In the 1970s, a group of artists decided to start an international physical theater ensemble and school deep in the woods.

A few miles up the Mad River from Arcata (Humboldt County), they found an old Odd Fellows hall in the logging town of Blue Lake in 1974. By the next year, it was their home. In the following decades,Dell’Arte International影响了数以百计的戏剧practitioners, with its emphasis on the actor as creator and theater of place — theater made about and for a specific community.

One of those founding artists was Joan Schirle, who died of cancer Feb. 1, just days shy of her 78th birthday. If you’ve seen Bay Area theater featuring clowning or acrobatics, or that was devised by an ensemble, there’s a good chance that Schirle, a San Jose native, somehow touched it. Now, Dell’Arte is honoring her legacy with a production of “Madsummer,” a musical adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in which all the lovers are more than 60 years old; it’s scheduled to run Friday, Feb. 18, through Feb. 27.

Schirle was an accordionist, a ballerina, a mask artist, a playwright, an actor, a certified Alexander technique instructor and a scholar, in addition to being a teacher. The Chronicle spoke to Bay Area Dell’Arte alums about their most vivid memories of their mentor.

Name:杰夫•拉兹阿拉米达

Current theater projects:Youth Circus program atCircus Center;“Circus/Borders,” co-created with Rebecca Novick

Years with Dell’Arte:1979-80 as a student; 1980-present as an artist and teacher

有一次,我和琼to co-teach, and the first class was horrible. Like, she would say “Red,” and I would go, “Oh, but that’s green.”

We go over to the Logger Bar (across the street). We sit down, and I’m thinking this is going to be terrible. Joan goes, “Well, that didn’t work. I have an idea. Why don’t you teach acrobatics, and I’ll just help people out with a little Alexander technique?” I’m thinking, “What are you talking about? We’re slated to do something else!” But I’m so happy we’re not having a knockdown brawl in the bar over performance theory that I say yes.

The next day, I’m teaching acrobatics, and she’s walking around silently, almost like she’s not there, just gently touching people. And the acrobatics are getting exponentially better, and everyone in the room is getting calmer instead of more amped. It was beautiful, like, “My ego’s not here, but my hands are.”

Name:Stephen Buescher,San Diego

Current theater projects:UC San Diego Theatre & Dance department; San Diego Repertory Theatre’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”; Fiasco Theater’s “A Streetcar Named Desire”; formerly with theMFA program at American Conservatory Theater

Years with Dell’Arte:1994 as a company member; 1995 as a student; 1997-2004 as company member, teacher and eventually associate school director; 2021-present as board co-chair

For some people, (Schirle) was an incredible advocate for what they were going through in their personal lives. For some people, she was the person that kept them on a theatrical path. Some people, she was a mentor to, and I would put myself in that category. Ensemble does that thing where there’s not a separation between your theatrical life and your life life, almost by design. Joan would teach a class and be the expert in the room. Then she’d go rehearse, and you’d get to see her in process. Then she’d go hang out at the bar, and now she’s off the clock, but still mentoring and telling stories and being with you.

Name:Bridget McCracken, San Francisco

Current theater project:Trash Mash-Up (which creates costumes out of items that would otherwise be considered trash)

Years with Dell’Arte:1996-2001 as a student, then company member, production manager and booking manager

She taught me that you can pursue your dreams. If you want to run an international theater school in the middle of nowhere, you can do it.It was with the sensitivity and the generosity of her spirit that she brought people into her dreams.

Something that was so important to her was Theater of Place, creating works about the place that you’re in.They would use local stories and things that inspire them in nature. It influenced me in creating Trash Mash-Up. What can I use? What is around me? What is identifiable to many people but something that can still transform?

Name:M. Graham Smith,San Francisco

Current theater project:“The Mortification of Fovea Munson” at the Kennedy Center

Years with Dell’Arte:2000-01

她相信彻底性和沉思,一个d I think that drove her decision to live far away from a city, where most artists find currency and avenues to perform. She knew the training and rigor she was interested in could only be found away from the chatter of a city.

She is one of the most extraordinary listeners of anyone that I know. There’s something about that thoroughness that allowed her to really drop in as a listener. Any time I’d have a conversation with her, she’d usually insist that it be a one-on-one conversation, and that would really allow her to absorb the full scope and subtlety and nuance that was at the matter of conversation. I find that to be very rare.

One day she said to me, “Graham, have you ever considered teaching?” I said, “No. I want my art to change the world, Joan, and I don’t have time for teaching.” She paused, took a breath, cocked her head a little bit and said, “Well, in my experience as an artist as a teacher, I have found that the ripples I create in the world go farther and deeper as a teacher than any 90-minute performance could ever result in.” Lo and behold, I treasure teaching more than anything, and it feeds my artistic work, and the artistic work feeds my teaching. Joan knew that when I was 22 years old. She knew how to be deep, but she also knew how to be light and soft when it was required, with the understanding that in the fullness of time, all things will come to pass that are supposed to.

Name:Evan Johnson, Oakland

Current theater projects:Cosmic Elders Theatre Ensemble

Years with Dell’Arte:2005-06

She truly changed my life when she said to me that I could live fully in my male body and have the grace of an angel; I could extend into the space of my arms. I hadn’t felt in my life a sense of comfort or ease in my body. I went to physical theater school with that in mind as an actor. She noticed that struggle in my body and my gender expression. The roles that I was playing weren’t always comfortable to play.I have this habit of holding my chest a certain way. It’s like I’m asserting that I can be here. That added effort, it hurt to do because it felt so toxic. She gave me permission to be here without having to puff up. When I let go and allow and invite ease, there is tremendous possibility to be present.

Name:Ross Travis,Mendocino

Current theater projects:Flynn Creek Circus’ “Balloons, Birds and Other Flying Things; Antic in a Drain’s “Tempting Fate”

Year with Dell’Arte: 2009

(Travis wished to discuss Schirle via poem; here is an excerpt)

She trained the water to flow freely through her muscles
The air to create space in her organs
And that fire in her spine?
That was where the Commedia muses made lazzi on her vertebrae
Igniting inspiration that fed her masks
She transposed the blaze of those sprites for our sake
With nimble and generous footfalls on the earth
The bedrock of her existence

Name:Sabrina Wenske, Oakland

Current theater project:“How to Catch a Karen” with Naked Empire Bouffon Company (Schirle introduced Wenske to its founder, Nathaniel Justiniano)

Years with Dell’Arte:2011-12

She encompassed the room and was just such an embodied presence, but not in a domineering way. She seemed to float.

She was invested in everybody’s dream, just like a true mentor.

“Madsummer”:Adapted from William Shakespeare. Directed by Michael Fields. Feb. 18-27. $20. Dell’Arte’s Carlo Theatre, 131 H St., Blue Lake. 707-668-5663.www.dellarte.com