Hershey, PA
Lebanon
Daily - April 3, 2005
The
Patriot News - March 31, 2005
The
Patriot News - March 28, 2005
Tampa, FL
Tampa
Tribune Review - March 30, 2005
St.
Petersburg Times Review - March 30,
2005
Tampa
Tribune Article - March 27, 2005
St.
Petersburg Times Article (Garrett
Zuercher interview) - March 27, 2005
St.
Petersburg Times Article (Jeff Calhoun
interview) - March 27, 2005
Herald
Tribune Article - March 25, 2005
Bradenton
Herald Article - March 25, 2005
Cincinnati, OH
Talking
Broadway.com - March 18, 2005
Cincinnati
Enquirer - March 16, 2005
Cincinnati
Weekly Garrett Zuercher Interview
- March 16, 2005
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh
Daily News - March 9, 2005
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review - March 10, 2005
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette - March 10, 2005

Director
Stages Tale With Music for Eye, Ear
By PHYLLIS STEWART - Features
Editor, Daily News
It has been Jeff Calhoun's
excellent adventure, an uncertain odyssey
that has taken him from his grandmother's
garage in Pittsburgh, where he staged neighborhood
plays, to summer stock, on the road with
the ill-fated "Busker Alley,"
and to Broadway, where he achieved success
as the director and choreographer of the
critically acclaimed 2003 revival of "Big
River," with its innovative mix of
deaf and hearing actors, of signing and
singing.
"Big River,"
which was developed by Deaf West Theatre
and Calhoun, is based on Mark Twain's classic
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
The tale of adventure and self-discovery,
which begins on a raft on the Mississippi
River in the 1840s, opens Tuesday at the
Hershey Theatre for a six-day run.
And according to New York
Times critic Ben Brantley, " ... this
adaptation of Twain's epochal account of
an American odyssey makes the crucial point
that there's more than one way to tell a
story and to sing a song. Though the coordination
and integration of signed, spoken and sung
language are surely a matter of great complexity,
you're never allowed to sense the effort."
That effort was considerable,
according to the 44-year-old Calhoun. "There
are the normal challenges a director faces
but other things you never thought of,"
he said during a telephone conversation
from San Diego, where he was directing "Himself
and Nora," a new musical about James
Joyce and his wife.
"The hearing actors
have to learn to sign, the deaf have
to learn to stay with
the music. You have to rethink the use of
props, because a deaf person needs his hands
to sign. You have to rethink staging, because
the actors can't have their backs to one
another. ... It makes us more creative.
We were forced to have built-in visual cues
with the choreography, for example. Something
as simple as looking for a certain light
to change or what step an actor is on ...
"It's a comedy of
errors until it jells hearing actor on the
same page as deaf actor, deaf actor on the
same page as the musical director. The rehearsal
process was twice as long as for a normal
production. It takes a lot of commitment.
"This project drew
a special breed of actor," Calhoun
added in his pleasant, even way. "The
audience picks up on the sensitivity and
uniqueness of the actors."
For most audiences, Calhoun
said, "it takes 10 minutes to get acclimated"
to the synchronized ballet of speaking,
signing, gesture, song and dance, "but
by the end they forget who's deaf and who's
hearing."
The production was originally
developed at Deaf West in North Hollywood
in the fall of 2001. After winning numerous
awards it transferred and was further developed
at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in
2002 before moving to the Roundabout Theater
Company's American Airlines Theater in New
York in the 2003-04 season.
"It's changed everybody's
life in a profound way," Calhoun said
of the production. "We started at a
66-seat theater in North Hollywood, and
clearly you don't go there for fame and
fortune. The irony is that this has given
me the most critical acclaim I've ever had
as well as the opportunity to put things
on stage that no one has seen before."
Putting things on stage
was a preoccupation early on. Jeff Calhoun
was born in Buffalo, N.Y., the youngest
of Joyce and Robert Calhoun's two sons.
The family soon moved to the Pittsburgh
suburb of Richland and at 9 he started tap
classes at the Fairgrieve School of Dance.
"Every Saturday night
I saw the dancers on 'The Carol Burnett
Show' and I told my mother 'I want to do
that.'
"My parents were
the most supportive people," Calhoun
said. "They spent their life driving
me from football practice (he was a quarterback)
to dance class. That's been the foundation
of everything for me on this journey."
As a teenager, the 6-foot,
4-inch Calhoun played a number of sports
football, basketball, baseball, wrestling,
track was involved in student and community
theater, and choreographed and staged half-time
shows. At 16, he tapped his way into the
chorus of a summer stock production of "Anything
Goes," starring Ann Miller, and got
his Equity card. At 17, he was the understudy
to Tommy Tune in a stock production of "Pippin,"
and in 1979 Tune "yanked" Calhoun
out of Northwestern University to join a
touring company of "The Best Little
Whorehouse in Texas."
Soon after the tour he
made his Broadway debut in the short-lived
1982 production of "Seven Brides for
Seven Brothers." Not long after, Calhoun
left performing to concentrate on choreographing
and directing and forged a long-running
professional partnership with Tune ("The
Will Rogers Follies," "Tommy Tune
Tonight," and a long-running revival
of "Grease," among other shows).
