. I didn't know I was doing Commedia, because until I entered into this group, I didn't realize the importance of Commedia. Some of us went to Paris, came back and said, wait a minute, we have this tremendous tradition, and we don't even know we have it. I was involved with poetry, with soccer, with silent movies as a kid, with watching my grandfather. And then all of a sudden, all these things came together at Paglia University. It's like you're passing in front of a church all the time. You never go into it. And people come from 6,000 miles away and say, here's the famous church. And you say, what? And suddenly you belong. You participate. You recognize. So it was de Bozio and his associate, Viette Papa Fada, who went to Paris, first bringing back Marcel Marceau in 1947. And Carlos was chosen to partner Marceau in Marceau's first Italian tour. He was working with the Viette material at this time. And Marceau was interested in Commedia. So he came to Paglia because Paglia was known as the origin. And he knew more about Commedia than we did. Marceau wanted to do a show. He'd just been doing the character of Viette for two months. And he chose me among the others to be his partner. We toured Italy in 1947. The next year, they came back with La Carte. And we began doing Commedia with him. Carlos became La Carte's assistant in his work with the Paglia de Flairs. Quote, I was the only one of the actors who spoke French. So La Carte decided I was going to follow him. Every night I was taking him home and he was giving me notes about what he did that day in class and what he wanted to do the next day between 1948 and 1951. And La Carte himself said, I came to Italy for three months and ended up staying eight years. Here's what he said about Carlo in 1956. The road to mine is long. After eight years in Italy, I've helped many actors but produced few real minds and only one teacher, my assistant, Marceau. In 1948, sculptor and fellow parovon, Amletto Sartori began teaching mass work to the players. When Carlo immigrated to America, it was with 10 Sartori masks that he began his, did I just like this? That he began his... This is for the mask. It was with 10 Sartori masks that he began his proposal of Commedia in the New World. One of his masks that he brought with him was Zan Mazzone, the mask made for Carlo by Amletto and this mask is sitting over here. And I think I and he would enjoy it if this were passed around to people who would like to touch it. And we'll look at it, please. So I once asked Sartori, I said, how do you keep these things in the city? Where are they? In 1949, Carlo received a scholarship to attend the E.P.J.B in Eucasion, Parology and Pharmacy in Paris. A school started by Jean-Louis Ballot. His work with Ballot, the brief, it only lasted about six months, was deeply affecting. As Commedia Bellarte became rediscovered, reinvented, renewed and revitalized after World War II, the strongest support for Commedia as a living form was coming from France, from the mines. Le Coq are so indelible, this tripod of influences would guide Carlo for the next 50 years, his knowledge and conception of Commedia forever inseparable from the idea of mine. He described this school somewhat like I think those of you who were at this school in the early years, it was chaotic. You didn't quite know what the program was going to be that day but you were learning all the time because there was this incredible array of talents assembled around it and the passion was so great at that time for that. Carlo acted while at the Padova Players for Eric Bentley who directed for the Padova University players the first Brex play in Italy The Exception and the Rule in 1951. Bentley would later assist Carlo to establish himself in the U.S. as a teacher and performer. He also brought musician Jimmy Loverman Davis who participated the guy who wrote Loverman who participated that's where's my little pen okay so here's Jimmy Loverman Davis sorry Jimmy you can do that I know I know and he participated with the players in something called Arte Negro Americana which is a review of poems and songs from blues to gospel and they also did Langston Hughes the Bilaco with masks back on Leto Sattoria and it was at this point that Carlo first experienced what he later came to refer to as America's Commedia which he thought was jazz, tap dancing, musical theater and that we had a Commedia here but this was an amazing opportunity why again are they all just guys and I never understand these things but okay so in 1951 Carlo struck off for Rome where there was a now virginic and chaotic film scene happening and he had about 15 bucks in his pocket and he wanted to try his hand with this now booming post-war film industry he got a few film parts he taught street pantomime he did pantomime with the guitarist partner he did mime sketches at the night owl or club or the cabaret style he used to place he says, I did one or two characterizations of Commedia life but they weren't so good I'm not proud of that I was alone I was the only Italian and it taught me comedy as partnership he spent 1953 as an actor with the Piazza Nuzma directed by Vittorio Gazzama in 1950 there's a bit of a film from what I can read about this it's one of the weirdest films you can imagine Carlo's character is called the obscurantism which is somehow fitting in a way in 1954 the cock invited him back to Milan to work in the company Parenti Po Giurano a satirical review called Isani da I'm going to say this better Isani da legale Isani da legale which means a madhouse for the same company Parenti Po Giurano they were the first to do post-war satirical reviews and this was their second one the first one was called finger in the eye and there's a scene on YouTube which I did not have the technical chops to incorporate in here but it's on YouTube under this title you'll find it and in the beginning you see this small platform here Carlo is standing up there in the picture that's in with the beard he jumps down lands and announces the title of the show so the guy could jump so just a couple more shots from that show it looked like a lot of fun like everyone was having a good time how unfortunate that is four years later a great see now I've lost this marvelous spot in my writing I'm going to go back Carlo's entrance was a jump from a high platform above the stage to announce the show's title four years later after a great deep across the Atlantic to New York another stage jump would determine his future I'll get to that I decided to have a studio of laboratory and to be realistic about working with what I learned from the talk in my towns and my background in the same place I could do it was in Rome his classes drew mostly American actors he said I had Italian actors but they were not very consistent the Americans were dedicated and enthusiastic so when they