The night of Oct. 24, 2023, Donald M. Forrest Jr. died in his bed at his Fieldbrook home in Humboldt County, California. In a clear example of the mutual imitation of art and life, the lifelong renowned theatre actor had just finished starring in his last role as King Lear just one week prior. The adaptation of Lear gave it a happy ending – the king lived. Off-stage Donald followed Shakespeare’s ending. It was his 74th year on Earth.

Donald was born June 18, 1950, in Detroit, Michigan, son of Donald Miller Forrest Sr. and Carol Jane (Beard) Forrest, both of whom preceded him in death. He leaves behind a family and community for whom Donald was both a source and object of love and support through the decades. 

He is survived by his son James Forrest, his stepdaughter Amelia Rudnicki and husband Michael Rudnicki and children Cora and Finn, his brother Richard Forrest and family Margaret, Richard Forrest Jr. and Christine Brooks, his partner Alison Murray, and his ex-wife Nancy Stephenson.

Donald lived his life with an unreserved, determined passion. The concept of struggle was central to his pursuit of artistic excellence, love of others, and political activism. A fighter and a lover both, he resisted placidity, conformity, and complacency, bringing an unbounded sense of possibility and life-force wherever he went. Struggle was also central to the political dimension of his work, which engaged with populist themes of resistance and the fight of the underdog.

His great loves in life were human relationships, fishing and the performing arts, all of which he showed his passion for from an early age. He resided in the Detroit, Michigan area through his high school years. Donald and his brother Rick spent vacation time visiting grandparents in Florida, Uncle Dave’s cottage in Ontario, and camping around Michigan. 

Don was always irresistibly drawn to the water and developed a love of fishing early. Through the school years, he was active in sports, especially competitive swimming and downhill skiing, for which he earned a high school varsity letter. In addition to water, he was also always drawn to the limelight. 

Donald felt that he found his tribe in the theatre crowd at his high school, where he starred in his first plays. He won first place in the high school talent show after writing and performing in an original skit. Donald attended Eastern Michigan University where he also had leading roles in several productions.

As the late 1960s turned to the ’70s and the summer of love turned to the days of rage, Donald’s rebellion from what he described as the suburban values of his upbringing brought him out of college and into the bohemian theatre scenes in Boston and New York. He ended up acting in iconic Off-Broadway theatres like La MaMa and Astor Place while living in a dive hotel, notably running with The Dirtiest Show in Town for three years. He also had a role in Elizabeth I with Ellen Stewart on (not off) Broadway. It was here in New York that he elevated his interest and training in the circus arts of acrobatics, juggling and clowning, which he would combine with theatre for the rest of his career.

Inspired by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, he packed his life onto a motorcycle and headed west to the City by the Bay. He worked part time in construction, building foundations for homes, and began teaching Kung Fu. Continuing his career in theatre, he began to teach juggling and drama in schools and neighborhood arts programs, performed with Make *A* Circus, the Pickle Family Circus, and created the juggling group the Bay City Reds. By this time, he had become a world-class juggler. 

In these escapades Donald met Joan Mankin, who would become a partner in circus, theatre and love for years to come. Together they were Ralph and Queenie Moon in the Pickle Family Circus. Combining his passion for circus and politics, he spent most of ’74 touring in Mexico working and organizing political resistance with Los Mascarones and Teatro Campesino. In his own words, “we got in a lot of trouble.”

Back in San Francisco he began performing with the San Francisco Mime Troupe where he met director Jael Weisman, who introduced him to Joan Schirle and Michael Fields from the Dell’Arte players in Humboldt County. After they saw him perform, he was invited to join the theatre company. He jumped at the opportunity to do plays in a dedicated theatre space where he could balance the “loud work” with the “quiet work.” The abundant fish he saw in the river at Forks of Salmon may have also played a part (OK, they definitely did). In 1978 he once again packed his bags, this time for the Wiyot land, where he would live the rest of his years.

This would prove to be the beginning of a remarkable career as an artistic director at Dell’Arte, along with dear friends Michael Fields and Joan Schirle. As a key early member, he helped guide the organization for 25 years teaching, acting, directing, managing, building sets, crafting special effects and costumes, and stage combat choreography. Here he helped pioneer a new practice of theatre that combines the maskwork and physical theatre of commedia dell’arte, with circus arts and a heartfelt, politically minded “theatre of place.” 

The Joan-Michael-Donald trinity was a force to be reckoned with, providing this rural American community the opportunity to use theatre as a means to take themselves seriously – by laughing at themselves. Humboldt County would not be the place it is without Dell’Arte, and Dell’Arte without Donald.

Some notably beloved plays he starred in include Whiteman Meets Bigfoot (1980), the Scar Tissue Mysteries (1979-1991), Performance Anxiety (1981), Malpractice (1984), Slapstick (1989), the Korbel Chronicles (1993-2008) and Mad Love (1997). 

Many locals will never forget his portrayals of characters ranging from an eight-foot tall simian (Bigfoot), a “perennially innocent” newspaper boy (Woody), a cross dressing woman (Terry), a devious Baroque doctor (Dr. Currant), a pianist with murderous hand transplants (Stephen Orlac) …and just about everything in between. 

