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Local News | Madrona students put on a musical with a purpose | Seattle Times Newspaper
In the play "Beauty and the Beast," an arrogant young prince rudely dismisses an elderly beggar woman, who in the world of fairy tales, is actually a beautiful enchantress. For his inability to see beyond appearances, the prince is turned into a frightening beast and his four servants into a clock, candlestick, teapot and a cup.
In the musical version being staged this weekend by Madrona K-8 school in the Edmonds School District, the audience is also asked to look beyond the wheelchair used by one actress and another who shapes her lines with American Sign Language (ASL).
They're also being asked to look beyond the convention of one actor per part. The role of Mrs. Potts, the kindly housekeeper who is turned into a teapot, is played by Kayla Wheeler, 12, who was born without legs and only partial arms. The same role is also performed — simultaneously — by Casey Johnson-Pasqua, 13, a student in the school's deaf and hard-of-hearing program. Casey signs the songs and dialogue that Kayla speaks and sings.
Over the course of the show, said director Beth Mahmoud-Howell, the two young actresses together teach the Beast and the frightened heroine, Belle, how to see past the surface and into each other's hearts.
For 17 years, Madrona has staged an ambitious musical with scores of children and even a 25-piece pit orchestra. Because so many students wanted to participate this year, two different casts with a total of 80 students perform. Kayla and Casey are in the "Spoons" cast, some of whose performances are translated in ASL.
The reigning spirit, said the director, is inclusiveness.
Mahmoud-Howell, a Madrona parent, holds a theater degree from The Evergreen State College and previously worked with at-risk, deaf and disabled kids in Minnesota. She'd seen the power theater has to transform kids from all sorts of backgrounds and abilities.
"It's a powerful medium for people to explore parts of themselves that are completely different, to reach parts that they don't usually reach," she said.
And she was familiar with both Kayla's and Casey's acting from previous school musicals. Still, she said, she was "blown away" by their auditions and was convinced both could play a leading role. Because of her experience in deaf theater, she said, she was intrigued by the idea of one actor shadowing another on stage, each complementing the other's strengths.
She said she approached the girls separately to ask if they were open to the idea and if they would trust her to "figure out how to make it work."
Casey is a tall, outgoing girl whose expressiveness seems an extension of her speech. She rapidly answers questions in sign language, her face lighting up at the same time her hands carve the air.
Casey's preparation for the role of Mrs. Potts went beyond memorizing lines. She had to translate them into sign language, to find lively movements to animate the words. And although they are both in seventh grade at Madrona, she said she didn't know Kayla and wasn't sure how the combined role would work.
"I was scared," she said, "because I wasn't sure how to share a part."
Kayla had different challenges. She had to adapt to a teapot costume that covers her wheelchair and be ready to act solely from a seated position. But she did not have to overcome timidity.
"I'm not a shy person at all," she said.
Kayla's mother, Joyce Wheeler, said that from the moment she could talk, Kayla would engage complete strangers, asking them questions about themselves and their lives. Her mother, trying to shield her daughter from the stares that accompanied her into the world, told Kayla she didn't have to talk to everyone.
Kayla said, "Yes I do, mom. That's my job."
With an iPod recording of the "Beauty and the Beast" lyrics and a sign-language interpreter, Kayla and Casey early on found a quiet spot in the midst of rehearsals and worked out their staging for Mrs. Potts.
"I see us almost like fraternal twins," Kayla said. "Sisters disagree." And in case anyone missed the difference between the tall, signing girl and the small, blonde one, she added, "We don't look anything alike."
It is up to Mrs. Potts, and the other enchanted servants, to teach the Beast to control his temper, to learn to be gracious to Belle and to let her glimpse the man behind the fangs and claws. Mrs. Potts must also console Belle, a prisoner in the castle, and give her hope that she might find a home with them.
In the song, "Home," Mrs. Potts encourages Belle: "It will turn out all right in the end, you'll see." Kayla sings, in her clear soprano. Casey signs and leans in reassuringly.
