Puck is Dream Part for Dancer Marla Navarrete

Puck’s trouble keeping lovers straight in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” created needless quarrels and comic havoc deep in an enchanted forest. The “shrewd and knavish sprite” felt no remorse, but rather enjoyed his mischief.

To Marla Navarrete, who dances the role of Puck this weekend in the California Ballet’s production of the play, Shakespeare’s Puck is on the mean side. Otherwise, the role is a perfect typecast.

“I’m a joker, everybody says, and the character comes naturally--being mischievous and playing jokes on people,” she said. Also like Puck, Navarrete has a little trouble keeping straight who’s who. She stopped her interview briefly to ask her mother which of the lovers her sister Karla would be dancing, the answer was Helena. Hippolyta, Hermia, Theseus, Demetrius, Oberon, Lysander, Titania and Helena all seem to fall in and out of love in a world of fairies and woodland creatures Saturday and Sunday evenings at Sea World’s open-air Nautilus Amphitheater.

“Karla’s 22 and I’m 20,” Navarrete said. “We took all our dancing together, starting with tap first when I was 3. I was 7 and she was 9 when we started at California Ballet. She’s been there ever since, and just got back from Russia, studying dance there for about 5 1/2 months.”

Marla left the company at 16 because she was small, too small to do corps work. Puck and Clara in “The Nutcracker” were the only major roles open to her. She now teaches dance at San Diego’s School of Creative and Performing Arts, and she is studying to be a family counselor. “My main goal is to work with abused children,” she said, although she plans to continue dancing.

Navarrete laughed recalling her first role as a bumblebee in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Maxine Mahon’s story ballet choreographed to Felix Mendelssohn’s music. The company premiere in 1977 took place at Starlight Bowl. In 1987, Navarrete first performed Puck, having learned the part by watching a videotape and working with the dancer who performed the role previously. Although no longer a member of the company, Navarrete was invited back this year as a guest artist to repeat the role.

Another guest artist for this year’s “Dream” is Vitaly Artiushkin, former Bolshoi Ballet principal. He performed in San Diego with his wife, Alla Khaniashvili-Artiushkina, and with soloists from the Kiev Ballet in 1989 at the Civic Theater for the California Ballet’s winter gala.

Artiushkin and his wife danced with the Bolshoi from 1984-89 and the two are now free-lance dancers based in Beverly Hills. It is unusual for him to dance without her, he commented during a recent telephone interview, but he accepted the California Ballet’s invitation to perform the role of Theseus. In San Diego last weekend to rehearse with ballerina Karen Evans, whom he will partner, Artiushkin impressed the company with his size, strength and grace.

“He is fantastic,” Navarrete said. “Everybody is excited, really anxious, he is so good. And Karen doesn’t have to worry about falling,” she jokingly added.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” has several leading male roles. Puck is one of them, although having a female perform it is not unusual. “It’s the best role I’ve ever done because it’s me totally,” Navarrete said. “The little nymph gets hold of a magical flower and starts putting spells on the others. He messes up completely and can’t understand why. My favorite scene is when he puts a spell on Tatiana (Denise Dabrowski) and takes Bottom and turns him into a donkey. Patrick Nollet performs Bottom--he’s such a good actor, it’s easy to play off him.”

As in the play, the flower potion makes “a man or woman madly dote/Upon the next live creature that it sees.” Tatiana wakes up and sees the weaver Bottom, who has the head of an ass, thanks to Puck. She falls for him and the result, said Navarrete, is hilarious.

The role of Puck includes improvisation in addition to the dance steps, adding a playful flexibility that appeals to Navarrete. “Puck does mischievous things just to keep himself happy.” He chases ladybugs, scares the fairies, picks on the elves, or just sits around and looks bored, she explained. “A lot of it is what you make up, your own facial expressions, apart from the choreography.” The hard part, she said, is trying not to crack up.

Cracking up seems to come easily to her. She said she misses the backstage chaos and practical jokes that are part of performing regularly with the company. She misses “the girls,” her co-dancers, too. “They were my family for years. We grew up together. It’s fun to work with them again.”

Company announcements remind ticket holders to dress warmly for the open-air performances. Past audiences have brought blankets. Navarrete noted that the trees surrounding the stage at the Sea World theater add a “foresty” atmosphere appropriate to the dance. But the evening air can carry a cold wind or the honking calls of walruses. Dampness, too, can cause squeaky footwork and requires extra care on stage. Nevertheless, Navarrete finds humor in these drawbacks. “It’s an experience,” she laughed.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” opens the California Ballet’s 24th season and is the only company concert held outdoors. The remainder of the season, which includes “Dracula,” “The Nutcracker,” Anthony Tudor’s “Lilac Garden,” and “Coppelia,” will be performed on stages in downtown San Diego and in Poway.

Performances of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” are 8 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Sea World’s open-air Nautilus Amphitheater. For season information, call 560-5676. For tickets, call 560-6741 or Ticketmaster, 287-TIXS.