The partnership ended
in estrangement in 1995, when the troubled
"Busker Alley," in which Tune
starred while Calhoun directed and choreographed,
closed before it reached New York. Devastated
at the time, today Calhoun says the experience
was "part and parcel of the journey
to where I am today."
"There was a time
when next to my parents Tommy was the most
influential person in my life. You couldn't
ask for a better teacher. At a time when
other young actors were waiting tables,
I was in school with one of the best directors
and choreographers."
He began his Tune-less
life by choreographing the successful Broadway
revival of "Annie Get Your Gun,"
starring Bernadette Peters (1999), and the
less successful "Bells Are Ringing"
(2001) and by accepting an offer from Deaf
West to direct its production of "Oliver."
("Part of the healing process was Deaf
West," he said.) The production was
a smash, winning L.A. Drama Critics Circle
Awards for adaptation, directing, choreography
and best musical.
When he was asked to direct
and choreograph a second musical for the
nonprofit West Coast theater troupe, Calhoun
agreed. The result was "Big River,"
which received a special Tony on Broadway.
"We're helping to
educate people," Calhoun said. "You
can't ignore the fact that there are people
up there signing, but visually you have
the same experience you have with any other
show."
These days, turmoil behind
him, Calhoun is riding high. A tour producer
of "Big River," he produced, directed
and choreographed the current Broadway production
of the musical "Brooklyn"; directed
"Himself and Nora," which opened
March 24 in San Diego; and directed and
choreographed a second production of "Big
River," which opened March 23 at Ford's
Theatre in Washington, D.C., for a 12-week-run.
Pretty heady stuff.
"There's not a finish
line in mind," he said at one point.
"I want to bring young people into
the theater, make people want to go back.
"Eight times
a week people who disagree on politics,
on philosophy, on virtually everything,
enter the theater. The door closes behind
them and there's a sameness, a bonding,
a shared experience. I find that very enriching
... much like a church."
BACK
TO TOP
Mark
Twain "Signed," Sealed, and Beautifully
Delivered
By Joanne Greco
Rochman - Waterbury
Republican American
Finally! A great
big beautiful musical has arrived, and it's
one that you're not likely to ever forget.
"Big River" currently at the Shubert
in New Haven is one show where stamping
your feet and clapping your hands is "deaf-initely"
not enough. You have to do something else
to show your appreciation for this superb
performance.
Based on Mark Twain's
"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
this musical is actually co-developed by
Deaf West Theatre. It features deaf, hard-of-hearing,
and hearing actors in a synchronized performance,
which is rather incredulous for such a huge
musical and large cast. Yet, no one on stage
misses a beat, and no one in the audience
misses a beat either.
At one of the most powerful
moments in this extraordinary musical, the
orchestra stops playing, the vocalists stop
singing, and though silence fills the theater,
the fluid signing continues on stage and
the audience feels the music. It's simply
a stunning moment that anyone within driving
distance should hurry to experience.
The hearing actors sing
and sign while the non-hearing actors perform
brilliantly through sign and movement. Two
actors take on the role of each character
- with one actor speaking and singing, and
one actor performing and signing. It's like
watching mirror images. The title role is
brilliantly and boyishly portrayed by Garrett
Matthew Zuercher with Adam Monley as the
Voice of Huck Finn. Monley also plays Mark
Twain with just the right amount of wit
and wisdom.
There are so many outstanding
performances in this show that it's not
possible to acknowledge them all individually.
However, Jerold E. Solomon as Jim must have
his due. His solos are so outstanding that
he nearly brought the house down every time
he sang. When Jim and Huck sing and sign
a duet together, they do bring down the
house.
So clever and complex
is the staging that experienced theatergoers
will immediately recognize how daunting
the director's task must be. Yet, Jeff Calhoun,
who co-developed the show directs and choreographs
with an eye for precision and an ear for
sheer pleasure.
Expect dancing, singing,
gorgeous costumes, thunder and lighting
and wickedly expansive special effects.
Expect, too, a set that features bigger
than life pages from Twain's book. The characters
literally step out of the pages. See this
show and you will be begging your friends
and family to see it, too. You'll want to
share the experience with anyone who will
listen, or sign.
The show runs through
March 6. Tickets range from $67 to $15.
Call tickets.com at (800) 228-6622.
Joanne Greco Rochman
is an active member in The American Theatre
Critics Association, and a founding member
of The Connecticut Critics Circle. She welcomes
comments. Contact: Jrochman@earthlink.net
BACK
TO TOP

Ears, Errors
and Orwell This Week:
The tour
of the Huck Finn musical is spoken, signed
and much more
by Christopher
Arnott - February 24, 2005
At Ramones concerts in the late 1970s, the
band would play nonstop at top decibels
for 45 minutes. Dee Dee Ramone's screeches
of "1-2-3-4!" would kick off a
new rapid-fire punk tune as the feedback
from the last one was still ringing.
Then, near the end
of the set, the Ramones would unleash a
long pause during their cover of the Trashmen's
"Surfing Bird." The wall of silence
would hit you like a ton of bricks. Your
head imploded. You noticed your ears like
never before.
Big River has a
moment like that.
In a sense, it has
several. This transmuted musical, now at
the Shubert on College Street in New Haven,
comes at you so creatively and confidently
that you feel exhiliratingly enlightened,
thoroughly entertained. Yes, it's undeniably
noble and touching and "good for you,"
but it's also staggeringly impressive and
a hell of a lot of fun.
