Athletes In The Arena: Stage actor Ken Dalena directs first play at The Claire Theater in Lynden

finding the right temperament to be a theater director.”

Stage has Dalena’s heart

Although he’s also worked in television and film, it’s the stage that has Dalena’s heart.

“I have always been a theater guy,” Dalena said a week before ‘You Can’t Take It With You’ opened Feb. 9 at The Claire.

The Claire had previously been scheduled to perform ‘I Hate Hamlet’ but replaced it with ‘You Can’t Take It With You’ when The Claire Board of Directors selected ‘You Can’t Take It With You’ from a slate that included ‘Picasso at the Lapin Agile,’ by Steve Martin, and ‘Don’t Drink the Water,’ by Woody Allen.

“Casting in December is always a challenge but after rigorous recruitment and a bit of conscription we assembled a talented cast of experienced actors and talented newcomers,” Dalena said.

Dalena acted in high school and college, Spoon River Anthology, Romeo and Juliet (he has pictures from 1964) JB and various Rams Head Productions at Stanford. When he retired at age 61 in 2007, he “immediately started taking classes” at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California “where I had been a season ticket holder for many years.”

“People there liked my acting, and that’s when it all started,” Dalena said.

Dalena said recently that Meryl Streep is his favorite actor “because of how she dissolves into a character.”

He is also a fan of “the quirky ones, John Malkovich, Christopher Walken, Toni Collette, Nicholas Cage.”

After The Repertory, Dalena enrolled in a series of voice classes with faculty from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

“My strength as an actor is my voice,” Dalena said. “I can do many things with it.”

Dalena then studied at Howard Fine acting studio, which lists A-list actors such as Salma Hayek, Gal Gadot, Will Smith and

Brad Pitt.

After working in Hollywood and other southern California communities for a decade, Dalena and his wife Valerie vacationed in Whatcom County in 2016 where he said the couple “just stayed since we were looking to escape California.”

“We liked the cultural scene here as well as the proximity to Seattle and Vancouver,” Dalena said.

Quality productions

Recently, Dalena earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in theatre production from Western Washington University. His senior thesis was related to coaching theater. In his director’s bio at The Claire, Dalena said he is grateful to Professor Evan Mueller “for his mentoring and for his ongoing interest in observing how the concept is used in practice.”

Twice, Dalena has performed on stage at The Claire: in 2017 as Jonathan in Arsenic and Old Lace, and in 2019 as the stage manager in Our Town.

“The most demanding was the stage manager,” Dalena said. “The most fun experience was playing Polonius in ‘Hamlet’ in a big old Victorian house in Hancock Park in L.A. with a group of hard-working professional actors.

According to Dalena, The Claire is a “fine, fully equipped community theater that produces quality productions.”

The Claire Theater, 655 Front St., Lynden, invites you to come out to see the Lynden Performing Arts Guild’s latest production: ‘You Can’t Take it With You.’ This show is rated PG.

Evening showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16-18 and Feb. 23-25. Matinees showtimes are 2 p.m. Feb. 19 and Feb. 26. Tickets are available at TheClaire.org, or call (360) 3544425.

Cost is $15 for adults, $13 for seniors (62 and older) and students (ages 10-22), $11 for children ages 4-9.

-- Contact Bill Helm at bill@lyndentribune. com.