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By Woodrow J. Hinton
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Ludwig Van Beethoven signs his initials
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Signing for the deaf has been compared to ballet for the hands, a communication system encompassing gesture, symbol, movement and expression. For director Jack Louiso, signing is "a language of the eye" -- an experience at the core of Beethoven by Heart, a world premier by The Children's Theater of Cincinnati (CTC) featuring actors from the renowned National Theater of the Deaf (NTD).
"The world's most famous deaf person happened to compose some of the world's greatest music when he was totally deaf," says Louiso. "His story is an inspiration to everyone, and we wanted to present the story and the music in a way that's accessible to everyone. We've succeeded beyond all expectations."
The play's world premier on Thursday marks the culmination of a project that began four years ago in Brussels. "We were on tour with our production of The Jungle Book," explains Louiso, CTC's artistic director. "The National Theatre of the Deaf performed there the year before, and the Belgian theatre folks were still overwhelmed by their work." Descriptions of NTD productions spurred Louiso to look into the possibility of a co-production utilizing speaking and deaf actors, voice and sign language.
Much of the impetus also came from the way in which signed performances are presented. "We had sign interpreters on the sides of the stage, and the deaf audience members had to sit in a special section where they could see the interpreter," says Louiso. "So our goal was to utilize sign language onstage and to have technology that allowed accessibility from everywhere in the theater, at every performance."
The NTD was eager to collaborate, and plans were formalized by the end of 1997. Both companies agreed that Beethoven's life provided a heroic story of a struggle in the face of physical challenge. For CTC, the integration of classical music extended the company's mission to incorporate a wider range of arts into its performances.
Plans for collaboration were formalized early in 1998. In the meantime, Louiso and his wife, Susie, CTC's managing director, saw several NTD productions and were impressed and deeply moved.
"They are unbelievably hardworking and creative," says Louiso, "And they're better known outside the U.S. than they are in the States."
Founded in 1967 and based in Connecticut, NTD received a Tony award for Theatrical Excellence and has performed in all 50 states and toured on all seven continents. It is the oldest continuously producing and touring theater company in the United States, made up of deaf and hearing artists who work as an ensemble. NTD productions include adaptations of classic and contemporary plays and original works by hearing and deaf playwrights.
Selecting Melanie Marnich as the production's playwright was the first collaborative effort. A prolific writer whose works have been staged at the New York Public Theater's New Work Now Festival and the Manhattan Theatre Club, and who has a play in this year's Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Marnich faced unique challenges writing her first play for deaf actors and audiences.
Knowing that deaf actors would translate the lines into the shorthand that is American Sign Language (ASL) forced Marnich, she says, "to create a clear narrative out of the very complex and complicated details of a great man's life. To do this, I had to forego linear and literal accuracy. I tried to craft a truth interpreted from specific details."
What about the difficulty of deaf actors doing a play about music? "It's a life lesson," says Louiso. "The deaf actors may not know the music, but they know who Beethoven was and that his story is important."
There were also lessons in communication. ASL is a natural language with its own syntax and grammar. A hearing audience watching a sign interpreter is not seeing a literal translation, says Rachel James, one of the dancers who is a sign language interpreter for the Speech, Hearing and Deaf Center here in Cincinnati. "The audience is seeing a code of signs that can't easily translate into English. For deaf people in this country, English is studied as a second language."
Directing deaf actors proved to be difficult and literally eye-opening experience for Louiso. A dramatic man himself, given to large gestures and instant response, the delay between issuing instructions and having them translated was unnerving
"Sometimes things would grind to a halt for reasons I didn't understand," says Louiso. "I had to learn that ASL isn't at all like English: It's basically a code. They've forced me to be very honest and straightforward."
ASL is very much a foreign language, agrees Rachel James. "A translator hearing the sentence 'We're going home' has to translate that into ASL syntax and then try to figure out the best way to sign it. Sometimes even that three-word sentence can take a while to translate and sign." Wryly, she adds, "It's important to have a good relationship with the translator."
Louiso was astonished to learn that ASL has its own regionalism on the order of Southern drawls but was less surprised to discover the importance of the face and body in communication. "Matthew Nill who plays young Beethoven told me 'We don't just talk with our hands. We have faces, too.' "
Many of the signs the audiences will see were created for this production by the NTD, including one for Beethoven himself. "His name will be completely spelled out and then shortened to L-V-B," explains Louiso. Several signs will be repeated throughout the play so that by the end, audience members will be able to recognize their meanings.
The play follows Beethoven from his childhood in Bonn to his coming of age in Vienna, studying with Mozart (who dubbed him a genius) and Haydn, achieving success and facing the devastating loss of hearing. Encouraged by a childhood friend, Beethoven emerges from his self-imposed solitude to conduct his "Ode to Joy."
All of the actors are deaf. In addition to the six members of the NTD, two students from St. Rita's School for the Deaf portray young Beethoven and his friend, Karl. Four dancers serve as the actors' voices and commentators on the action.
"It's an ideal combination," says Louiso. "Dancers are used to using their bodies and faces to act."
For James, the play is a rare opportunity to combine her vocation as a sign language interpreter with her avocation as a dancer, and to expand artistic horizons.
"I didn't know I was an actor until I started working with Jack," she says. "It's so exciting to bring two worlds together that are usually so segmented. Working with the NTD is a huge thrill. I saw them perform when I was a student at Gaulladet College, and I thought, 'Wow!' And now I'm a peer!"
In addition to the translators who will take center stage and not be off on the sides, Beethoven by Heart will be audio-described and have super-titles projected on a screen above the stage. Louiso says, "CTC is committed to making theatre accessible for all audiences and with this play, we are as close as we've ever come to achieving that goal."
Louiso hopes to continue working with NTD. He is encouraged by the wider recognition for CTC's efforts in the form a planning grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and production support from the Federated Foundation. The greatest drive comes with Beethoven by Heart, which has clearly inspired CTC and its director.
"I wish everyone could have this experience," he says. "I've gained a deeper awareness of what I say and how I say it -- and how people can communicate, despite impossible odds."
Although the play is for all audiences, Rachel James sees a special message for deaf children. "I don't know if deaf kids will learn about music, but they will know that there was a man, a deaf man, who was inspired by everyday things to create art that transformed people's lives.
BEETHOVEN BY HEART, staged by Children's Theatre of Cincinnati, will be presented at the Taft Theatre Friday through Sunday.
