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Signing On:
by Laurie Granieri, Staff Writer, Herald Tribune
Ellen Beattie still remembers the phone call. “A customer was irate that we didn’t have sign interpreters” for the Forum Theatre Company’s spring 2004 production of Alice in Wonderland.”
The frustrated customer, a father of a deaf child, “made it apparent to me that this was a culture that was not served,” says Beattie, artistic director of A Kid’s Forum, the Metuchen theater’s series of family programming. A Kid’s Forum has been operating for a decade at the 500-seat theater on Main Street.
Left to Right: Brian Townes and Steve Graham. Photo: Greg Weber The phone call prompted Beattie to begin brainstorming with her staff about mounting a fully signed production, one along the lines of the 2003 Broadway revival and American Sign Language adaptation of the musical Big River. The musical used hearing, hearing-impaired and deaf actors who spoke and signed the show simultaneously. This Forum Theatre production would not involve a group of “shadow interpreters” who act out the show on the stage’s periphery, and there would be no subtitles hovering above the action; this would involve a cast of performers who would sing, dance, act and sign the entire production.
A year later, the brainstorming sessions have borne fruit. Beginning Saturday, the Forum will present the world premiere of a fully sign-interpreted Treasure Island. Forum producer/artist-in-residence Paul Whelihan adapted the musical from Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 swashbuckling adventure novel. He directs an eight-member cast of hearing and deaf actors.
Neither Beattie nor Whelihan sign, so they enlisted the help of R. Liam Jennings of Highland Park and Brianne Sudia of Tabernacle, both of whom had previously done sign interpretations for the Forum. Jennings, 21, says he helped “with fluency, idioms, colloquialisms.”
He and Sudia, 18, reviewed the lyrics and the script and then applied a creative, sensitive sign interpretation that takes into account the personalities of the various characters.
“It’s not just (about) having a deaf audience have access to” a play, Jennings says in a telephone interview, with Sudia as his interpreter. The concept behind Treasure Island is that it is “not just a modifed play…It’s much more than just the information.” For instance, Jennings says, the character of Capt. Flint “signs more regal, structured, bluntly,” while Long John Silver’s signing “would be more rough in appearance;” young Jim Hawkins’ signs would be “more idealistic…nothing too complicated for him. You could have no understanding of sign at all, but (for example), the sign for ‘walk the plank’… it looks like you're walking the plank” he says, because there’s a lot of “physical comedy” in the show. “It's beautiful,” Beattie says. “It’s like choreography.”
The actors admit that the process of learning the signs in addition to the dance, singing and speaking is challenging. But they also seem to view signing as a way to get to the core of their characters. “I’m afraid I’ll sign a different line,” says Christopher Jones, a high school student from New Egypt. Still, he says, signing adds another dimension to the process, making it “easier to put out different emotions.”
Fanwood’s Steve Graham, 34, agrees that the learning process can be daunting.
“It’s interesting to realize for a lot of people, singing and saying (the lines) will take a back seat to what you’re signing,” says Graham, who has performed in the Forum’s productions of Aladdin and Rapunzel, among other shows.“ …I’m retraining myself…it’s a different approach.” For example, Graham says, laughing, “when you’re learning your lines, you have to learn signs… you can’t practice while you’re driving. The old methods don’t work.”
“There’s a lot of coordinating issues going on,” adds performer Mindy Gollins of Marlboro. “My brain is pretty full.
“ASL (American Sign Language) is a totally different language from English,” she continues. “You can compare it to doing Spanish and English at the same time. We’re translating it. There’s lots of idioms that have to be translated.”
Fortunately, Ellen says, “Liam teaches them the essence of the signing. It’s more emotional,” so that the actors are not merely communicating words, they’re projecting emotion, telling a story. Jennings checks up on the actors on weekends, Beattie says, just to be sure the signing is working out.
Whelihan says his “charge is to make sure the actors still illuminate the story and the characters even though they’re using their hands. The heart of the drama can go out with the actors worrying that they’re not cursing.”
Forum Theatre Company patron Stephanie Salony of Jackson says she is looking forward to accompanying her 6-year-old deaf daughter, Chloe, to Treasure Island. “That is so exciting to me. It’s so…you can’t even imagine,” Salony says.
Christopher Jones plays Jim Hawkins and Brian Townes plays Long John Silver. Credit: Greg Weber “I’m looking forward to it because (when you see a fully sign-interpeted show), you don’t have to look back and forth” from the interpreter to the stage. “It’s right there. She’s going to see it like we are.”
This is important, Salony points out, because although sign interpreters stationed in the theater can be helpful, Chloe often is “missing the actual show if she’s looking at the interpreter.” For instance, when Chloe attended the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Salony says, the interpreters were difficult to see. Sometimes the interpreters are too far away, or the theater is too dark to make them out, Salony says. Other times, Chloe gets stuck behind a tall patron and can’t see a thing.
Treasure Island means a lot, Salony says. Recently, Chloe saw a fully sign-interpreted theater production and she “was on the edge of her seat,” Salony says. “I like that she’s getting as much as everyone else out of it.” And that’s exactly the point, Jennings says.
A fully sign-interpreted play utilizing signing performers “is much more rewarding to a deaf audience,” he says. “Instead of (merely) making it accessible, we are making it enjoyable.”.
Laurie Granieri is a staff writer for the Herald Tribune and can be reached via telephone at (732) 565-7333 or via email
This article was published April 24, 2005 in Art & Life, the Home News Tribune’s Sunday lifestyle and entertainment section.
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The Cultural Access Network is a co-sponsored project of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts / Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.