Miss-Delectable
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http://www.localnewsleader.com/olberlin/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=151687
BETHESDA, Md. - In a whorl of contorting limbs, flying braids and colorful costumes, four actors spin around the stage to a hip-hop beat before jumping to a stop. "Anansi, where you be?" they shout, moving their hands in unison with the words.
"I think they need to know how fast they want to speak," he says to choreographer Fred Beam, who has left his front-row seat at Imagination Stage to confer with Crowley. Some actors watch Crowley for instruction. Beam, who is deaf, and two actors focus on the sign language translator to understand Crowley‘s directions.
The children‘s show was written with that goal in mind, incorporating sign language into the play and writing music accessible to deaf performers, and with the belief that hip hop is something that can transcend the barriers that deafness creates on stage.
Reviews of the musical, which runs through April 13, have been mixed, but weekday shows for school groups and weekend performances have had full audiences, according to Imagination Stage spokeswoman Laurie Levy-Page.
Imagination Stage has always had a goal of inclusion with its pieces that include "something that will speak to disability," said Bonnie Fogel, founder and executive director. "It‘s not preachy in any way. It‘s seamless."
But what sets "Hip Hop Anansi" apart from many hip hop theater performances is that rather than draping the music and dance over an existing play, the musical was written with hip hop at its core, according to Crowley.
Imagination Stage commissioned playwright Eisa Davis to adopt the traditional Ghanian children‘s folk tale of Anansi, a trickster spider. In Davis‘ story, Anansi, played by Beam, gets help from his children to win the "fly pie" in a hip hop competition after he loses own his powers of trickery.
"By listening, a deaf person ... can ‘feel‘ the bass and vibration from the loudspeaker," Beam told The Associated Press in an e-mail. "It is like you are in a nightclub where the music is banging so loud and you actually feel the beat, not following the words."
He then worked with Peace Justice Universal (whose offstage name is Pedro Urquilla), who wrote the score knowing some of the performers would feel rather than hear the music.
As the theater staff fill the seats during a rehearsal, the cast performs a final scene where each steps to the front in turn to break dance or try some freestyle moves. As each finishes his or her routine, there is a smattering of applause through the crowd. Others watching hold up both hands and wave, the sign language form of clapping. On stage, the actors hear both.
BETHESDA, Md. - In a whorl of contorting limbs, flying braids and colorful costumes, four actors spin around the stage to a hip-hop beat before jumping to a stop. "Anansi, where you be?" they shout, moving their hands in unison with the words.
"I think they need to know how fast they want to speak," he says to choreographer Fred Beam, who has left his front-row seat at Imagination Stage to confer with Crowley. Some actors watch Crowley for instruction. Beam, who is deaf, and two actors focus on the sign language translator to understand Crowley‘s directions.
The children‘s show was written with that goal in mind, incorporating sign language into the play and writing music accessible to deaf performers, and with the belief that hip hop is something that can transcend the barriers that deafness creates on stage.
Reviews of the musical, which runs through April 13, have been mixed, but weekday shows for school groups and weekend performances have had full audiences, according to Imagination Stage spokeswoman Laurie Levy-Page.
Imagination Stage has always had a goal of inclusion with its pieces that include "something that will speak to disability," said Bonnie Fogel, founder and executive director. "It‘s not preachy in any way. It‘s seamless."
But what sets "Hip Hop Anansi" apart from many hip hop theater performances is that rather than draping the music and dance over an existing play, the musical was written with hip hop at its core, according to Crowley.
Imagination Stage commissioned playwright Eisa Davis to adopt the traditional Ghanian children‘s folk tale of Anansi, a trickster spider. In Davis‘ story, Anansi, played by Beam, gets help from his children to win the "fly pie" in a hip hop competition after he loses own his powers of trickery.
"By listening, a deaf person ... can ‘feel‘ the bass and vibration from the loudspeaker," Beam told The Associated Press in an e-mail. "It is like you are in a nightclub where the music is banging so loud and you actually feel the beat, not following the words."
He then worked with Peace Justice Universal (whose offstage name is Pedro Urquilla), who wrote the score knowing some of the performers would feel rather than hear the music.
As the theater staff fill the seats during a rehearsal, the cast performs a final scene where each steps to the front in turn to break dance or try some freestyle moves. As each finishes his or her routine, there is a smattering of applause through the crowd. Others watching hold up both hands and wave, the sign language form of clapping. On stage, the actors hear both.