Overall, Donald directed or performed in over 30 plays with Dell’Arte, and plenty more elsewhere in the community and beyond. Many of these plays toured in far-flung places ranging from Oregon to Denmark, San Diego to Uruguay. Most recently he ran with Michael Fields’s LONGSHADR company in Radioman, Madsummer and The Logger Lear.

Donald founded the Education Through Art program (ETA) at Dell’Arte in the early ’90s, providing thousands of Humboldt school children opportunities to grasp academic curricula through theatre arts. That a renowned actor, director, and one-time Broadway performer took to directing rural school plays with such passion is a testament to what he considered worthy of serious work. 

He loved working with kids and treated them with a respect and dignity that would elevate (and sometimes intimidate) them. In this time, he began a lifelong friendship with geologist Dr. Lori Dengler, with whom he would direct a whole series of school plays and educational video PSAs on earthquake and tsunami safety. 

Donald also taught physical theatre and acrobatics to high school students at the California State Summer School for the Arts at the CalArts campus in Santa Clarita for many years. 

As for a career as a film actor, his bio in the early ’90s writes, “Let’s face it: Donald spends more time with his family and fishing than trying to get into TV and film.” This was thankfully true. However, Donald appeared as a minor character in the Hollywood film Outbreak (1996), which still earns him small residual checks to this day (son James is trying to figure out what to do with the treasure trove of about $6.50 per year).

Let’s talk about the two F’s he loved most (probably not the two F’s you’re thinking, though he loved those too). 

First off, Fishing. His Family (the other F) inherited a foot- high stack of photos of dead fish and smiling faces dating back to the middle of the last century. From his boyhood visiting the Florida Keys to countless hours off the California coast, sharing time on the water with his dearest friends was, as he would say, “the stuff of dreams.” 

Don’s best friend Kit remembers that his first thought on catching any fish was always who he would share it with – family, theatre partners, the next-door neighbors Jack and Ellie, any gathering he was attending; his natural response to abundance was always generosity. 

His children James and Amelia mostly remember waking up too early, taking dramamine, and trying to stay warm on the choppy swells out of Trinidad. But in a world without theatre Donald could have lived off his fishing stories alone.

And the other F; Family – he met Nancy Stephenson in 1983 when her roommate brought Donald home for a hot tub after a Dell’Arte Holiday show rehearsal in Blue Lake. After Nancy got out of the tub he turned to Nancy’s roommate and said, “I’m going to marry that woman someday.” After a leisurely but determined courtship, they were married in 1989 with a new stepdaughter named Amelia and a bun in the oven named James. 

Donald loved his family with a remarkable sense of presence and dedication. It was no coincidence that he founded a program for teaching theatre to Humboldt County’s public-school students once his children were, as it would happen, Humboldt County public-school students. James developed an interest in filmmaking and editing early in high school – before long Donald had a closet full of film gear and was studying film and journalism at Humboldt State University. They would work together making experimental Super 8 videos and shooting political ads. 

Halloweens were always a treat, as you would expect, for the children of a man with decades of stage makeup and special effects experience. You want masks, fake blood, realistic disembowelment? Look no further. Through every school project, class trip, birthday party, vacation, community fundraiser – Donald was there in his characteristically big way. Donald was also a loving son and talked to his mother Carol in Michigan every day on the phone, in his words, “repenting for my youth,” until she died in 2021 at the age of 102.

Donald’s marriage was filled with love. It was also fraught with challenges. Like so many creative visionaries, he had a way of testing his own limits – and those of the people around him. In 2002 Donald and Nancy divorced, though they would remain good friends for life.

Around this time the physical stress of decades of acrobatics began to catch up with him; he had back injuries and surgeries, both hips replaced, and progressive joint degeneration. As Donald would say, “I earned this – I used my body up.” In the early 2000s he retired from Dell’Arte, although he would continue to be involved in plays and teaching for the rest of his life.

In addition to theatre, Donald spent time on his film and video work, dramatic readings with the Eureka Symphony, fishing escapades, his undying support for the San Francisco Giants (they had some great years there), cooking gourmet food and his near daily swims at the Arcata Community Pool, where he became a beloved regular. 

It was outside the pool one day in 2014 that he met Alison Murray when she and her client were drawn to Donald’s dog Lucy. Before long they fell in love; Donald would spend the remaining nine years of his life with Alison, enjoying a connection of mutual support and care.

Donald has left the physical world. A man of such singular physicality, voice, and presence leaves a real void behind. But as Michael Fields noted, theatre itself is fleeting. It lives in a moment and then moves to the memory where it resides in the soul – so do great actors, and Donald was certainly that. He lives now in this place of the soul where he joins some of his best friends, family, lovers, co-stars and partners; in that place we’ll all join again someday. Until then we certainly will not forget him.

As he loved to toast in honor of his Scottish blood:

“Here’s to us! Wha’s like us? Damn few and they’re a’ died!” Well, here’s to Donald. Damn few will ever be like him.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a few donation options (in no particular order):

• The “Save Dell’Arte” fundraiser – if they go under we’ll never know what their future might hold:
dellarte.com/support-us.

• Karuna Rescue (animal rescue) – Donald always had such a loving connection to dogs and cats: karunahumboldt.com/make-a-donation.

• The Arcata Community Pool – this pool was like his church: arcatapool.com.

• Or donate to the family for cremation, memorial and other estate costs. Email: [email protected]m