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Youth Theatre uses voice, hands in 'The Taste of Sunrise' | GoUpstate.com | Spartanburg, S.C.
For its last show of the season, the Spartanburg Youth Theatre is tackling the award-winning "The Taste of Sunrise" by Susan Zeder.
The production features two deaf actors, Lance Hall (adult Tuc) and Brandon Holst (young Tuc) from the S.C. School for the Deaf and the Blind, and an ensemble of hearing actors who have learned American Sign Language.
"It's just a fantastic script for children's theater," said Mary Nicholson, managing director of the Spartanburg Youth Theatre. "Most children's theater is classic fairy tales. The author (Zeder) is very well-known in reaching well above children's levels. We've done four of her shows."
The play is directed by Harry Culpepper Jr., who is CODA (child of deaf adults), the oldest of three hearing sons to deaf parents. He grew up with a deaf family, including his parents, grandparents and great-aunt and uncle.
"I really didn't speak a lot until third grade," said Culpepper, who is an education specialist at the Peace Center for the Performing Arts in Greenville. "A lot of people thought I was deaf myself. I just didn't really speak. I just said what I had to and that was enough."
The play is set in turn-of-the-century rural Illinois. Young Tuc doesn't know sign language, and no one around knows sign language, so he is very lost. His father finds out about a deaf school and they send him there, where he secretly learns sign language.
"At that time, sign language was forbidden," Culpepper said. "So it touches on the history of deaf culture."
Culpepper held a workshop to give students an opportunity to see what deaf theater was all about.
"At the auditions, I wanted to see who was comfortable in their body and who could be expressive, that really is the basis of American Sign Language," he said. "It's body language and expression. Hands are secondary."
For the production, Culpepper is using a double cast. He has a voice-and-hearing cast and a cast of signers.
"Basically, we have two plays going on at one time," he said. "They are mirroring each other on the stage."
"The character and their shadow blend so well that it's almost like watching one person onstage," Nicholson said. "It made me tear up."
All of the signers who are signing for the speaking roles are hearing students who had no sign-language skills when they came into the production. "It's been really exciting watching them grow and learn the language," he said.
Culpepper held a couple of sign-language workshops. "Some of them have picked up so much just by getting to know Lance, who plays older Tuc," he said.
Holst's parents, Calvin and Cathi, are deaf, and they both work at the S.C. School for the Deaf and the Blind. The two have been ASL coaches for the youth theater actors. Nicholson learned sign language for words every director needs to know: "quiet," "stop running" and "no."
Hall, a 16-year-old student at Dorman High School and SCSDB, said through an interpreter that he tried out for a part because he thought it would be interesting to work with hearing actors. "My character is a deaf boy who doesn't know sign language. He can't communicate, and he's trying to figure out how to communicate with his father."
The role has helped him stretch as an actor. "I get to be able to play emotions which are not normal to me," he said. "It's been a blast."
It's also been eye-opening experience for his co-stars. "They've learned a deaf person can do anything but hear," Hall said. "I found out we have a lot of the same interests."
Culpepper said he didn't do much to change his approach to this production.
"I spoke and signed throughout the whole rehearsal to make sure everyone knew what was going on," he said.
He also had to be aware of different sightlines.
"The hands are important for a deaf performance, and the audience needs to be able to see the hands," he said. "When you think about it, it's a bilingual production because what is being said onstage in English is being translated into American Sign Language, which is a whole different grammar and syntax. To time it right, the spoken word with sign language, was a challenge."
Culpepper and Nicholson both had been thinking of this production for a long time, and they both had the idea of doing the production at the same time.
"For me as an artist, it was very important for me to share this not only with the students but also with the community," he said. "I think what we've created is a beautiful piece of theater."
For its last show of the season, the Spartanburg Youth Theatre is tackling the award-winning "The Taste of Sunrise" by Susan Zeder.
The production features two deaf actors, Lance Hall (adult Tuc) and Brandon Holst (young Tuc) from the S.C. School for the Deaf and the Blind, and an ensemble of hearing actors who have learned American Sign Language.
"It's just a fantastic script for children's theater," said Mary Nicholson, managing director of the Spartanburg Youth Theatre. "Most children's theater is classic fairy tales. The author (Zeder) is very well-known in reaching well above children's levels. We've done four of her shows."
The play is directed by Harry Culpepper Jr., who is CODA (child of deaf adults), the oldest of three hearing sons to deaf parents. He grew up with a deaf family, including his parents, grandparents and great-aunt and uncle.
"I really didn't speak a lot until third grade," said Culpepper, who is an education specialist at the Peace Center for the Performing Arts in Greenville. "A lot of people thought I was deaf myself. I just didn't really speak. I just said what I had to and that was enough."
The play is set in turn-of-the-century rural Illinois. Young Tuc doesn't know sign language, and no one around knows sign language, so he is very lost. His father finds out about a deaf school and they send him there, where he secretly learns sign language.
"At that time, sign language was forbidden," Culpepper said. "So it touches on the history of deaf culture."
Culpepper held a workshop to give students an opportunity to see what deaf theater was all about.
"At the auditions, I wanted to see who was comfortable in their body and who could be expressive, that really is the basis of American Sign Language," he said. "It's body language and expression. Hands are secondary."
For the production, Culpepper is using a double cast. He has a voice-and-hearing cast and a cast of signers.
"Basically, we have two plays going on at one time," he said. "They are mirroring each other on the stage."
"The character and their shadow blend so well that it's almost like watching one person onstage," Nicholson said. "It made me tear up."
All of the signers who are signing for the speaking roles are hearing students who had no sign-language skills when they came into the production. "It's been really exciting watching them grow and learn the language," he said.
Culpepper held a couple of sign-language workshops. "Some of them have picked up so much just by getting to know Lance, who plays older Tuc," he said.
Holst's parents, Calvin and Cathi, are deaf, and they both work at the S.C. School for the Deaf and the Blind. The two have been ASL coaches for the youth theater actors. Nicholson learned sign language for words every director needs to know: "quiet," "stop running" and "no."
Hall, a 16-year-old student at Dorman High School and SCSDB, said through an interpreter that he tried out for a part because he thought it would be interesting to work with hearing actors. "My character is a deaf boy who doesn't know sign language. He can't communicate, and he's trying to figure out how to communicate with his father."
The role has helped him stretch as an actor. "I get to be able to play emotions which are not normal to me," he said. "It's been a blast."
It's also been eye-opening experience for his co-stars. "They've learned a deaf person can do anything but hear," Hall said. "I found out we have a lot of the same interests."
Culpepper said he didn't do much to change his approach to this production.
"I spoke and signed throughout the whole rehearsal to make sure everyone knew what was going on," he said.
He also had to be aware of different sightlines.
"The hands are important for a deaf performance, and the audience needs to be able to see the hands," he said. "When you think about it, it's a bilingual production because what is being said onstage in English is being translated into American Sign Language, which is a whole different grammar and syntax. To time it right, the spoken word with sign language, was a challenge."
Culpepper and Nicholson both had been thinking of this production for a long time, and they both had the idea of doing the production at the same time.
"For me as an artist, it was very important for me to share this not only with the students but also with the community," he said. "I think what we've created is a beautiful piece of theater."