started to say Carlo should go to New York well I had a friend who wrote 75 letters to the United States and 25 entered come right over so I said stupid why am I staying here in Rome I can't become TV or commercial or non-commercial or having engagements or doing stunts involving risking my life and so the letters from America inviting me here's one of those ridiculous things the mime and the model I've got a couple more of these they're greats her name is Georgia I can't read I can't when I see them this is from a newspaper art show that was in his archives there's a little bit so I crossed so this section I'm calling Pioneer so with his wife his first wife maybe in the only they immigrated to America in 1957 and arrived in New York Carlo enrolled in English classes found work through the models build as a mime model he created his first mime show for U.S. audiences and he devised six characters in search of comedians the solo piece that would introduce in living color the traditional characters and masks of the comedians I'd take to the actors and directors of the American theater this was an invitation from Carlo to the theater community of New York about crafted as almost all Carlo's writings were by his wife of the time as Jane crafted his article but this is a lovely it expresses his sentence which is what they were really good at won't you join a small group of professional theater people in my studio and let me try to recreate for you some of the characters and atmosphere of the comedians I'm a Venetian actor recently played the cock in Cockaboo Little Dandy made my mind debut with Marceau in 47 and have since done about 20 films in some 8 years of European repertory particularly in the field of Prometheus Restoration's pioneer that part of a university theater and Piccolo Milano by my meister Jean-Pierre Coque about old protege who has become the outstanding French rehabilitator who arrived in New York last year to teach his method breaking with the 10 leather Canadian masks I've been surrounded by lively curiosity about the Italian tradition because I believe an acquaintance with the art of these humble players to be fundamental to all who yearn for more style in the technically brilliant age of American realism I have combined masks, costumes and dialects of the most popular to a one man sketch with commentary booked on the college circuit this year yet I would most like to privately show it to people like you for since these men were the inventors of the professional theater they are really your ancestors and because they are most particularly mine I hope I shall not be trained in for you RSVP, the Vivienne Mazzoni Circle 5 or 6-8 Carlo designed the costumes and in the directories masks we played Dottore with the Alpantolone Arlequino, Capitano and Fulcinella Scaramouche he added as a link plus an invisible columbina I did Scaramouche as a dancing master come on, Scaramouche because he is a dancing master a skirmisher is what it means, hit and run a disturbance, a gorilla he's a bother, he's a flea even the elephant doesn't like a flea, right? a skirmish of sturdice I was inspired by Dushark a lot of the cock and I invented this scenario from my own knowing of the tirades and the dialects in the Lanzi it was Bentley's agent, Toby Cole who wrote the show across the country Fall of 1958 was a turning point he was cast as the cock in a non-speaking role in the world premiere of Sean O'Casey's Capitano d'Andy which premiered in Toronto to review quote about Carla of all the hearty, outspoken company there is one other who deserves special mention Carla Vatsoni impersonates the role of Dash and Spirit a solid single, production solid symbolism that's in the Globe and Mail, Toronto in November the production opened at the Carnegie Hall Playhouse in New York directed by Philip Burton and starring Will Geer Carla's role was physically very demanding he says I was practicing every night I would warm up because I had one difficult thing I would jump into the audience from a dark room 12 feet in the air and grow cock a little Andy I had not much space to land I had to do it in the dark or it would spoil the whole thing I was scared every night so I had to warm up as if I was in a competition the warm up was real athletic stuff and one night I'm jumping downstairs in the hall they built a little theater and I'm jumping on the grids I didn't realize it was old-fashioned iron work probably defective or rusty or whatever but poodooom I went two stories down to the basement I was wounded but luckily I was survival in his knees both of them my car wedges were injured of course I sued Carnegie Hall and of course I still did the show anyway sitting there in the dark I went cock, cock, cock I went into the show the doctor said you have a choice operation you could be better operation you could be worse or you can lecture, comedian, so on well I come from a town of surgeons and the surgeons they said please if you can avoid avoid so Carlo turned primarily to teaching and to demonstrations this is an ad mock up for classes he was giving out of theater school in New York at the time he could be non-school mine was big in those days in New York it was a lot of deal interesting so he toured six characters in those two years revealing to America what the traditional stock characters look like pop like and move like on his 1959 west coast tour another seed was planted with the San Francisco mine troop which began performing commedia that year founder R.G. Davis with a different call first we read all the books in English on Commedia we could find plays and histories we looked at pictures fortunately Carlo Mazzoni came through San Francisco and spent a week with me talking about Commedia on Betsy's recommendation Carlo was engaged in 1958 for two seasons with the Stratford Festival the chiefs the actors among the actress Julie Harris he was asked to join the New Canadian Center for Theater Arts Carlo Stonis a precursor to the National Theater School of Canada he continued teaching and performing in New York promoting the new natural French method of Dr. Cough I just want to read you something briefly this is an ad for Carlo's first wine studio called What is Modern Mime it's pretty amazing that it was at 58 West 57th Street I don't know what that address is I mean where 58 West 57th Street Vivian was financing this is that for me my agent yeah you didn't get the job damn it let me burn my hand here's what Carlo has to say I'm just going to read your tiny bit Mime is the art of silence expressed by the body of Mime Modern in Fedegoshi means all that is natural and free Modern Mime is the universal language of theater expressed by the natural beauty of the free body Mime is theater when each performer is so true to himself in movement that he becomes a live transfiguration of the hidden spirit