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TownOnline.com - Arts & Lifestyle: Former BU students screen film about deaf child actress in local production
When Louise Applegate walked into a meeting with her future director, the actress was understandably nervous.
But the 9-year-old wasn’t worried about any kind of audition. Director Cathy Jacobs, a director with Artbarn Community Theater on Sewall Avenue, wanted to meet the only deaf actor in her stage troupe of hearing children.
"The first minute or two, she’s shy," signed her mother Sharon, who is also deaf. "After that - two, three, four minutes later - she’s hard to handle sometimes."
Applegate smiled knowingly as she signed, her words translated through an American Sign Language interpreter. Meanwhile, fear was written all over Louise’s face.
This sneak peek into the young girl’s life comes through the lens of two filmmakers, Xuan Vu and Michael Wertlieb, who filmed a documentary about Louise’s experience, "Behind Stage Curtains."
"It [seemed] pretty unrealistic to bring a deaf child into a group of hearing kids," said Wertlieb, 22, who works as a manager at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square. "But even though she can’t communicate like the rest of us, she communicates the best because of her movements and expressions."
The film, set to screen next Thursday for free at the Coolidge Corner Theatre as part of the 1st Light Festival, runs 30 minutes and is told through fly-on-the-wall shots, interviews and songs from the play the actors are rehearsing about a deaf child who wants to join a baseball team.
Jacobs, who wrote and directed that play for the Duck Soup Troupe of first- through third-graders in Artbarn, said she hoped the themes in the play would resonate with the children.
"I wanted to ... give them some exposure to a person who was a little bit different than them," said Jacobs. "As they got more comfortable with her, the differences disappeared."
As for the filming process, Vu said the jump-start they got on shooting months before rehearsals began had helped the children acclimate to having a camera in their faces.
"They’re much easier to film than adults," said Vu, 22, a Cambridge resident. "They haven’t really formed inhibitions yet."
The duo chose to pursue a "narrative" style of documentary where the story focused on themes and characters rather than a more factual, journalistic approach, said Wertlieb, the videographer.
"It’s more about human truth and emotional truth," he said.
Throughout the documentary, Louise appears to flip between smiles and tears. While she grows more comfortable with the hearing children, she still becomes frustrated by the performance - a musical.
"I still haven’t learned the music and I don’t really understand it," Louise signed through tears to an interpreter in the film.
Vu, who directed and edited the documentary, said Louise was often upset at having to learn the songs and dances through visual cues and vibrations.
"Louise had told [the tech director] a bunch of times that she loved the arts and crafts most," said Vu, who cut 30 hours of film into 30 minutes. "That was the place she felt most comfortable because she didn’t have to do any singing, dancing or anything that required hearing."
But just like the play the children were acting in, the documentary follows a tale of a child who finally comes into her own and is accepted.
"It’s sort of cool to be working with a real deaf person," one child in the film said.
As for Louise, the closing shot of her laughing and playing baseball with her new friends might be an indication of how things worked out for her.
"They didn’t need to talk to each other," Jacobs said of the moment. "They were just a group of kids playing with each other."
"Behind Stage Curtains," a documentary about a deaf child who joins a Brookline stage troupe of hearing children, will be shown for free Thursday, Nov. 30, at 5 p.m. at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St.
The film runs 30 minutes and will be followed by a brief question-and-answer session. Copies of the DVD can be purchased there for $25.
For more information, contact Artbarn Community Theater in Brookline at 617-975-0050.
When Louise Applegate walked into a meeting with her future director, the actress was understandably nervous.
But the 9-year-old wasn’t worried about any kind of audition. Director Cathy Jacobs, a director with Artbarn Community Theater on Sewall Avenue, wanted to meet the only deaf actor in her stage troupe of hearing children.
"The first minute or two, she’s shy," signed her mother Sharon, who is also deaf. "After that - two, three, four minutes later - she’s hard to handle sometimes."
Applegate smiled knowingly as she signed, her words translated through an American Sign Language interpreter. Meanwhile, fear was written all over Louise’s face.
This sneak peek into the young girl’s life comes through the lens of two filmmakers, Xuan Vu and Michael Wertlieb, who filmed a documentary about Louise’s experience, "Behind Stage Curtains."
"It [seemed] pretty unrealistic to bring a deaf child into a group of hearing kids," said Wertlieb, 22, who works as a manager at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square. "But even though she can’t communicate like the rest of us, she communicates the best because of her movements and expressions."
The film, set to screen next Thursday for free at the Coolidge Corner Theatre as part of the 1st Light Festival, runs 30 minutes and is told through fly-on-the-wall shots, interviews and songs from the play the actors are rehearsing about a deaf child who wants to join a baseball team.
Jacobs, who wrote and directed that play for the Duck Soup Troupe of first- through third-graders in Artbarn, said she hoped the themes in the play would resonate with the children.
"I wanted to ... give them some exposure to a person who was a little bit different than them," said Jacobs. "As they got more comfortable with her, the differences disappeared."
As for the filming process, Vu said the jump-start they got on shooting months before rehearsals began had helped the children acclimate to having a camera in their faces.
"They’re much easier to film than adults," said Vu, 22, a Cambridge resident. "They haven’t really formed inhibitions yet."
The duo chose to pursue a "narrative" style of documentary where the story focused on themes and characters rather than a more factual, journalistic approach, said Wertlieb, the videographer.
"It’s more about human truth and emotional truth," he said.
Throughout the documentary, Louise appears to flip between smiles and tears. While she grows more comfortable with the hearing children, she still becomes frustrated by the performance - a musical.
"I still haven’t learned the music and I don’t really understand it," Louise signed through tears to an interpreter in the film.
Vu, who directed and edited the documentary, said Louise was often upset at having to learn the songs and dances through visual cues and vibrations.
"Louise had told [the tech director] a bunch of times that she loved the arts and crafts most," said Vu, who cut 30 hours of film into 30 minutes. "That was the place she felt most comfortable because she didn’t have to do any singing, dancing or anything that required hearing."
But just like the play the children were acting in, the documentary follows a tale of a child who finally comes into her own and is accepted.
"It’s sort of cool to be working with a real deaf person," one child in the film said.
As for Louise, the closing shot of her laughing and playing baseball with her new friends might be an indication of how things worked out for her.
"They didn’t need to talk to each other," Jacobs said of the moment. "They were just a group of kids playing with each other."
"Behind Stage Curtains," a documentary about a deaf child who joins a Brookline stage troupe of hearing children, will be shown for free Thursday, Nov. 30, at 5 p.m. at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St.
The film runs 30 minutes and will be followed by a brief question-and-answer session. Copies of the DVD can be purchased there for $25.
For more information, contact Artbarn Community Theater in Brookline at 617-975-0050.