This Big River is
that much-talked-about, much-signed-about
Tony-winning show which mingles deaf and
hearing actors in a revival of a straightforward
musical based on Mark Twain's The Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn . But the see-me/hear-me
dichotomy is just one of the many soul-stirring
challenges this show faces and overcomes.
Big River marries small-theater wiles and
Broadway resources. It revives a widely
praised musical from 1985, replacing its
original splashy stage design with a simple
set of screens and platforms. It subdues
the score, making it homespun and human,
not bombastic.
As if it didn't
haven't enough to bother with, this mesmerizing
musical takes chances when it doesn't even
have to. It sets out to solve a theater
problem--how to translate a full-length
musical into a different sort of performance
language. Then, having demonstrated in its
first few scenes how splendidly that "problem"
can be solved, this big-deal Big River proceeds
to show you many other ways it can be tackled.
You get speaking actors providing voice-overs
for deaf actors' physicalizings. You get
a pair of actors, identically dressed, playing
the same role at the same time. You get
deaf jokes drawn straight from the plot.
You get lot of sight gags, but also some
inspired sound gags.
Big River 's original
script and score do not just hold up well--they're
improved by this eclectic staging. William
Hauptman's script is true to Twain's sharp-tongued
satire, pubescent adventurousness and social
consciousness. Country legend Roger ("Dang
Me") Miller's songs prove infinitely
adaptable for this wide-ranging cast, who
bend the tunes into folk-meek, gospel-grand
or pop-smart.
Connecticut is better
prepared than most regions for a show like
this. Our state has been home to the National
Theatre of the Deaf for nearly 40 years,
so the concept of adapting plays for a combination
of American Sign Language and spoken dialogue
is nothing new. And Connecticut is where
Twain's alter ego, Samuel Clemens, lived
from 1870-91 and wrote Huckleberry Finn
; Clemens' Hartford home is now a museum.
But even Connecticut,
which has hosted many a Twain musical (
Tom Sawyer 's pre-Broadway try-out at the
Shubert, a megaflop Russian-rooted Twain
pageant in Hartford, one-third of The Apple
Tree at the Goodspeed), can't be fully prepared
for the jaw-dropping wonders of Big River.
I caught the Big River tour in November,
when it stopped at Boston's Wang Center.
As it happened, I saw the understudy, Adam
Monley, go on in the central role of Mark
Twain; the same actor also does the spoken
voice for Huck (who's physically embodied
by the appropriately dazed and wild-haired
Tyrone Giordano). Monley has now permanently
taken over the Twain/Huck parts and performs
them at the Shubert this week.
Monley's a youthful,
energetic Twain. He's wry and twinkle-eyed
in the classic mold set by Hal Holbrook
and other Twain impersonators. But he's
also spry and wiry--jumping around, even
playing along with the band on guitar, banjo,
harmonica, ukulele--"and I'm still
working on the mandolin," he said in
a phone interview last week. Another skill
Monley picked up expressly for this show?
Sign language.
"I was one
of only three or four actors who started
with this tour," he said. "Everyone
else had been in the show on Broadway or
in California," where the production
began at Deaf West Theatre in Northern Hollywood.
"It was daunting at first, but the
deaf actors really helped us. The reception
has been wonderful--from the deaf communities,
from everyone. I've never been so proud
to be part of a show."
BACK
TO TOP

'Big River' a high-water
mark for Shubert
By E. Kyle Minor
3/3/05
NEW HAVEN - Mark Twain's
classic novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn" is perhaps most appreciated for
its simple, unpretentious truth. Deaf West's
touring production of "Big River, The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," directed
and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun, is equally
unaffected in its storytelling and just
as refreshing.
"Big River,"
which opened Tuesday and continues through
Sunday at the Shubert Theater, is special
in many ways - all happily so. It's most
distinctive aspect is that the entire musical
is communicated in both spoken (and sung)
words and American Sign Language, creating
a unique eloquence rarely witnessed by musical
theater audiences.
Ray Klausen's fanciful
scenic design, far from realistic, is another
delight. Finally, Calhoun's seamless weaving
of words, sign language, music and movement
make Twain's social satire and compassion
a genuine example of prose in motion.
The show, which initially
ran on Broadway in 1985 for a 1,005-performance
run as a strictly spoken-sung performance,
is the handiwork of composer-lyricist Roger
Miller and bookwriter William Hauptman.
Miller's score is authentic
in voice, period and style to the characters,
time and setting of Twain's novel. The music
is composed mostly in the traditional -
some call it "roots" - acoustic
style of rural, 19th-century America (there
are three strong gospel songs as well),
all performed exquisitely by musical director-pianist
Steven Landau and his six-person band.
Unless you are a fan of
the relatively obscure Eudora Welty-inspired
musical, "The Robber Bridegroom,"
you've not heard such music from the Broadway
stage. The music perfectly frames the story
of runaways Huck and his slave companion
Jim in the novel's context, as does Klausen's
set, comprised entirely of larger-than-life
pages and illustrations from an early edition
of the book, hanging over and popping out
of a multi-level stage.
Hauptman's book includes
all the memorable scenes of the source material
as Huck and Jim flow in and out of trouble
as they roll down the Mississippi. Such
colorful and menacing characters as Huck's
Pap, Miss Watson, Duke and King keep Huck
and Jim on the run, each seeking his own,
different freedom.