of Saul communicable to each eye and heart and thus a Mime can be modern only by returning to his origins stripping herself so clean of the haphazard superstructures of daily life that she discovers the inner reality of her own body unique among all others making friends with the floor under and the air around control his space his tempo improvising in that space to enrich his fancy moving to that tempo not to a metronome working hard for freedom not muscles to develop not deform this is true creation within ourselves do not doubt the inspiration of silence or literature was invented by the literates probably Mime was on to talk about Decay and his thank you he was discovered by Theodore Hoffman who was head of the theater department at Carnegie Tech now known as Carnegie Mellon and in 1990 he received his first full-time academic teaching position as an assistant professor of stage movement in the same year the Piccolo Teatro di Milano made its U.S. debut with the service of two masters and Carlo was able to welcome his old friend Marcello Moretti interesting comedian was growing Carlo coached and directed a series of productions and in 1962 assisted another Italian visitor Giovanni Folli to direct the Greenberg for Ayasa which no longer exists for his future second wife Jane Hill there Arnie Zaslaw who grew up today who became one of Carlo's biggest fans and supporters I'm going to read a brief quote from my article of Arnie's Carlo did mass, he did a one-man show about Comedia Del Arte I was a freshman and all we knew of such things at the time was Marcello Marcello Carlo was this mad, incredibly creative genius, but nobody understood what he said because he was inarticulate despite the fact that he spoke five languages he was just full of life and energy and philosophy, I never quite understood what he said but I always understood what he meant Carlo continued to teach mind in New York and he did a one-man show Del Sarce and eventually over to studio with Joel Walker and Tony Monsonato based on the three systems of Del Sarce the crew and the company Carlo arranged an exhibition of Sartori masks at the Donnell Library of Columbia University can I get ahead of myself sorry fingers did the walking well this is I'm leaving ahead here but in 1963 Mel Shapiro who was teaching at Arnie staged the taming of the shoe Comedia style at the arena stage in Washington and managed to rip the masks from Donato Sartori this photograph Carlo, the Venetian Mime expert demonstrates his counterweight this is why this is such a weird photo actually Carlo is doing a counterweight and I don't know how many of you have done the counterweight but you know what I'm talking about and here we are back with the attempt to show the masks to Sartori in the United States the idea was eventually to produce a U.S. traveling exhibition of 100 masks gathering dozens of supporters from theater figures like Joseph Kapp, John Gasper and Dr. Curve that Carlo never got the foundation support he needed to mount the exhibition but it was also introduced Carlo to his first American partner Bobby Burgess I'm going to skip some of this La La La Carlo also taught at Brandeis University where one of the productions he coached said much a lot of director Clementi once Marcel Marceau's sign holder trained the actors to do it with a precision and a style spectacular and never before achieved on the Brandeis stage so just to say that so much of what Carlo was bringing here at that time was a new unseen for us it's a pretty common place in our world and becoming much more so in the larger world but it was a revelatory event in 1965 he was hired to coach the acting company of the new revelatory figure of Lincoln Center and performed in their inaugural production of Danton Steppe Ted Hoffman brought him to NYU during the Hovey work blah blah blah this is Carlo at ACT where Jane and Carlo moved after they were married in 1968 wanted to get away from the East Coast he was increasingly frustrated where theater training was dominated by the American Method so hired by the founder artistic director William Ball to teach the actors Ian Jane moved to the West Coast Ball was part of the new movement toward regional repertory companies for integrating mind movement mass and combat training and actor training just to send a program to the Juilliard School at ACT Carlo encountered the FM Alexander technique and British style voice training as he developed his own pedagogy and finally opened his own school in Blu-ray included them in his curriculum he designed a pedagogy using his own version of a neutral mask a physical mask made by a laptop so the point at which Jane and Carlo were married was 1968 I believe it was 1972 I had that right Jane that we all moved out to the West Coast to work at ACT and wrong moved down to 1968 oh, say you're married in San Francisco so to the Redwoods the next phase Carlo and Jane brought land in Humboldt County to begin teaching summer workshops and then they started to summer the festival through the magic of Jane's brains and administrative savvy and the ability to convince people to do just about anything in the way of the arts they also had an early troop this is Carlo's translation and direction of the Green Cockatoo done at San Francisco's Firehouse here in 1971 and some of the people in the center there's Jody Gilbert who I don't think is here today are she there? we're not here at all so if you want it going right into the quality of the festival this was a green show this man with the mask and the piccolo was one of my college boyfriends Roger Ellis and in fact the person who told me about Jane and Carlo I was living down off the grid in the woods and he was going broke and he said, hey there's this festival of these people who should believe them and so I did and the Carlo and Jane saga I love this picture I love this picture but with Jane Carlo was able to make his vision a reality and so many years later Jane got the recognition she so well deserved a lifetime achievement award for her here in 2013 thank you Jane no jobs and very little money and a dream so that's an encouragement for all of you out there how the hell am I going to make my life and two kids and a mule the dog is tempo what's the mule's name Joe so they began teaching summer workshops in the redwoods down in the property in panther down Jane got the festival up and learning and they became new pioneers that's essentially why I came down to get out of the city you all put the revolution it's the digital revolution we didn't foresee that inspired by Popo with some of his followers from the Berkeley workshops he began teaching the summer workshops Jock and Fay the cop Monaco, Obamaiana and mine and they started a summer festival a classic Shakespeare musical Carlo really meant to have an impact on the American actor the trained American