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The Columbus Dispatch : Musical production a true cross-pollination
In an unprecedented collaboration and tour, five Columbus arts organizations have planted the seeds for a fruitful production. * The Phoenix Theatre for Children, Opera Columbus, the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus and BalletMet Columbus have joined forces to create a bilingual touring version of The Secret Garden. ■ The musical will open today in the Southern Theatre, with deaf and hearing actors performing and singing simultaneously in English and sign language.
"It wouldn't have been possible if we hadn't had all these community resources," said director Steven Anderson, also artistic director of the Phoenix Theatre.
Anderson is known for his innovative stagings of musicals and bilingual plays.
" The Secret Garden is a story of rebirth, of making connections and unlocking things that we try to hide away, and of people getting better and learning to love again," Anderson said. "I can't listen to the unusual and lush score without bursting into tears at some point. It's music that touches your heart and lifts you up."
CAPA, the children's theater and the opera are co-presenting the first CAPA tour of a show mounted in Columbus.
ProMusica provided the 17-member orchestra, and the BalletMet staff created the 34 costumes for the tour, which was launched last Thursday at the Shubert Theater in New Haven, Conn.
"We each provide certain talents that help elevate the show -- including Eric McKeever and four other wonderful singers from the opera family," said Press Southworth, executive director of Opera Columbus.
"With the use of sign language and as a children's play, this collaboration provides educational opportunities for all the groups to reach new audiences."
The Secret Garden follows in the footsteps of Big River, an acclaimed bilingual touring production by Deaf West Theatre of Los Angeles that CAPA booked for Columbus and New Haven in 2005.
"When we do a hearing show, you have to put the deaf people 'house left' in front of an interpreter. Big River was an incredibly moving example of using hearing and nonhearing actors, with everyone signing and the hearing actors speaking and singing for the deaf actors," said Bill Conner, CAPA president.
"When we did that show, we became very involved with the deaf communities and deaf schools in Connecticut and Ohio. To continue to grow the opportunity for deaf audiences, we commissioned Secret Garden . . . . It's been an incredible opportunity to showcase Columbus talent in New Haven."
Composer Lucy Simon and author-lyricist Marsha Norman adapted their Tony-winning 1991 musical from the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett about an orphan girl whose hope is renewed through tending a garden.
Sarah Hiance, one of 10 speaking actors, plays Lily, an aunt to orphan Mary Lennox. She also voices the role of Mary for deaf actress Erin Carberry.
"I'm so excited to be a part of this, meet all these people and go all these places," said Hiance, a junior, 20, at Otterbein College in Westerville.
"I'm drawn to the beautiful and fluid music, and it's an interesting story about people seeking and finding love and growth."
Bilingual rehearsals, though, were "tedious at times," she said.
"We all take for granted that we can hear things and can respond clearly. It takes a little longer to communicate the same ideas and thoughts by sign language."
Anderson cast seven deaf actors, drawing from the Hearing Impaired Program of the Columbus schools, the Ohio School for the Deaf, Franklin County Deaf Services and the deaf-theater scene in New York.
"There's something so poetic about sign language -- in particular the signs for growing, living and beauty, all the things that The Secret Garden is about," Anderson said. "It adds another level.
"People think they'll be distracted by it but find that they are very quickly drawn into the world of deafness and hearing."
New York actor Samuel Caraballo, who plays widower Archibald Craven, lives in that world.
"I really felt the connection when I read the beautiful story," Caraballo said. "The musical has lots of great relationships, and Archibald and Mary have a great relationship.
"Being deaf, I have to make sure I pay attention to all the other actors and actresses, and stay on the same beat.
"For the audience, the unique thing about having deaf and hearing actors is
the realization that deaf and hearing people can work together and work on musicals. That puts a positive message out there for the community."
In an unprecedented collaboration and tour, five Columbus arts organizations have planted the seeds for a fruitful production. * The Phoenix Theatre for Children, Opera Columbus, the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus and BalletMet Columbus have joined forces to create a bilingual touring version of The Secret Garden. ■ The musical will open today in the Southern Theatre, with deaf and hearing actors performing and singing simultaneously in English and sign language.
"It wouldn't have been possible if we hadn't had all these community resources," said director Steven Anderson, also artistic director of the Phoenix Theatre.
Anderson is known for his innovative stagings of musicals and bilingual plays.
" The Secret Garden is a story of rebirth, of making connections and unlocking things that we try to hide away, and of people getting better and learning to love again," Anderson said. "I can't listen to the unusual and lush score without bursting into tears at some point. It's music that touches your heart and lifts you up."
CAPA, the children's theater and the opera are co-presenting the first CAPA tour of a show mounted in Columbus.
ProMusica provided the 17-member orchestra, and the BalletMet staff created the 34 costumes for the tour, which was launched last Thursday at the Shubert Theater in New Haven, Conn.
"We each provide certain talents that help elevate the show -- including Eric McKeever and four other wonderful singers from the opera family," said Press Southworth, executive director of Opera Columbus.
"With the use of sign language and as a children's play, this collaboration provides educational opportunities for all the groups to reach new audiences."
The Secret Garden follows in the footsteps of Big River, an acclaimed bilingual touring production by Deaf West Theatre of Los Angeles that CAPA booked for Columbus and New Haven in 2005.
"When we do a hearing show, you have to put the deaf people 'house left' in front of an interpreter. Big River was an incredibly moving example of using hearing and nonhearing actors, with everyone signing and the hearing actors speaking and singing for the deaf actors," said Bill Conner, CAPA president.
"When we did that show, we became very involved with the deaf communities and deaf schools in Connecticut and Ohio. To continue to grow the opportunity for deaf audiences, we commissioned Secret Garden . . . . It's been an incredible opportunity to showcase Columbus talent in New Haven."
Composer Lucy Simon and author-lyricist Marsha Norman adapted their Tony-winning 1991 musical from the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett about an orphan girl whose hope is renewed through tending a garden.
Sarah Hiance, one of 10 speaking actors, plays Lily, an aunt to orphan Mary Lennox. She also voices the role of Mary for deaf actress Erin Carberry.
"I'm so excited to be a part of this, meet all these people and go all these places," said Hiance, a junior, 20, at Otterbein College in Westerville.
"I'm drawn to the beautiful and fluid music, and it's an interesting story about people seeking and finding love and growth."
Bilingual rehearsals, though, were "tedious at times," she said.
"We all take for granted that we can hear things and can respond clearly. It takes a little longer to communicate the same ideas and thoughts by sign language."
Anderson cast seven deaf actors, drawing from the Hearing Impaired Program of the Columbus schools, the Ohio School for the Deaf, Franklin County Deaf Services and the deaf-theater scene in New York.
"There's something so poetic about sign language -- in particular the signs for growing, living and beauty, all the things that The Secret Garden is about," Anderson said. "It adds another level.
"People think they'll be distracted by it but find that they are very quickly drawn into the world of deafness and hearing."
New York actor Samuel Caraballo, who plays widower Archibald Craven, lives in that world.
"I really felt the connection when I read the beautiful story," Caraballo said. "The musical has lots of great relationships, and Archibald and Mary have a great relationship.
"Being deaf, I have to make sure I pay attention to all the other actors and actresses, and stay on the same beat.
"For the audience, the unique thing about having deaf and hearing actors is
the realization that deaf and hearing people can work together and work on musicals. That puts a positive message out there for the community."