The performers, who all
sign their performances regardless of whether
they are deaf, hard-of-hearing or hearing,
all capture the vernacular of the book and
look their parts in David R. Zyla's period-perfect
costumes.
Garrett Matthew Zuercher
is an engaging, puckish Huck Finn, whose
mute performance transcends mere articulacy.
He is superbly complemented by Adam Monley,
who doubles the voice of Huck Finn and narrator
Mark Twain. As if this dual responsibility
isn't enough to keep Monley's hands busy,
he also plays guitar, banjo, harmonica and
mandolin.
Jerold E. Solomon is an
equally expressive Jim, especially when
his rich baritone cuts loose on "Muddy
Water" with Huck and in his rousing
eleven o'clock solo, "Free at Last."
Together, Solomon and Zuercher create a
genuine spark of friendship.
Troy Kotsur and Erick
Devine are as deliciously villainous a pair
as you could hope to find in a musical comedy.
Together they play Pap (Devine is the "voice"
part) and, through Calhoun's spiffy staging,
the actors mirror each other so impeccably
that Chico and Groucho Marx would applaud
from their graves. As King (Devine) and
Duke (Kotsur - with James Judy lending his
rich voice), they portray the sort of nefarious
charlatans that audiences love to hiss.
The rest of the ensemble
is outstanding, including Benjamin Schrader's
Tom Sawyer, Cathy Newman's Widow Douglas,
Phyllis Frelich's Miss Watson, Ryan Schlecht's
Young Fool, Gwen Stewart's Alice, Christina
Dunams' Alice's Daughter and Melissa Van
Der Schyff's Mary Jane Wilkes. A personal
favorite bit is their spirited depiction
of a pack of ravenous dogs, all of them
ferociously barking and slathering in both
voice and gesture.
Everything about Deaf
West's production of "Big River"
is inspired, accessible, expertly performed
and visually arresting. Since anything quite
like it may be years away, fans of Mark
Twain, musical theater and multi-faceted
storytelling won't want to miss it.
BACK
TO TOP

'Big
River' blends sign language, song and dance
Thursday, March 31, 2005
BY LI WANG
For deaf actor and playwright Garrett Mathew
Zuercher, playing Huck Finn is a matter
of finding and conveying the truth and emotion
of Huck's journey.
But the
upcoming production of "Big River:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
at Hershey Theatre Tuesday through April
10 is not the usual stage adaptation of
the Mark Twain novel.
The show,
directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun,
adds sign language and has deaf, hard-of-hearing
and hearing actors performing each role
in a harmonious merging of speaking, signing,
gesture, song and dance.
"Many
don't know how to respond to a play like
this because they've never seen a deaf musical
or even sign language onstage before,"
Zuercher said. "It's a brand new genre
that's forming, a radical type of show."
The show
is being described as forming a "third
language," one that extends the range
of American Sign Language through artistic
storytelling devices such as dance made
accessible through theater.
The production
was originally developed at Deaf West Theatre
in North Hollywood, Calif., in the fall
of 2001. After getting attention by earning
several awards, the show was developed at
the Mark Taper Forum stage, an offshoot
of the Central Theater Group in Los Angeles,
in 2002. During the 2003-04 season, the
mixed-medium version of "Big River"
became a Broadway show at the Roundabout
Theatre Company in New York as a co-production
between Deaf West and Roundabout in association
with the Mark Taper Forum.
For actor
Zuercher, performing is only one of his
creative outlets. Besides acting in "The
Fantasticks," "The Tempest"
and "The Taste of Sunrise," he
has written and directed three plays. The
play "Quid Pro Quo," a story about
his personal experiences, won him two national
playwriting awards.
"It
had been a lifelong dream of mine to do
theater, and with this show, I was finally
able to start feelinglike a success,"
Zuercher said.
Currently,
Zuercher is focused on conveying the transformative
journey of Huck, who escapes from his drunken
father and meets up with Jim, a runaway
slave. The pair take a raft trip down the
Mississippi River in the 1840s.
"Even
though the book was written over a hundred
years ago and takes place equally far in
the past, I didn't feel I had to reach back
too distantly to find Huck," Zuercher
said. "Huck's journey is universal
anthe truths he discovers along the way
are just as true today as they were then."
LI WANG:
255-8168 or lwang@patriot-news.com
BACK
TO TOP

Hershey
musical will be treat for deaf and hard
of hearing
Monday, March
28, 2005
BY DIANA FISHLOCK
The last time Victoria Finch saw an actor
using sign language was back when she watched
"Sesame Street."
"I
was wishing that sometime they would have
a play that would have deaf actors. And
now look, my wish has come true," said
Victoria, 15, a hard of hearing ninth-grade
student at Susquehanna Twp. High School.
Victoria
and other midstate residents who are deaf
and hard of hearing say they are looking
forward to seeing "Big River, the Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn." The musical,
which opens next month at the Hershey Theatre,
weaves English and American Sign Language.
The Deaf
West Theatre show features actors who are
deaf, including Garrett Matthew Zuercher,
who plays Huck.
"I
grew up going to the theater with my family
... but it was discouraging because I never
really was able to enjoy it on the same
level as my hearing family," Zuercher
said.