Together, said director Mahmoud-Howell, they are "so much more powerful" than either would be alone.
In the play "Beauty and the Beast," an arrogant young prince rudely dismisses an elderly beggar woman, who in the world of fairy tales, is actually a beautiful enchantress. For his inability to see beyond appearances, the prince is turned into a frightening beast and his four servants into a clock, candlestick, teapot and a cup.
In the musical version being staged this weekend by Madrona K-8 school in the Edmonds School District, the audience is also asked to look beyond the wheelchair used by one actress and another who shapes her lines with American Sign Language (ASL).
They're also being asked to look beyond the convention of one actor per part. The role of Mrs. Potts, the kindly housekeeper who is turned into a teapot, is played by Kayla Wheeler, 12, who was born without legs and only partial arms. The same role is also performed — simultaneously — by Casey Johnson-Pasqua, 13, a student in the school's deaf and hard-of-hearing program. Casey signs the songs and dialogue that Kayla speaks and sings.
Over the course of the show, said director Beth Mahmoud-Howell, the two young actresses together teach the Beast and the frightened heroine, Belle, how to see past the surface and into each other's hearts.
For 17 years, Madrona has staged an ambitious musical with scores of children and even a 25-piece pit orchestra. Because so many students wanted to participate this year, two different casts with a total of 80 students perform. Kayla and Casey are in the "Spoons" cast, some of whose performances are translated in ASL.
The reigning spirit, said the director, is inclusiveness.
Mahmoud-Howell, a Madrona parent, holds a theater degree from The Evergreen State College and previously worked with at-risk, deaf and disabled kids in Minnesota. She'd seen the power theater has to transform kids from all sorts of backgrounds and abilities.
"It's a powerful medium for people to explore parts of themselves that are completely different, to reach parts that they don't usually reach," she said.
And she was familiar with both Kayla's and Casey's acting from previous school musicals. Still, she said, she was "blown away" by their auditions and was convinced both could play a leading role. Because of her experience in deaf theater, she said, she was intrigued by the idea of one actor shadowing another on stage, each complementing the other's strengths.
She said she approached the girls separately to ask if they were open to the idea and if they would trust her to "figure out how to make it work."
Casey is a tall, outgoing girl whose expressiveness seems an extension of her speech. She rapidly answers questions in sign language, her face lighting up at the same time her hands carve the air.
Casey's preparation for the role of Mrs. Potts went beyond memorizing lines. She had to translate them into sign language, to find lively movements to animate the words. And although they are both in seventh grade at Madrona, she said she didn't know Kayla and wasn't sure how the combined role would work.
"I was scared," she said, "because I wasn't sure how to share a part."
Kayla had different challenges. She had to adapt to a teapot costume that covers her wheelchair and be ready to act solely from a seated position. But she did not have to overcome timidity.
"I'm not a shy person at all," she said.
Kayla's mother, Joyce Wheeler, said that from the moment she could talk, Kayla would engage complete strangers, asking them questions about themselves and their lives. Her mother, trying to shield her daughter from the stares that accompanied her into the world, told Kayla she didn't have to talk to everyone.
Kayla said, "Yes I do, mom. That's my job."
With an iPod recording of the "Beauty and the Beast" lyrics and a sign-language interpreter, Kayla and Casey early on found a quiet spot in the midst of rehearsals and worked out their staging for Mrs. Potts.
"I see us almost like fraternal twins," Kayla said. "Sisters disagree." And in case anyone missed the difference between the tall, signing girl and the small, blonde one, she added, "We don't look anything alike."
It is up to Mrs. Potts, and the other enchanted servants, to teach the Beast to control his temper, to learn to be gracious to Belle and to let her glimpse the man behind the fangs and claws. Mrs. Potts must also console Belle, a prisoner in the castle, and give her hope that she might find a home with them.
In the song, "Home," Mrs. Potts encourages Belle: "It will turn out all right in the end, you'll see." Kayla sings, in her clear soprano. Casey signs and leans in reassuringly.
Together, said director Mahmoud-Howell, they are "so much more powerful" than either would be alone.