actor and on classics and all that didn't quite turn out that way but that's what was happening at Kuala Lumpur we got an indian name so the advance to northern california the retreat was the advance Jane found this building and we realized that we could have been in Ferndale we could have been in fortuna and they were looking for a building this one was found in Blue Lake Bulldog Fellows Hall Walk with Money Walk with Money from a grant that was supposed to go to something else That's a lie but significant to the continuation of the story because Carlo said Humboldt County is to San Francisco is part of its dependence Stratford is to London it's where the art grows and people say why here it worked on several fronts she raising the family cultivating a board of directors fundraising looking for the building him trying to keep a group of artists committed to a future with a wild experiment in 1974 the drama review special issue on popular entertainment included their essay Comedia and the actor and I say their essay and I have to say what I'm hearing is that Jane wrote much of that article she put Carlo's visionary ideas into words but yet she didn't want to put her name on it initially because as she said to me I thought an exotic Italian name would draw more people would sell more places etc. I'm not quoting a director but I did quote you directly in my article so some years later we redress that so that the article appears under both their names in public publications so here's Carlo in the studio upstairs his vision for American Comedia began to come to life the school opened in 1975 there's at least five people here who were associated with it at that time and Carlo was the director okay I've got to say that he appeared at the First North American Mind Festival in the summer of 1974 in the Forest of Wisconsin which inspired several young students who followed him here to join the new school that was organized by Barry Roth a new Campbell the festival was an extraordinary gathering of international mind artists many of whom we've never met were caught Dimitri Moonchan's Bianca Schuelsen right now very important in the dissemination of mind and movement in the U.S she was the cost party was the cost first American student I think Barry was his first American female student and she wrote a number we've got books anyone who wants a book of Barry Roth step free she left us boxes of her last work called Actions Keep Love so please take one and if we run out I know we've got more oxes that we've got Carlo taught comedian through a series of improvisations he called the showers because you are never too clean to do that and assisting him for those former students in the very area Johnny Carnes, I have Barry Peter Kors and I met all of them when I auditioned for the Grand Comedy Festival in 1975 noting that I was a certified FM Alexander teacher Carlo invited me to teach in the new school suddenly I'm teaching with Carlo and Jane and he also invited let's get ahead of here this is a show that Carlo and John Paul and I did together called Allusions very typical Carlo type in 1976 and but I was going to come back to that teaching with us in the beginning was Auburn we came out in January of 1975 we shared a house in Arcada and then he got a contract which led to his Broadway or Broadway international successes but he said to Jock the clock to talk to me everything I know to Carlo that's only a comment that he taught me everything else and John has a great anecdote I think it's in your film is it not about how Carlo was upset by that what do you mean? it was a crazy bit different but it was about the things you don't know and the importance of things you don't know so here we are in Blue Lake with a company and a school hang on I just have to go to my no, no, no hang on, sorry anyone need to stretch? no, no at the end of the 1976 school year things felt a bit apart here Jane said Jane said I've had it I've had it with you, I've had it with Del Arte I don't know what she said I'm sure it's going to matter, it's funny but the board of directors quit College of the Redwood said we don't want your festival anymore get out of here and myself and John Paul Cook who was another caught grab teaching at that time we were left building maybe seven students coming in no money except this little grant the second part of this little grant was in the bank but the grant was to tour the production that was supposed to have been already made which hadn't been made so John Paul and I and Carlo said okay let's form a new company let's make this money make a show and tour it on this money we'll all work for nothing and so we can get it going and that was the genesis of the present Del Arte company and so we took this money, Carlo had this very extraordinary idea that the mythological spirit figures of Native American religion, cosmology mythology we were very akin to some of the Canadian characters so he wanted to do a piece based on that so the piece would be such a typical Carlo title so great yet so difficult to understand Arlequino and the force of grudulity now I know exactly what that means but at the time I was graduating I was not going to look good on a poster I was going to sell that so when we toured the production and we commissioned Jail Weissman who had been with the Mind Troop and who had come up to work at Kuala Lumpur Festival and was a director we commissioned him to write the play and he chose Joan Holden also of the Mind Troop and Steve Most who write this play with him and it's um we toured it as the Loons Rage but just the show and in that we hired Michael Fields who's now our producing artistic director to come and work with us in the new company this is here just because I think it's there's very few pictures of Carlo he looks just sad and I don't even know if it's from this period but for me the years after the loss of the festival the divorce the reason within the company were not easy for Carlo so one of the things that happened was that he entered into a pilgrim base and he began a wandering period where he went to Mexico he went to Denmark and met up with a student from the class of 1976 a very wonderful man would you mind digging that door open I think we could use the air thank you well the Greggie who had found the school in Stockholm and was moving to Denmark and he considers Carlo the co-founder of his school the committee school and invited him to work there here's a picture of Carlo with a copy this is not the original of that festival now there's one in the case in the hall working at Holy School and they had an extraordinary friendship bond and I just saw Holy in Denmark let's see if I can skip ahead here the years after I didn't say this slowly things were more stable for the three of us here in those early days more students came Carlo and I found grants to pay a