Miss-Delectable
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WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL
Michele Guyette and Molly Belt spend hours in rehearsal before every show they do, deciding just how to mold a dramatic line, deliver a joke or imbue a song with deep meaning.
But Guyette and Belt are not part of a cast per se. They're sign language interpreters.
"It takes a long time to do a good job," says Guyette, who's been signing Broadway shows at Overture Center and the former Madison Civic Center jointly with Belt for about six years.
She started signing for shows years before that and is frequently seen around town, interpreting at the Waisman Center's Children's Theatre, Overture's Kids in the Rotunda and "Duck Soup" film series, events at Union Theater and on WISC-TV (Ch. 3) for the broadcast Mass "The Apostolate to the Handicapped."
It might look easy (or not), but when it comes to the performing arts, sign language interpretation for the deaf and hard of hearing is rarely done on the fly. Months before a Broadway hit opens at Overture, for example, Guyette and Belt are preparing: listening to show recordings nonstop, checking out clips on YouTube and studying the text of songs.
"It's very intense" to prepare for a live show, says Tim Mumm, who occasionally signs at Overture.
Artistic interpreters at the Waisman Center and Overture generally make about $60 to $75 a show, or up to $250 for a complex, three-hour musical. But despite the modest pay and lengthy prep time, says Mumm, "It's a terrific opportunity to really think about the things that go into making an interpretation what an interpretation is."
English does not literally translate to American Sign Language, or ASL, which has its own syntax, grammar and way of structuring discussion and arguments. So an interpreter must "gloss," or translate, both the literal message and the subjective tone of a conversation, using hands, face, neck and body language.
"It's art, not science," says Belt, who frequently signs at Summerfest concerts in Milwaukee and has shared the stage with Alicia Keys, Tom Petty, Sheryl Crow and Holly Near.
A sign language interpreter for students at Sennett Middle School, Belt also has signed political events alongside President-elect Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Al Franken.
Ann Cassell, a teacher of ASL and deaf studies at La Follette High School, likes to attend local shows. "I wouldn't go without an interpreter," she explains by phone through an interpreter. Having someone sign — ideally right in the deaf patron's line of sight of the stage — is "very, very important," says Cassell. Otherwise, "it wouldn't be worth the money to go. I'd just be sitting there not understanding anything that was going on."
The Waisman Center always has an interpreter at its children's shows, although "we honestly don't know how many people utilize the services," says the center's Teresa Palumbo. "Some people sit in a designated area, but I know for a fact that there are others who sit wherever they want to."
Even though the Waisman interpreters are introduced before every show and applauded — in ASL — it's become a "struggle" to find interpreters, says Palumbo.
"There are not as many freelance interpreters out there. So I'm very grateful to Michele (Guyette); she interprets the majority of our shows."
Overture gets about 15 individual requests a year for interpreters both for its OnStage programs, designed for school audiences, and its Overture Presents shows, says vice president of programming Susan Crofton.
About 15 mainstage shows and all the Kids in the Rotunda programs also have one performance that is signed, she says, and that will continue despite Overture's belt-tightening in a rough economy.
Interpreting "is just not someplace where you cut," says Crofton. "You don't just say, 'We don't have the money, so we won't have this service for this part of the community.'"
Meredith Brezinski, an educational sign language interpreter who's been doing live shows for about two years, likes the presence of a translator even for a non-deaf audience.
"I like to do it for hearing people also," she says, "because it's nice for them to be exposed to it, to see it and get some experience with it."
At Overture, Belt and Guyette split up characters in a show; in "Annie," for example, Guyette signed the title role and Belt interpreted for the character Miss Hannigan.
If two roles sing a duet, "We'll practice and practice and practice so we can sign in tandem," says Guyette, who teaches sign language to hearing students at La Follette High School and likens her partnership with Belt to "a well-oiled machine."
"When you start working with the same person, you get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses, so you help support the other person," she says. "Molly and I know each other's signing styles, interpreting styles."
And tastes. Guyette, for example, turned down a chance to sign the upcoming show "Sweeney Todd" at Overture because it is simply too gruesome. And she finds comedy very tough, because so much humor is based on word play that simply doesn't translate.
"I would not do (the vaudeville/silent movie shows) 'Duck Soup' if the emcee was not as kind as he is," says Guyette. "He does a very good job of giving me his jokes ahead of time, so I can figure out how to make it funny from a deaf point of view."
Signing has some occupational hazards — tendinitis and repetitive stress injuries, for example, like those that have sidelined Belt this year.
Overture has a pool of about 14 interpreters to call on, says spokesman Robert Chappell. Fifteen shows in Overture's current mainstage season offer sign language interpretation.
For 15 years before she switched careers, Belt was a professional actress, "so for me, being on stage is very comfortable," she says.
Guyette's ties go back to high school, where she played Dorothy in a production of "Wizard of Oz." (She also signed this month's "Oz" performance at Overture Hall, which was like "coming full circle," she says.)
She's done countless shows for "the thrill of it," Guyette says. "The lights come up, and you hear the orchestra, and — what's so much fun is that the music, the story comes through your hands. The meaning and the energy of the show comes coursing through my body so strongly."
Adds Belt, "You're performing it, even though you're interpreting for the person who's performing. You're not just sitting there with a blank face signing what they say. You're becoming the character too."
After a performance of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," a deaf audience member told Belt and Guyette that they felt "truly connected to the show, like a real part of the audience in the way that that person had never been able to feel before," says Belt.
"Because of the interpretation, that person was able to truly feel what was happening on stage. That was probably the best compliment ever."
