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Local News: 'Beauty and the Beast' musical caters to deaf | musical, beast, beauty - Local News - Recorderonline.com
Who says the deaf and hard of hearing can’t experience a musical in its entirety?
Not Jim Kliegl, a play director who envisioned and, on Friday, had the Lindsay Community Theater stage set to include “something special” in this year’s production: An American sign language interpreting crew.
When considering whether to add the extra touch to “Beauty and the Beast,” his latest two-hours-long musical, the Lindsay High School English teacher and director thought, “why not?”
The play showed Dec. 4, 5, and 6, and will continue on Friday and Saturday.
The sign language interpreters were scheduled to be a part of the show on Dec. 5 only.
Meanwhile, 36 brightly-outfitted high school actors stole center stage: Interpreters Victoria Graves, Clara Cabrera and Brianna Terrill stole the spotlight.
Under a spotlight and against a black curtain, the three stood stage left — wearing dark hues themselves — and gave off a volley of expressions. They included motions to match not only the dialogue, but the tones and emotional effects of what was going on throughout the play.
They used their hands, faces and body language to depict an emotion.
“A good part of sign language is expression and body movement,” Graves said backstage.
When “the beast” was angry, the three would give their signs an extra thrust. When the cast broke out in song, they would weave the signs into a rhythmic flow of motions.
Kliegl said after the show he was pleased with the outcome of what took 11 to 12 weeks of steady preparation.
But he wasn’t about to take any credit. Graves, he said, shouldered the “tremendous” job of translating the 100-page script into American sign language.
“She’s spent, for the last two months, every free minute she had on this script,” Kliegl said.
Graves said she clocked 138 volunteer hours on the project.
Her work included developing a shorthand version, and coming up with synonyms that would convey the same meaning of certain phrases and colloquialisms the play afforded that could not be translated directly into signs.
Having formerly worked for a deaf and hard of hearing agency, Graves is partially deaf herself, but hears “when it’s not too loud.”
She is employed by the Lindsay school district as an interpreter for Cabrera, who was one of the other interpreters for the play and is in Kliegl’s English class.
The third interpreter, Terrill, is not deaf, but happens to be a friend of Graves and Cabrera.
Cabrera is legally deaf. Her involvement with the play stemmed from Kliegl approaching her in September, and the play became her senior project.
There are five known deaf children in the Lindsay school district, Kliegl said.
Kliegl, who has worked in the school district for 37 years, conceived the idea for the interpreters after seeing firsthand the challenges those children face from one of his English students.
“We’re doing it for them, and any other deaf people who might want to come,” he said earlier Friday.
Graves, who has a connection to the deaf community through the agency she used to work for, said she had about 100 e-mails sent out for the receipt of about 400 deaf and hard of hearing people.
She also invited several deaf friends to come.
After the play, Kliegl went into the audience to mingle, curious as to how many deaf and hard of hearing took advantage of the one-night offering.
Laura Scott, another interpreter for the district, counted six on the spot, but said there were probably several more deaf people who came. Several were from Washington Elementary School.
She was one of the many who commended Kliegl for the special offering.
“It really means a lot to these kids,” she said.
The eyes of one girl, 9-year-old Lisbeth Ceballos, lit up as she asked her interpreter to relay a message.
“I really liked it,” she signed.
This was the first play she’d ever seen.
A program in her hand, she asked her interpreter for a pen, then went to ask for the cast members’ autographs.
Graves termed this one an “extremely rare” occasion.
“Part of the reason is [people] just don’t realize there’s a whole population out there,” she said.
Tulare and Kings County alone, Graves said, have more than 42,000 deaf and hard of hearing people.
“I think the only reason the teacher thought about it was that he sees [Clara] every day,” Graves said. “There are not very many interpreters around and it’s a hard job.”
She was asked if the effort was worth it.
“Definitely,” she said.
Who says the deaf and hard of hearing can’t experience a musical in its entirety?
Not Jim Kliegl, a play director who envisioned and, on Friday, had the Lindsay Community Theater stage set to include “something special” in this year’s production: An American sign language interpreting crew.
When considering whether to add the extra touch to “Beauty and the Beast,” his latest two-hours-long musical, the Lindsay High School English teacher and director thought, “why not?”
The play showed Dec. 4, 5, and 6, and will continue on Friday and Saturday.
The sign language interpreters were scheduled to be a part of the show on Dec. 5 only.
Meanwhile, 36 brightly-outfitted high school actors stole center stage: Interpreters Victoria Graves, Clara Cabrera and Brianna Terrill stole the spotlight.
Under a spotlight and against a black curtain, the three stood stage left — wearing dark hues themselves — and gave off a volley of expressions. They included motions to match not only the dialogue, but the tones and emotional effects of what was going on throughout the play.
They used their hands, faces and body language to depict an emotion.
“A good part of sign language is expression and body movement,” Graves said backstage.
When “the beast” was angry, the three would give their signs an extra thrust. When the cast broke out in song, they would weave the signs into a rhythmic flow of motions.
Kliegl said after the show he was pleased with the outcome of what took 11 to 12 weeks of steady preparation.
But he wasn’t about to take any credit. Graves, he said, shouldered the “tremendous” job of translating the 100-page script into American sign language.
“She’s spent, for the last two months, every free minute she had on this script,” Kliegl said.
Graves said she clocked 138 volunteer hours on the project.
Her work included developing a shorthand version, and coming up with synonyms that would convey the same meaning of certain phrases and colloquialisms the play afforded that could not be translated directly into signs.
Having formerly worked for a deaf and hard of hearing agency, Graves is partially deaf herself, but hears “when it’s not too loud.”
She is employed by the Lindsay school district as an interpreter for Cabrera, who was one of the other interpreters for the play and is in Kliegl’s English class.
The third interpreter, Terrill, is not deaf, but happens to be a friend of Graves and Cabrera.
Cabrera is legally deaf. Her involvement with the play stemmed from Kliegl approaching her in September, and the play became her senior project.
There are five known deaf children in the Lindsay school district, Kliegl said.
Kliegl, who has worked in the school district for 37 years, conceived the idea for the interpreters after seeing firsthand the challenges those children face from one of his English students.
“We’re doing it for them, and any other deaf people who might want to come,” he said earlier Friday.
Graves, who has a connection to the deaf community through the agency she used to work for, said she had about 100 e-mails sent out for the receipt of about 400 deaf and hard of hearing people.
She also invited several deaf friends to come.
After the play, Kliegl went into the audience to mingle, curious as to how many deaf and hard of hearing took advantage of the one-night offering.
Laura Scott, another interpreter for the district, counted six on the spot, but said there were probably several more deaf people who came. Several were from Washington Elementary School.
She was one of the many who commended Kliegl for the special offering.
“It really means a lot to these kids,” she said.
The eyes of one girl, 9-year-old Lisbeth Ceballos, lit up as she asked her interpreter to relay a message.
“I really liked it,” she signed.
This was the first play she’d ever seen.
A program in her hand, she asked her interpreter for a pen, then went to ask for the cast members’ autographs.
Graves termed this one an “extremely rare” occasion.
“Part of the reason is [people] just don’t realize there’s a whole population out there,” she said.
Tulare and Kings County alone, Graves said, have more than 42,000 deaf and hard of hearing people.
“I think the only reason the teacher thought about it was that he sees [Clara] every day,” Graves said. “There are not very many interpreters around and it’s a hard job.”
She was asked if the effort was worth it.
“Definitely,” she said.