company and hire the staff in 1980 our new company performed at La Biennale in Venice and Carnival in 200 years which Carlo played an undertaker in Birds with Feather based on Laurel Hardy's sketch and thrilled to participate in that first edition Carnival in 200 years in 1994 he returned to Umbult to live and to resume his connection to Delite and at that point he began, we began to insist him by having him teach masters teach workshops in the summer which he did with people who he trusted his favorites including the wonderful Julio who married now to Agnes Eisenberg to Arnie I love this quote from Arnie I carried Carlo's bags for 40 years savoring the crumbs of wisdom that fell from the master's beard and Arnie will tell you that I'm a Donald I just mentioned your name and voila in 1997 John Acorn began filming a documentary called Improviso about Carlo and the international diaspora of Comedia recording interviews with dozens of artists including Marcel and I'm going to show you a bit of that in a second he presented the memorial tribute to the clock in Washington DC and that year gave his last workshop at a comedy festival in Austin, Texas he died in 2000 complications after surgery hundreds of tributes sent to his memorial spotlighted what an extraordinary contradictory, baffling and unique human being was Carlo that's only commenting someone from whom you've learned just by being around him that's what Marcel says but trying to explain Carlo this is one of the weirdest quotes I've ever seen I'm going to read it it's from all of Houston's book the actor's instrument Carlo had an expression called the damn thing which those of you who know him heard it a lot here's an attempt on this guy's part to explain it in the middle of an exercise Carlo Maxoni-Clementi the Comedian actor points to the air in the center of his studio look it's the damn thing there's no better way to say it this thing had just appeared in tonight an entity which is incapable of being precisely described no expression, only an expectancy at the top of the thread which in the moment of Carlo's gesture held, inspected and lost at the same time formed and fled through its jets suspended down between what wasn't what would be this thing appears again present tense, intention presented the damn thing it should be all okay all of you who've gone into academia be careful okay so that brings me practically to say to wrap up about Carlo I'm going to show you some pieces of this what he says that Carlo's underlined teaching purpose was to develop a creative performance to reveal the genius in each student his exercise dealt with what he called the creative matter to create something out of nothing what Carlo embodied better than anything was the all of a sudden the spontaneity in the face of life's dating battle and above all the humor is life 51% comedy? Carlo is buried in the blue lake cemetery under a tall rhythm of tree a short walk from the center where his life's work has survived and grown to include not only a professional company in school but an accredited MFA program and an annual summer festival I'll tell you a bit more about that at the end and I want to show you a piece of John's film Johnny Cork, Teacher, Actor, Filmmaker I'm bored about you look at that here's your visa and now here's the sizzle reel for John's film that's great that's all I had to tell you I'm Johnny Cork I'm making a documentary about making a documentary about the context of having to choose the place in America improv improvise improvise improv I can't know he left a comment about it because it was the source of the Italian piano spontaneous math that was a familiar look they were masked, they were slapstick they were all kinds of routines you can see a ball, they were red-skilled and they were busted people you can see crane doing it the scripts were normal, aren't they? just scenarios, just like Canadian art when they're pushing the piano up the stairs it was so funny he was incredibly Carlos Madden I didn't understand anything I found that the best way to deal with Carlos was just to watch him it was only years later that I came to understand just how important Carlos was and is to my very being as an artist I'm going to present to you for the first time he needed to be he was going to be such a good friend when he came here playing for himself as an authority he made art to build a legend about himself I didn't tell you on the line remember you are a poet the second city of Brown there are any lines that tell you so today is one of the great crowning of flyers of this movement that started the movement a poem that truly blew in the 60s, 70s, 80s slipping on a piano why do people do that? why do we land? ah the birds are interupting and when I interupt I go and I'm talking breathing lung breathing lung breathing lung breathing lung breathing lung breathing lung breathing lung breathing lung breathing lung breathing lung this is the video and then we'll wrap this part services to mind truth Carlos made an influence on the mind truth and all other kinds of that was coined from them and as I said, he and R.G. Davis he tutored R.G. Davis the guy that is currently there is Peter Coyote this is the mind truth in the Galdonis Lamont Militaire an updated satire on the Vietnam war invited to campuses all over the U.S. during that time thank you thank you how about Sandy Archer extraordinary actress to go over the mind truth political finger I mentioned her one because she is one of the great women of Canadian she taught her as a guest teacher a number of times and left us in a library so many of the books upstairs especially related to Gretz through guerrilla theater to political theater came from Sandy she was a beautiful beautiful woman Bob Rose of the student here co-founder of theater in June unfortunately no longer with us a great force for a time in the American theater Bob is still alive thank you thank you Bob is very much with us I did know the studio in Minneapolis studio 206 I won't take the time to show you this video this is another graduate Tim Kaiser from Holland who works and directs in Rome this is a lovely vid I can show some of these later of Don Giovanni done with puppets and human beings we honored Carlo in 1990 at the Commedia dell'Arte the comic spirit which was the actor's theater removal classics and context festival at which I think I'll be finally for game us I'd like to read you this quote from Bart Cher because it's a he's having a tremendous success he just directed the cameo that's Wayne Raves and the Tony Wardling he said I invited Carlo to teach at the Hartford stage in 1990 6, thank you to coach the actors on servant of two masters he did workshops with them they thought he was nuts, they wanted quick answers it was like going to a zin master and saying just give me the answers and then we took off the