Michele Guyette and Molly Belt spend hours in rehearsal before every show they do, deciding just how to mold a dramatic line, deliver a joke or imbue a song with deep meaning.
But Guyette and Belt are not part of a cast per se. They're sign language interpreters.
"It takes a long time to do a good job," says Guyette, who's been signing Broadway shows at Overture Center and the former Madison Civic Center jointly with Belt for about six years.
She started signing for shows years before that and is frequently seen around town, interpreting at the Waisman Center's Children's Theatre, Overture's Kids in the Rotunda and "Duck Soup" film series, events at Union Theater and on WISC-TV (Ch. 3) for the broadcast Mass "The Apostolate to the Handicapped."
It might look easy (or not), but when it comes to the performing arts, sign language interpretation for the deaf and hard of hearing is rarely done on the fly. Months before a Broadway hit opens at Overture, for example, Guyette and Belt are preparing: listening to show recordings nonstop, checking out clips on YouTube and studying the text of songs.
"It's very intense" to prepare for a live show, says Tim Mumm, who occasionally signs at Overture.
Artistic interpreters at the Waisman Center and Overture generally make about $60 to $75 a show, or up to $250 for a complex, three-hour musical. But despite the modest pay and lengthy prep time, says Mumm, "It's a terrific opportunity to really think about the things that go into making an interpretation what an interpretation is."
English does not literally translate to American Sign Language, or ASL, which has its own syntax, grammar and way of structuring discussion and arguments. So an interpreter must "gloss," or translate, both the literal message and the subjective tone of a conversation, using hands, face, neck and body language.
"It's art, not science," says Belt, who frequently signs at Summerfest concerts in Milwaukee and has shared the stage with Alicia Keys, Tom Petty, Sheryl Crow and Holly Near.
A sign language interpreter for students at Sennett Middle School, Belt also has signed political events alongside President-elect Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Al Franken.
Ann Cassell, a teacher of ASL and deaf studies at La Follette High School, likes to attend local shows. "I wouldn't go without an interpreter," she explains by phone through an interpreter. Having someone sign — ideally right in the deaf patron's line of sight of the stage — is "very, very important," says Cassell. Otherwise, "it wouldn't be worth the money to go. I'd just be sitting there not understanding anything that was going on."
The Waisman Center always has an interpreter at its children's shows, although "we honestly don't know how many people utilize the services," says the center's Teresa Palumbo. "Some people sit in a designated area, but I know for a fact that there are others who sit wherever they want to."
Even though the Waisman interpreters are introduced before every show and applauded — in ASL — it's become a "struggle" to find interpreters, says Palumbo.
"There are not as many freelance interpreters out there. So I'm very grateful to Michele (Guyette); she interprets the majority of our shows."
Overture gets about 15 individual requests a year for interpreters both for its OnStage programs, designed for school audiences, and its Overture Presents shows, says vice president of programming Susan Crofton.
About 15 mainstage shows and all the Kids in the Rotunda programs also have one performance that is signed, she says, and that will continue despite Overture's belt-tightening in a rough economy.
Interpreting "is just not someplace where you cut," says Crofton. "You don't just say, 'We don't have the money, so we won't have this service for this part of the community.'"
Meredith Brezinski, an educational sign language interpreter who's been doing live shows for about two years, likes the presence of a translator even for a non-deaf audience.
"I like to do it for hearing people also," she says, "because it's nice for them to be exposed to it, to see it and get some experience with it."
At Overture, Belt and Guyette split up characters in a show; in "Annie," for example, Guyette signed the title role and Belt interpreted for the character Miss Hannigan.
If two roles sing a duet, "We'll practice and practice and practice so we can sign in tandem," says Guyette, who teaches sign language to hearing students at La Follette High School and likens her partnership with Belt to "a well-oiled machine."
"When you start working with the same person, you get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses, so you help support the other person," she says. "Molly and I know each other's signing styles, interpreting styles."
And tastes. Guyette, for example, turned down a chance to sign the upcoming show "Sweeney Todd" at Overture because it is simply too gruesome. And she finds comedy very tough, because so much humor is based on word play that simply doesn't translate.
"I would not do (the vaudeville/silent movie shows) 'Duck Soup' if the emcee was not as kind as he is," says Guyette. "He does a very good job of giving me his jokes ahead of time, so I can figure out how to make it funny from a deaf point of view."
Signing has some occupational hazards — tendinitis and repetitive stress injuries, for example, like those that have sidelined Belt this year.
Overture has a pool of about 14 interpreters to call on, says spokesman Robert Chappell. Fifteen shows in Overture's current mainstage season offer sign language interpretation.
For 15 years before she switched careers, Belt was a professional actress, "so for me, being on stage is very comfortable," she says.
Guyette's ties go back to high school, where she played Dorothy in a production of "Wizard of Oz." (She also signed this month's "Oz" performance at Overture Hall, which was like "coming full circle," she says.)
She's done countless shows for "the thrill of it," Guyette says. "The lights come up, and you hear the orchestra, and — what's so much fun is that the music, the story comes through your hands. The meaning and the energy of the show comes coursing through my body so strongly."
Adds Belt, "You're performing it, even though you're interpreting for the person who's performing. You're not just sitting there with a blank face signing what they say. You're becoming the character too."
After a performance of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," a deaf audience member told Belt and Guyette that they felt "truly connected to the show, like a real part of the audience in the way that that person had never been able to feel before," says Belt.
"Because of the interpretation, that person was able to truly feel what was happening on stage. That was probably the best compliment ever."