'West Side' Signing

From: Bremerton Sun, WA - Aug 7, 2003

Four hearing-impaired Kitsap residents are part of a Seattle production of the musical favorite.

Liz Nicklos
Sun Staff

The ring of a telephone. Crying babies. A mother's soft voice. Music. A roaring crowd. Alarm clocks. Doorbells. The click-clack of a train on the tracks.

Noise makes up the soundtrack of our days.

We can't (and usually don't) imagine our lives without sound. To us, people who have total hearing loss are experiencing just that: a loss.

But where a door closes, a window opens.

Deaf people -- especially those who embrace the identity and not just the medical reality of being deaf -- do not consider themselves sympathy cases.

"They're not disabled," said Lisa McIntosh, program coordinator for the Deaf Youth Drama Program at Seattle Children's Theatre. "There's just a language difference."

This week and next, the drama program and theater will present the well-known musical "West Side Story." The show, which features four people from Kitsap County in its cast, will be presented in American Sign Language but will be voiced for hearing audiences.

How will this work?

The production has all the makings of a full-scale show: music, choreography, sets, lights and costumes. The cast of 27 in-cludes deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing youth ages 14 to 21 (with one 33-year-old).

While the deaf youth signs the dialogue and songs, the hearing youth stands to the side or in the shadows and voices or sings the part. Often, cast members play several roles.

It is the responsibility of the hearing partner in each role to follow the signing partner. Most of the deaf youth have some degree of hearing, but all cues, both on- and off-stage, must be visual.

Although the coordination of this effort is a challenge in itself, the cast and crew also have had to translate the script into American Sign Language, a process that involves its own difficulties.

Through it all, McIntosh says the cast has been and is "amazing."

When cast members arrived for the first day of rehearsal five weeks ago, there was a definite separation between the deaf and the hearing. Some of the hearing youth had yet to learn sign language.

"Now, you come in and you don't know who's deaf and who's not," McIntosh said with a smile.

Lindsay Henderson, one of three Bremerton locals in the show, agreed.

"It's is an opportunity for the audience to see how two different worlds come together," Henderson signed to an interpreter.

Henderson, 18, has been deaf since the age of two. Her deafness was caused by spinal meningitis.

A 2003 graduate of Bremerton High School, Henderson first learned of the Deaf Youth Drama Program when she was in first grade. In this production, she plays a girl in the Jets' gang.

For Henderson, it's a chance to be around people like herself.

"There were a couple other deaf kids at school," Henderson signed. "But I didn't hang out with them. This is a chance for me to be involved in deaf culture."

The Deaf Youth Drama Program, which began at Seattle Children's Theatre in 1993 and is headed up by Program Director Billy Seago, has placed artists in more than 90 deaf and hard-of-hearing classrooms and hosted 16 Deaf Kids Drama Festivals.

Summer productions provide a supportive environment for deaf and hard-of-hearing youth to learn about theater in their native language -- American Sign Language.

John Olsen, a 17-year old from Bremerton, is a hearing youth who will voice and sing in his first production with Seattle Children's Theatre.

"I got involved because of Lindsay (Henderson)," Olsen said. They got to be friends when Henderson was a teacher's assistant for a sign language class he took at Bremerton High.

The two have been spending their summer by waking at 6 a.m. and catching the Bremerton ferry to make the 9 a.m.-to-5 p.m. Monday through Friday classes and practices. By the time they catch the ferry back home, they've had a 12-hour day.

Although the rehearsals have been twice the work -- "You have two things going on at all times, sign language and speaking," said Olsen -- the pair is excited for opening night.

Any nervousness? "Ask me on Friday," Henderson signed with a smile.

Nate Elliott, a deaf 19-year-old from Bainbridge, plays the main role of Bernardo. In last year's production of "Our Town," he also was the lead.

Tony Daverso of Bremerton, who at 33 is the oldest deaf cast member, plays the character of Diesel.

Elliott attended Seattle Central Community College this past year, and plans to go on to Gallaudet University, a four-year liberal arts school for the deaf and hard-of-hearing in Washington, D.C., this fall.

Henderson also will attend Galluadet. Both will leave as soon as the production closes.

Reach reporter Liz Nicklos at lnicklos@thesunlink.com.

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UPCOMING PERFORMANCES:

• What: The Deaf Youth Drama Program and Seattle Children's Theatre present the musical "West Side Story"

• When: Friday at 7 p.m.; Saturday at 5:30 p.m.; Aug. 15 at 7 p.m.; Aug. 16 at 5:30 p.m.

• Where: Charlotte Martin Theatre, 201 Thomas St., in the Seattle Center

• Tickets: $11 for adults, $7 for children younger than 12

• Info: www.sct.org or (206) 443-0807

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