Scores
of midstate residents who are deaf or hard
of hearing plan to attend.
"I've
gotten e-mail from just about everyone that
is anyone in the deaf field," said
Tammy Mitchell, a former president of Self
Help for Hard of Hearing People, a support
group. "It's new, and we are excited
about it."
The Capital
Area Intermediate Unit has about 65 people
attending, said Jane Freeman, an educational
consultant for the unit's deaf and hard
of hearing program. The group includes students,
staff and their families from Dauphin, Cumberland,
Perry and northern York counties.
"This
is a professional theater group, and the
opportunity to see a show of this caliber
in our area doesn't happen very often,"
Freeman said, adding that it's rare to have
shows featuring deaf actors in the midstate.
The tour
travels with 10 hand-held dialogue machines
that include the lyrics and dialogue in
several languages. The Hershey Theatre has
infrared listening devices available for
hard of hearing patrons.
Unless
Barbara Beard sat at the front of the theater
where she could read lips, she wouldn't
get the point of a play, said the Hershey
woman, who is clinically deaf.
"That's
the main reason I am so thrilled they are
having these caption machines," she
said. "If they had these caption devices,
I would go to the theater more often."
Zuercher
said he's thrilled to be part of a show
that gives deaf people the chance to enjoy
a production side by side with hearing viewers.
About
a third of the cast is deaf, he said. Everyone
on stage uses sign language. Hearing actors
provide the voices for deaf performers.
"American
Sign Language is an extremely expressive
language, using the body and face instead
of the voice to convey what you want to
say," Zuercher said. "And if you're
going to put it on stage, the expressiveness
is going to go along with it."
That expressiveness
will be fun to watch, Victoria said.
"I'm
excited to go to see what it's like,"
she said. "I never experienced a deaf
play. I can't wait."
DIANA
FISHLOCK: 255-8251 or dfishlock@patriot-news.com
BACK
TO TOP

'Big River' Keeps Rolling
Along With Delight
By Amanda Henry of
The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 30, 2005
TAMPA - 'Big River,' with its bluegrass-
and gospel-tinged score by Roger Miller,
was a Broadway anomaly when it opened there
for the first time in 1985. The version
that made it back to the Great White Way
in 2003 was even more exotic: a musical
performed in American Sign Language. That
production, created by California-based
Deaf West Theatre, arrived at the Tampa
Bay Performing Arts Center on Tuesday. One
thing came through loud and clear opening
night: This is no novelty act but a fresh,
charming piece of musical theater to delight
any audience.
The magic of ``Big River' comes partly from
its source, ``The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn.' With its episodic rhythm and colorful
characters, Mark Twain's yarn about boyhood
along the Mississippi River transfers beautifully
to the stage, in more ways than one. Scenic
designer Ray Klausen fills the stage with
sepia- toned pages from the novel that are
somehow more transporting than a realistic
set.
The show's other great asset is the direction
by Jeff Calhoun, who blends the spoken and
signed performances with wit and grace.
In the musical numbers, the hand motions
play like part of the choreography. When
a hearing actor voices lines for a deaf
performer, the doubling is either seamless
or dramatically appropriate, as when Huck's
volatile Pap (Troy Kutsur and Erick Devine)
demonstrates a personality that is literally
split. Most fitting of all is the way that
Mark Twain (Adam Monley), the onstage narrator,
speaks and sings for Huck (Garrett Matthew
Zuercher) - who is, after all, his creation.
The acting is excellent on both sides, physical
and vocal. Zuercher manages to be innocent
and impish at the same time, while David
Aron Damane makes a dignified Jim, with
an undercurrent of anger and sorrow. The
lead vocals, especially by Monley, Damane
and Gwen Stewart (Alice), are rich and expressive.
Having an on-stage band reinforces the earthy
quality of the music, a welcome contrast
to the synthetic sound of most modern musicals.
In the end, ``Big River' doesn't succeed
in spite of using sign language, or solely
because it does. It's just a lovely night
of theater with lots of heart, and that
comes through in any language.
Reporter Amanda Henry can be reached at
(813) 259-7569.
Spoken English and American Sign Language
mix with song and dance in this adaptation
of ""The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,'
which earned a 2004 Tony for Excellence
in Theater; Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center,
Morsani Hall, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa;
(813) 229-7827
BACK
TO TOP

Musical packs Tampa arts
center with singing, signing
Big River runs through
Sunday at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.
$30.50-$66.50. 813 229-7837 or toll-free
1-800-955-1045; www.tbpac.org
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts
Critic
Published March 30, 2005
TAMPA - Maybe all musicals should incorporate
American Sign Language into their performance.
That's one message you could take from Big
River, the Deaf West Theatre revival of
Roger Miller's musical adaptation of Mark
Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
which opened Tuesday at Tampa Bay Performing
Arts Center.
There's a fascinating energy that comes
with director Jeff Calhoun's approach to
telling the story through a combination
of speech, singing and signing. It demands
tremendous teamwork by the cast of eight
deaf actors and 14 hearing actors. For example,
Adam Monley, who plays Twain, the narrator,
also provides the audible voice for Huck,
played by the signing deaf actor, Garrett
Matthew Zuercher.
The signing, also done by hearing actors,
adds a useful layer of expressiveness, without
especially drawing attention to itself after
about five minutes. In a way, it's like
the masks and puppets of The Lion King,
deepening the sense of theatricality.
