Theater+

Many years ago, my cousin was a student at Gallaudet (the only university for the deaf in the US), and she asked if I wanted to come to a play that night on the campus.  Sure.  I’m always game for theater.

But my takeaway from the performance — seeing theater signed — was an emotional expansion of the experience of theater.  I’m not deaf, but seeing a play signed changed my world. It was like… theater+ to see a play paired with a language that naturally complements the art in the same way that the round vowels of Italian lend themselves to opera.

Then, a few years ago, we were watching the Tony’s and caught Deaf West’s performance of a scene from Spring Awakening.

Again, it was theater+. I couldn’t stop talking to people about that performance.

Josh mentioned about a year and a half ago that Olney Theatre was going to workshop The Music Man. The idea for the performance came from Joey Caverly, recently in Children of a Lesser G-d on Broadway, and it grew and grew, looping in deaf and hearing actors alike (including the actress who opened that clip from Deaf West above). For a year and a half, the kind people at Olney Theatre got to endure me asking whether I could sit in on a day of the workshop over and over again.

Fast forward to last week. I got to sit in on two hours of rehearsal.

It was incredible. Mind-expanding. Emotional. Beautiful. I walked out of there grateful that I got to witness it. Turner Hitt’s write-up about the experience says it best: “This week-long workshop would light a fire under the pants of every single person involved.” The fire is lit. I’m just a witness, and I’m now dedicated to doing everything I can to help them bring it to the stage because I want everyone else to get to see it, too.

So expect me to talk about this. A lot. Because it was that good and everyone should get a chance to sit in a room and understand how much larger theater can be.  Or as Turner so perfectly puts it:

Every single one of us walked away with the realization that this kind of process and product has the potential to radically change musical theatre–to make it more inclusive and accessible, and to celebrate what every individual has to offer.