road but the answers are never easy I thought he was too so he's someone working in the mainstream theater who's got Carlo Carlo's vision of a company school school company alive for 40 years the contribution that I think he's been carrying on is the development of the American stock characters and some people say I laughed at the Commedia out there and but Commedia, as Carlo knew it was about working with where you are theater of place, he never used those words we used them I think first probably around 1976 but that American stock characters the Hardwell detective when he toured this show Donald Forrest a deep drop in self-discard tissue contemporary stock characters and as Commedia was theater of play level and ensemble you know I need to recognize TV here we did the American working class stock characters in a play called Slapstick using all the great Hardwell routines that we could think of and could do at the time that we did this piece in 1989 we have done our homage to Goldoni in 2005 that's Donald that's Don Marzio B in the pants roll over there you can see the count in a million millions of millions not this morning as and Laura Munoz who choreographed Mary Jane performing as Pláfida and Steven Bisher 2005 and a beautiful set designed by an Italian artist who worked with this for seven years Giulio Cedre he and I co-directed and co-wrote a piece based on Casanova's memoirs this is the lovely Amelia again she's not here when the company paired with the Baroque Magnificat Ensemble of San Francisco in Lomkin-Parnasso which is a madrigal really and it's Steven Joe Eganbacher both all-dollar take grads Joe became the director of the San Francisco concert so I just put that job here in the ensemble and it was done in this gorgeous church three actors playing many roles Steven and Joe I would like to show you this piece because it is one of my absolute favorite pieces from the Dell IT company performing anxiety I have to set the stage just a little bit in 1981 the State Office of Family Planning commissioned us to do a piece about men's responsibility and birth control there were certain things we couldn't mention and at the time no one was talking about HIV so that was not on the table that's all in this play we have never done a traditional comedia style piece before this time so our agent was saying you gotta do comedia you need to still like that do it we created a comedia company the dinner theater in New Jersey which there are many the meeting lady me is having an affair with the young actor who's playing our Latino and he's not very good I'm married to the couple of the company played by Michael the young man while we were on tour impregnated the young woman who gets a phone call to leave he doesn't know what to do he tells the couple that this has happened they fire him she wants nothing more to do with them because he cheated on her even though she doesn't adulterous relationship with him in a fit of sadness he hangs himself from the flies at the end of act one act two takes place in his mind in the moments before he's done and he has a comedia nightmare based on the scenario that they were playing before in which Pantelone tells his servant to dress up like a woman go try to ingratiate himself herself with Isabella so that Pantelone can come and the flowers and the ground will be prepared so this is the nightmare okay, Mr. Pantelone ladies and gentlemen I got my bells on the bells are so pretty are you alone? he's a man who she could call an evil woman I want you to your body, it's trouble you're signaling me your brow is all black and I want nothing more in here your heart your heart is a problem wow, let's make Rating it's all black no, no longer well you made me a very happy man good night the editing I'm not ready no, well I am he convinced me not to buy a condom he's just one idiot he said did it feel like listening to a symphony with earmuffs and surely as a woman are protected what? here we go it's safe with me no hey Scott, we don't need talk I didn't want to you didn't want to but you could not choose not to have a meeting I tell you, they're not wrong wait a minute I'm physically incapable of having children what? what? another stock character the country western singer another stock character Mary Jane that we just finished three years of running and Mary Jane has been invited to be the grand marshal in the Annie and Mary day parade this year we recognize the one stock character I've had two young women come up to me and say we're preparing our Mary Jane costumes for Halloween on Friday night we'll be reading the play the ingenious chamber made that Jane and Carla translated in 1967 it was done once at UC Davis and once when I directed it at University of Colorado Boulder and some of the symbols here will be taking parts in that it'll be fun this is an American comedian with a mask show with 15 mask characters he toured it quite widely the Del Arte school today has an accredited MFA program on one of your certificate programs a study abroad balling program ripping through just some images from our PR and the Del Arte school PTP program there's a lot of applying and contemporary stock characters here's a comedian who works out with our guest artist this is Evan Johnson this is Evan Johnson who will be performing Kenzie here for these nights and there's probably a Francis, are you here? Francis, are you here? there's a number of people here who work in this class we've had many comedian guest artists here including Sandy Archer, Giovanni Valeria Campo Julia Verona, Jeff Boyle, Julia Zaslob, Giovanni Corning, you know this is the wonderful Jeff Boyle in Beezer which he brought up here a couple of years ago and another company with very much coming a year roots to whom we gave the prize of hope in 2008, Tim Robbins and the Actors Gang and here's Renee, the year we gave him the Lifetime Human Award and you saw and I'm going to play for you this short clip now about the school today many of you have seen this but many of you have not the stage must remain a dangerous place the actor poet being a member of an ensemble a community of theater makers must be imaginative and skilled in manifesting all aspects of the theatrical world holding to nations like the belief that the worlds manifest before the audience need not be representative nor indicative of the incident of our time the actor poet must be the diviner of the walk seers and dwellers capable of manifesting the other no longer pretend to reflect reality but who invent imagined stories capable of speaking through time with a voice that bears witness to the world that we know it is the fire of inspiration the tenacious imaginative region the rigorous invention the disciplined pursuit of clarity that manifests prophetic ethics capable of igniting a flame illumination for a path the question then who would