Big River is inspired because the deaf-hearing
divide mirrors the dualities that run through
the play: black and white, good and bad,
civilization and wilderness, slavery and
freedom. In a deft enactment of the theme,
the two actors who play Huck's drunken Pap,
Troy Kotsur and Erick Devine, turn up later
as a pair of con artists, Duke and King.
There are times when signing does seem to
take focus away from an actor's singing,
such as in Devine's rendition of Pap's comic
blues, Guv'ment, which was barely understandable.
David Aron Damane, who plays Jim, had an
uneven opening night, with some of his songs
lacking power, but he came through soaringly
in Free at Last.
The portrayal of Huck by Monley and Zuercher
is virtually seamless. Zuercher is a charming,
rawboned talent who has an uncanny ability
to fit into musical numbers with no visible
cues. Monley sings well and plays guitar,
banjo, ukelele and harmonica.
Phyllis Frelich, who won a Tony Award for
her performance as Sarah in Children of
a Lesser God, plays that "tolerable slim
old maid," Miss Watson. Melissa Van Der
Schyff, as Huck's heartthrob, Mary Jane
Wilkes, has a classic country weeper, You
Oughta Be Here With Me. Gwen Stewart, playing
the slave Alice, is a powerful gospel singer.
Fittingly, a memorable moment in the show
is silent, when the last few bars of a reprise
of the rousing Waitin' for the Light to
Shine is signed.
Ray Klausen's storybook set is a marvel
of versatility. Steven Landau conducted
the small but resourceful orchestra from
above the stage.
BACK
TO TOP

Signs Of Success
By Amanda Henry of
The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 27, 2005
TAMPA ªE""Big River,' which opens Tuesday
at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center,
is Broadway's first all- singing, all-dancing,
all-signing musical. Roger Miller's country
and gospel-inflected musical take on the
Mark Twain classic ""The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn' won seven Tonys on its first trip
to Broadway in 1985. The current revival,
a Broadway hit in the 2003-04 season, introduced
a new element: American Sign Language.
That's in keeping with the mission of Deaf
West, which premiered this version of ""Big
River' in Hollywood in 2001, with a cast
evenly divided between hearing and deaf
actors ªEall of whom sign on stage. For
the hearing actors, it meant learning their
lines in a foreign language. Deaf and hard-of-hearing
cast members had to memorize complicated
song and dance numbers, set to music they
couldn't hear.
Blending the two languages and cultures
into a Broadway- ready musical fell largely
onto the shoulders of noted director-choreographer
Jeff Calhoun, whose Broadway credits include
the revival of ""Grease' and the current
musical ""Brooklyn.'
Calhoun spoke with the Tribune by phone
last week.
Q. Why this show?
A. When you pick a musical that's about
an outcast, or that's about relationships
between people and communities, there is
this sort of subliminal effect you get that
speaks louder than any comment we could
make. It seemed like it deepened the cultures
ªEnow it's not just a white boy and a black
man on a raft; it's a deaf boy and a hearing
man. We have three cultures telling the
story: black, white and deaf.
Q. The show has been described as combining
spoken English and American Sign Language
with music and dance to form a new, third
language. In what ways does ""Big River'
go beyond traditional expressions of both
spoken English and ASL?
A. Usually you see theater for the deaf
as plays. To my knowledge, we're the first
to do actual musicals. It almost becomes
a ballet in some ways. In normal theater,
there's talking and then all of a sudden
you break into dance and song ... in this
show, there's dancing even in the dialogue
because of the ASL, so it feels like a ballet
from the beginning to the end.
Q. How much experience did you have with
hearing-impaired people prior to directing
""Oliver' (Deaf West's first ""deaf musical')
and this show? What accommodations did you
need to make as a director?
A. I had never met a deaf person until I
met Ed Waterstreet, who runs Deaf West.
I wasn't really prepared for how difficult
it was going to be ªEI think if I had known
more, the fear would have stopped me.
Basically, I had to throw away all of my
experience as a director and start from
scratch, and just solve every problem as
it came along. It was all very ""Waiting
for Guffman' at first.
First of all, you're going through an interpreter.
Then Huck has to have a fishing pole ªEbut
he can't hold a fishing pole and sign. And
then someone comes to the door and knocks,
and you can't hear the knock. Look out the
window while you're having a scene with
someone in the kitchen ªEoh wait, you have
to face each other. Not to mention the obvious:
when the music starts and how you keep them
with the music.
Q. Was there resistance, from a commercial
standpoint, to the idea of a Broadway show
using sign language?
A. I think we're still up against that,
even though Deaf West has come a long way
to educate people about deaf culture and
ASL. We got the best reviews, but, of course,
it was only a limited engagement because
I think people hear the word deaf and think,
if they're hearing, ""Oh, that's not for
me.' And that's what I really want to express:
If you love musical theater, you will love
this show. The signing enhances the show;
it doesn't take away.
Q. What does a hearing audience gain from
the signed portions of the show and vice
versa?
A. The deaf audience gets to see music for
the first time onstage in a show. Usually
we put a signer on the side of the stage,
and they spend their time looking at that
signer, and they miss the show. It's very
patronizing. With this, they're looking
at the action.
And for the hearing audience, it's like
dance, when you use your body to communicate.
