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| Sharon Letts |
| “Mary Jane: The Musical” is led by DAI’s founding artistic director Joan Schirle as first-generation grower, “Mary Jane, The Diva of Sativa.” |
Mary Jane: The Musical, illuminating the weed culture of Northern California’s Emerald Triangle, is returning to the stage, playing three weekends June 21 through July 8. The show, presented by Dell’Arte International, now features four new songs, reflecting current changes in community attitudes on the price of cannabis, cultural divisions, and who benefits from the black market and who benefits from making it legal.
What began as a back-to-the-land movement after 1967’s Summer of Love has morphed into a hot topic of national interest. Cannabis has become the economic engine of Northern California, with $2.6 billion following annually through the Emerald Triangle, comprised of Humboldt, Trinity, and Mendocino counties. Environmental norms and local law enforcement have been challenged by the explosion of marijuana cultivation.
Humboldt County has been home to Dell’Arte International (DAI) for 38 years. Its theatre ensemble is known internationally for the development of “Theatre of Place,” bringing the community closer to the stage, and the stage closer to the community.
Mary Jane: The Musical premiered in 2011, exploring the role of cannabis in its own back yard, through songs by a dozen composers and staging by longtime director Michael Fields. The musicals reveals the positive role of cannabis in the local economy, as well as its medicinal value. But it also shares the dark underbelly of the industry, where grow houses, violence, and polluting cultivation methods have become a scourge to the Green Belt of Nor Cal.