step into this charged space with the heart to discover to find in one's self the other the value how to strike the value is not there to sound the alarm to play the pipe to put the unseen streams across seven to be resonant conduit of encounter a tone that would remain otherwise unawful the story must be witnessed those things that are necessary not the willing business not the circus with the actors are doing something manifesting a world not just imitating reality there must be something else mass makers come out of here there's a couple of Torbjorn Alstom and Newman people who went off to both Bali and then studied with Denado Sartori Christine Cuckoo is also here mass maker, public maker public blogger produces the Calgary animated objects festival although I understand she just passed that off one of our MFA classes in a wonderful work of fishing in my head or the fish in your head I forget what the actual title of that piece was and finally I'm going to conclude here saying fruit of Carlos vision and his vision to carry Commedia Bellarte across the Atlantic the city of Blue Lake officially declared December 12th in the early Clementi day he often described himself as the wind I am the wind meaning that he was the one who stirred things he got things moving many Commedia experts have passed through the new world Carlos stayed and kept stirring the plot it is a full course meal one part in its own thing one part mine one part grandfather and one part his own genius who was for money's convenience program pioneer this is the inscription he wanted on tombstone and his family made sure that he got it you will find it up at the top of the hill in the blue and cemetery to the left of the cross should you try to go up and drop a drop of wine or a coin from your country or anything on Carlos's grave you'll see those have been there what time are we at at what time are we when did that expression say what time are we at where are we at thank you I fear that I've gone over due to technical difficulties and because truly I am a dottoria the body of Isabelle so let's just say that can we at last say thank you so much we can also continue this in the lunch people who aren't sitting at the table but I want to start with the family to us, to anyone and no one's required to say anything we'll try to keep comments not too long just because we're I don't know if we were supposed to go to 12-12-30 okay great 15 minutes yeah about it so Jane, Sylvia you all have any comments I think it's very well done, Joan and you know to write anything that is the story of Carlos's life would end up being behind the boring piece and probably many of the same things but I think it's well done and evocative really the journey and it is a journey at Del Arte you know there was never an intention to arrive at a destination but rather to arrive at a launching point which is what Lule and Del Arte have been and will continue to be with all of your support and continued interest I will say that this is short because the book that wanted an article about Carlos that can be no more than 4,000 words it's like miles of material information and archival stuff, photographs, etc but so that's the condensation that you're hearing hopefully there will be an expanded version not the length of one piece because I'm not aware of that one are you in fact working on a book, Joan? you know, as soon as I'm cutting some tethers yeah I will be trying to do that especially about the showers and the relationship to Carlos's life and his development as where some of this stuff came from when I started, his first wife kept very great archives for the early years okay, Arne's as well well this is a come back to follow um what you've done is so much more than Carlos ever achieved he was not happy there I was 19 when I met him and I lived through all of this and so on and on and that fight was different I had to escape him and we were intimate we meet in the same part at the same time and he said now we are friends we had just we had just driven back from New York and we both had to take a pee and he said, come on, we pee together and that is a sign of friendship what you've achieved here is such an honor and it's like, go on the mask is here everything is here and you're waiting, it's a miracle I don't know how you guys did it how you can live in the woods all these years I get nervous I don't see cement every half hour I mean it's just really extraordinary I was the first I was the luckiest and I lived with them and followed them Paul is a phrase if you sit at the peak of the rabbi and nibble the crumbs that fall from his beard that's how you learn and that's what we had to do right, we had to nibble he was not a happy man I lived with him for so long and you had a and Jane had an incredible job is Val here? no no, not now, I hope to see you here it's a mitzvah if anybody wants a mitzvah this whole thing is a mitzvah a blessing for all of you that never met him how many of us met him and how many of us here when you said last night that people here had not met him but this is now we've met it's good to go work I'm so happy to be here I'll talk to you all I have a card and I have one more thing to say I have to say wait, Carlos spoke he said they don't get it he said that to me when the rift came and I came back and I helped with the hands together and I said you guys have got to be together and he said they don't get it and I could make a vulgarity I'll tell you in the lunch you know the vulgarity he said close is not good enough but now you've got it that was there did he see that did you live with Michael? I honestly don't if he had seen that he would have said you've got believe me, I know those of us that have got it that was what I said you've got to have a finish man what's it going to be three? but that's the finish you take the talent that he has and the teamwork teamwork was just superb so that's what I can say I'll tell you the vulgarity should I say it now? I think you can he said close is not good enough he said the asshole is one inch from the fuck hole he said it in English he probably existed it now he said he stuck a prick in my ass that's it, okay we've been collecting Carl's sayings for many years there's some documents about those we don't have time to go into them I'm also hoping that John's film for which he's still attempting to and I could have shown him the five minute clip they can see it tomorrow yes that will replace I don't need to make presentations like this if we get that Dome and Timon writing out there Dome, yes I just wanted to mention that Vivian, Carl's first wife was really instrumental in bringing him to this country and supporting his work and she came and had the memorial I was having this fantasy Vivian was a very wealthy woman and I think her family owned the whole New Jersey side of the Hudson