Response to Dell’Arte Commedia review

We were surprised and disappointed to read the review of our students’ Commedia production in the Times-Standard’s Urge on Feb. 16. Ms. Trauth was apparently so disturbed by one part in the first act that she left at intermission. While she is entitled to her personal tastes, we feel her review is misrepresentative as it didn’t consider the entire arc of the show.

Commedia reflects life as it is lived by everyday people — exaggerated to a high degree for comedic effect. It is a human comedy that lampoons all of us as we chase our desires. For their first public performance, the students created an evening of scenes that drew on these roots: so, yes parts were bawdy, contained some vulgarity, and featured some simulated bodily functions. These attributes were clearly flagged in the pre-production publicity material and pre-show talk.

While we appreciate that the reviewer acknowledged the quality of the performances, we regret that she was neither (a) transparent with readers as to what she found so “stomachchurning” nor (b) fully serving those readers by reviewing the entire performance nor (c) offering illuminating historical and local context. In omitting to fulfill these key functions of a critic, she failed to give her readers a useful perspective on which to judge future Dell’Arte productions.

Thank you for continuing to cover live theatre in Humboldt! We look forward to welcoming all to the next student production, “Dramatic Mask,” March 23-25 at the Carlo Theatre in Blue Lake. — Tony Fuemmeler, Blue Lake