... It creates a visual art form that we
really aren't used to seeing. It does take
a few minutes to get acclimated. But by
the end, you forget who's deaf and who's
hearing.
Q. Does Deaf West have plans for another
hybrid musical?
A. We talk about it every day. We have a
short list right now, and we will soon announce
what our next show will be. We'd like to
do one more revival, and then an original.
I think we're one show away from doing an
original.
Reporter Amanda Henry can be reached at
(813) 259-7569.
Spoken English and American Sign Language
mix with song and dance in this adaptation
of ""The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,'
which earned a 2004 Tony for Excellence
in Theater; Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center,
Morsani Hall, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa;
(813) 229-7827
BACK
TO TOP
The actor: 'Big River'
succeeds in sign and song
Garrett Matthew Zurcher,
who portrays Huck Finn, says signing can
help hearing members of the audience better
understand the production.
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts
Critic
Published March 27, 2005
Garrett Matthew Zurcher has been Huck Finn
in Big River since February, having understudied
the role while playing Simon (a boy in Tom
Sawyer's gang) and one of the Slave Traders.
Born profoundly deaf, Zurcher, 25, grew
up in Wisconsin and is a 2003 graduate of
Marquette University, where he majored in
theater. Here's an edited transcript of
an interview with him via e-mail.
I'm looking forward to seeing Big River,
but I'm having a hard time imagining what
it's like. Singing, signing, speaking .
. . a musical with deaf performers. What
do you tell people to help them understand
it?
Big River is a multilingual musical that
seamlessly combines voices both spoken and
sung with sign language to create a theatrical
experience that both hearing and deaf audiences
can enjoy together. It's visual music with
the sign language choreographed to give
deaf people a representation of the music.
It was created to allow deaf people equal
access to musical theater, but with the
ability for hearing people to enjoy as well.
Do you think the approach Deaf West Theatre
has devised for Big River and, previously,
Oliver!, would work for any musical? Or
is it fairly show-specific? Director Jeff
Calhoun thought Sondheim musicals might
be hard to adapt since the language is so
quirky and perhaps not easily translated
to ASL.
I think it can work with any show. However,
it is true that some productions might be
much more difficult to translate into sign
language such as the ones by Stephen Sondheim,
due to the speed and complexity of his music,
as well as the multitude of lyrical puns.
Yet, I think with a bit of perseverance
and work, it could be done. A particular
show I think would be great for this format
is Man of La Mancha with Cervantes as the
narrator and voice of Don Quixote. This
would be a great new show for Deaf West
to do, except for the fact that it was recently
revived on Broadway, limiting its chances
of going there any time soon.
In a review, I read an interesting remark
that the deaf-hearing divide in the production
rather artfully mirrored the racial divide
in Huck Finn. Does that make any sense to
you?
Yes. Big River was chosen so that it could
have a strong deaf protagonist who had to
struggle with two different cultures (black
and white), enabling it to mirror and complement
the struggle between the deaf and hearing
worlds. This is most strongly evident in
the song, Worlds Apart, where Huck and Jim,
deaf and hearing, white and black, sing
about being friends in different worlds.
As a deaf performer, what do you feel during
the musical numbers?
I can hear some of the music, albeit very
little. It's enough, though, to give me
an idea of the tempo and quality of the
music and, since I have memorized the lyrics,
I can match the words I know to the sounds
I hear. Then, while I'm singing (signing)
the songs, I sing to myself in my head to
enable me to "feel" the music better and
express it more eloquently. I'm certain
that what I hear in my head sounds nothing
like what it really does, but if it matches
well enough, it works. Essentially, music
is really all about the emotion that is
being expressed and if I'm able to find
the right motivation, I'm able to hit the
right "note," so to speak. However, I have
to clarify that this is my method since
there are other deaf actors in the show
who have never heard the music. They required
a great deal of practice to get the rhythm
in their bodies, but now they get it perfect
every night. I don't know exactly how they
do it, but it is beautiful.
I have seen plays and choral concerts that
have someone doing ASL off to the side.
Some theaters have a night set aside during
a run when signing interpreters are provided.
How helpful do you think this is in getting
deaf people to shows?
It's not very helpful because if we're going
to pay for tickets, we want to see the performers
themselves, not the interpreters doing their
own version of the performers. Ideally,
theater should be captioned like television
so we can watch the performers themselves
and know what they're saying without having
to constantly watch the sides of the stage
and miss everything that's happening in
the middle.
The signing is often very attractive in
its own right, almost like a dance, and
I sometimes wonder if that is an aid or
a hindrance to understanding.
In this show, though there is little of
what you would normally call dancing, there
is a great deal of choreography where the
signs are actually like a dance, artfully
and precisely choreographed to present visually
the songs and the lyrics that are being
sung. It's definitely an aid in this production.
How different is the signing for dialogue
and for music?
The signs for the songs are designed to
match the music that the song is set to
so that we can express what it sounds like
through the signs. If the music is fast,
the signs are fast, and vice versa. Also,
the emotional state of the signs become
heightened in song, just like words do for
the singer. It's all about emotion.
Having been born deaf, does that mean you
think in ASL or in English?