River but I always had this fantasy that since they did not have children and she was interested in his work perhaps she would leave a request for a legacy that would make films possible and in one of those sort of sad strange stories where Pamelia becomes another woman Vivian died many years about two years ago I guess and I knew that because I again I was contacted by a husband of hers and I never heard of who wanted to know if I could tell her the date that Carl was married to her and when they were divorced because they needed proof of that for her to apply for a state assistance now a woman who lived in the penthouse of the Gramercy Park Hotel as Arnie knows because I lived with them all every place I lived with them and I don't know what happened I think there must have been I didn't know what happened I saw her a little bit and I I didn't know where I was and I lived with her and Clinton knew at the little school but she was well then she had some illnesses she caught her head too many times off of a horse and she had a little bit of epilepsy she passed out long ago but she had good care afterwards she had relatively good care I saw her death but she kept giving me money to buy food but she was all right when I was there and I went back several times to see her she was comfortable and this is a shock for her to go from great fortune her sister and her father and mother the sad thing about that and you know we gave I think all the respect she was leaving here at Del Arte we always included praising her for her work supporting Carlos' work and I think that was important to her but for me the great tragedy is there was no legacy to leave Del Arte as a part as a part of the school which is for me the saddest thing ever and one of the most important things that could also happen is and you're welcome look through this very small folder these are only a few of the photos that we've been able to scan that's the big challenge of now living in the digital age and you have years and years of material that is analog and so you know some of these photos that I showed the originals this lovely program Arte Negro Americana and you can actually see it closer if anyone wants to look through those where's the mask now okay I'd like to put it down here on this in 2000 when Carlos Memorial there was a vintage just maybe one of the last bottles I'm not sure I want to uncork it during this and much better than anything he ever drank which was not Carlo Rossi it was Parducci I don't know if that went into the trivia questions last night so we've got just a couple more minutes I think yes 40 grand so if you know any institutions will you post your yes I'm going to post it on both the Del Arte groups and on my Facebook you can go in for Bezo with two B's on Facebook could I just say one fine thing that's plenty to say I've been loving this but as I've been making this the idea of Commedia Del Arte who knows the right way to teach Commedia Del Arte nobody knows the right way to teach Commedia Del Arte except of course but it was reinvented after World War II it was being explored in the 20s and what's his name I was thinking of the mask the magazine but the idea of reinventing Commedia reinventing himself you have certain ways of calling his exercises you do and they're all a little different because he kept changing and evolving and that's what you should take from this school you too should take it reinvent it steal a bit make it your own right I'm very moved by this and my first memory of Pablo just physical and emotional was when he went like this Commedia Del Arte so and yes so we always talk about Commedia Del Arte but Commedia comes from a very tragic land and Italy has a very tragic history so Commedia has been a way to own together polarities and wounds and scars that are very deep so Carlo came here after the war and he saw things that we had worked in our home land so Commedia that renew all of Commedia was done by a generation of men that had gone through the war and there was this desire to continue after this terrible event but also there was plans around a lot so I really want to say this there's this tragedy Del Arte also and we made the 51% of Commedia because it's a great way to hold the thing that we don't understand but there's also very there's a boom in it so yes there's a boom in that thing and I love that you here have also connection with the wounds around you and Commedia can say something about it and not to mention that here we are also in the place of a lot of wounds in the past the new world is also full of wounds and there's a lot of great stuff and I really want you to do this again he's going to say Commedia Del Arte et qui I'll just say I'll just say actually could you clarify your presentation about Mazzoni Clementi that you might have noticed a lot of early posters that he was Mazzoni which was his father's last name and it was actually Giancarlo Menovci when he was in a performance at Spoletto that he was working that he had discussed his family history and Clementi from his family his mother's side of his family but an organization on his side of his family and had more of an artistic background somehow dissimilaration to that he wanted to live with and that's how he decided to add to that I didn't know why I knew when because a billion kept incredible records of programs and things from Carnegie Brandeis etc and in all of them he's Carl Mazzoni when he gets to the company in Lincoln Center in 1965 he's listed in the program as Carl Mazzoni Clementi and from then on that's who I was writing to him he was born as a monthly Clementi and people always like oh so you're married to someone Clementi so that's when he married me he was writing to me no you go back to your maiden name ah I didn't do it I just wanted to tell you that you have done a fantastic job thank you thank you but we know that and we forgive and that's what we have to keep doing with our partners yes say yes say yes I have been to pass out and I'm going to do this so that we can conclude this way hey everybody I have copies of the Garibaldi song I would like us to sing it together a couple of verses and you might hear the words with the phonetic spelling perhaps you know it already thank you yes great and I'm going to sing a tune for those of you who know what to do with me Garibaldi uberito uberito runga gamma Garibaldi tecomanda tecomanda it was vexed on the air but that's a different a typical word to say for us and it was your friend Mateo who spoke to you about calión which is much easier because we're English speakers in Italian so that's how women speak in Italian okay so this is you know an Italian children's way to learn your vowels so we're going to do a couple of them so it goes you simply replace the vowel with any vowels that are inherent so if we do I it would be I I I I I I I I I I I