My mother was determined to teach me to
read and write and speak at an early age,
and I was somehow hooked. Because of this,
as a child, I always had my nose in a book
and believe that is why my English skills
are so good (I have an English degree in
creative writing in addition to my theater
degree). As a result of this, I think and
speak English, which is my first language,
but I do also speak ASL.
What's the job market like for you?
There's not many roles out there for deaf
actors, but it is improving, especially
with the success of this show and the increased
visibility and recognition of deaf actors.
There are never sufficient opportunities
for any actor, deaf or hearing, unless you're
a major A-list star in Hollywood, but if
you love the craft and the art, you pursue
it with your heart and find a way to be
successful. You just have to keep trying
and never give up.
Has Big River opened up employment opportunities?
Yes, I have had several offers from people
and organizations who would like to work
with me from the exposure I am getting with
this show, including with the Australian
Theater of the Deaf.
Whatever happened to the National Theatre
of the Deaf? Last time I saw anything by
them was Peer Gynt on tour but that was
some years ago.
They're still up and running. Some friends
of mine are touring with them in Alice in
Wonderland under the banner of the Little
Theater of the Deaf.
What are the sort of roles you aspire to?
My two dream roles are Puck in A Midsummer
Night's Dream and Toby in Sweeney Todd.
BACK
TO TOP
The director: 'Big River'
succeeds in sign and song
Jeff Calhoun says
one of his main challenges in staging Deaf
West Theatre's musical is to choreograph
singing and signing.
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts
Critic
Published March 27, 2005
It sounded like a crazy idea when Jeff Calhoun
got a call to direct a show.
Calling Calhoun made sense: The veteran
director and choreographer was fresh off
choreographing Broadway revivals of Annie
Get Your Gun and Bells Are Ringing.
The crazy part was that he was being asked
to direct a musical in which half the cast
would be deaf. For a small company far from
Broadway.
"You can imagine my reaction," says Calhoun,
who had never met a deaf person. But Deaf
West Theatre, a Los Angeles company, persuaded
him to give it a try.
"It appeared to be a sort of demotion, to
go to a little theater in Studio City,"
Calhoun says. "That's how naive and arrogant
I was at the time. I'm ashamed to think
that ever entered my mind, because it has
been the greatest artistic experience I've
ever had."
Calhoun's first show with Deaf West was
Oliver!, and the production combining spoken
English and American Sign Language was so
successful that the company asked him to
do another one.
"I was very reticent," he says. "I actually
said no. I really felt like we had fooled
people and gotten away with something with
Oliver!. I wasn't sure we were able to re-create
that. But you can't put the genie back in
the bottle, so I took a deep breath and
said, all right, let's do it again."
The rest is theater history. Calhoun's second
Deaf West production, Big River, a revival
of Roger Miller's 1985 musical version of
Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn, was such a hit that it eventually
landed on Broadway, where it won a special
Tony Award. The tour arrives at Tampa Bay
Performing Arts Center this week.
Calhoun realizes that people who haven't
seen Big River have a hard time conceiving
how it is performed. "There is really no
way to educate you prior to seeing it. It's
one of those things you need to experience,"
he says.
The cast has eight deaf actors, who communicate
with sign language, and 14 hearing actors,
who provide the show's speaking and singing
voices.
"Every moment of the play is voiced as well
as signed," Calhoun says. "So you're getting
every line and every note of music. For
the theatergoer, it's an enhanced experience."
With all the signing, Calhoun says, "the
whole thing seems to dance. It takes about
five minutes for the audience to get acclimated,
but by the end, they forget who's deaf and
who's hearing."
Calhoun came up with an ingenious solution
for the roles of Huck Finn and Mark Twain,
played by Garrett Matthew Zuercher and Adam
Monley, respectively.
"Mark Twain, of course, is the voice of
all of his characters, but it just made
sense to me that he should be the voice
of Huck Finn," Calhoun says. "Although a
deaf actor plays the role of Huck Finn,
Mark Twain, from the peripheral - or sometimes
not so peripheral - voices for Huck."
Big River demands a lot of the cast. "The
hearing actors have to learn to sign, and
most of the time spent with deaf actors
in a musical is figuring out ways to keep
them with the music," Calhoun says. "It's
done through visual cues. But we don't want
the audience to see the visual cues. That's
what makes the magic. You just marvel at
how they can be staying with the music."
Calhoun, under the tutelage of Deaf West
founder and artistic director Ed Waterstreet,
took pains not to patronize deaf culture.
"When I first started working with Deaf
West, it forced me to deal with my own prejudices,"
Calhoun says. "You do think of people signing,
not talking or hearing, as different than
yourself. Unfairly, but that's just instinct,
human nature. I found I was prejudiced without
knowing it. It became clear to me that part
of this experience was going to be, for
me, educating the public about the sameness
of all of us. Just because someone speaks
and someone doesn't speak doesn't make us
different."
Leah Hager Cohen, author of Train Go Sorry:
Inside a Deaf World, lauded Big River's
evenhanded approach in the New York Times,
saying that it "celebrates the artistic
possibilities of sign language without glorifying
it, without ever making it seem too-too
precious or maudlin. One never has the feeling
that sign language was layered on gratuitously
as a gimmick; it really works within the
story."
Calhoun says the "unsung heroes" were the
interpreters who translated the dialogue
and lyrics of Big River into ASL.
"It's a challenge to have the voice match
the signing. Sometimes you can have a sentence
with 10 words in it but th