Avant Bard Blog

How did it occur to you to treat Othello the character as suffering from PTSD?

Early on in the play there’s a speech in which Othello is pleading innocent to charges of witchcraft that have been leveled against him by Brabantio, Desdemona’s father. And Brabantio says, There’s no way my sweet little daughter would ever have married such an old black guy if it weren’t for witchcraft. In answer to these charges, Othello says, All I did was tell her war stories.

And these war stories included such items as the fact that Othello was conscripted into being a mercenary soldier at age seven; he was a child soldier. He was a prisoner of war for a time. He was impressed into slavery for a time. He faced experiences like living among cannibals. We later hear from Iago that Othello experienced a dear friend of his being literally blown out from right next to him in battle.

Most of these stories are told in the safety of Western Europe, in Venice. Then the play moves to Cyprus—“the mouth of the dog” (as a contemporary Western European historian called the Muslim world). It’s when Othello gets to Cyprus that he starts to act crazy. He becomes insanely jealous. And it’s not just Othello; it’s also Casio. He seems to be very much under control in Western Europe in Venice, where they are initially stationed and where Othello and Desdemona get married. They go on a sea journey, through a tempest, and when they get to Cyprus, Casio’s alcoholism kicks in. He drinks and gets into a brawl. Iago’s vengefulness toward Othello kicks into high gear as well.

Another other factor on my mind was recent events—the Navy Yard shootings a few years ago; the Boston marathon bombing; Littleton, Colorado; Newtown, Connecticut.

To me the central question of the play is, How can such an such evil exist in our midst? How can one of our own turn on us? We just don’t know. I started thinking about the very closely knit community in Othello the play. Virtually all the characters except for Desdemona and Bianca are military or civilian advisers. How can such a tightknit community experience such evil in their midst? What if we stage the play as an investigation into what happened and why? So the triggering mechanism of the journey from the safety and security of Western Europe into the middle of a war zone—and suddenly people start to act uncharacteristically crazy—that started me seeing the play as an instance of post-traumatic stress disorder as we would say today.

How are you going to achieve that investigation, which is not the structure of the play as it is written?

As written the play unfolds in real time in chronological order. We will explore the play as an inquest into the nature of evil, as if all of these events have happened in the recent past. On the evening of a memorial service for all of the people who have been killed, and all the havoc that’s been wreaked, this tightknit community decides that they’re going to take matters into their own hands and investigate what happened in their midst. The play then becomes an instance of not only a few characters’ post-traumatic stress disorder but a whole community experiencing and trying to grapple with it.

What will be the setting and the visual motif of the production?

I always start with the text and my reading of it to figure out what was in Shakespeare’s head. Shakespeare didn’t care much about actual geography or chronology. In Othello the journey from Venice to Cyprus seems to take place in a matter of hours when it would have been many days in Shakespeare’s time. And I was struck by the fact that in Shakespeare’s day most of the major battles—partly because England is an island nation—took place at sea. So rather than set the play in the world of artillery or infantry, I thought, Wouldn’t it be interesting to explore it in a contemporary military and nautical world, something Marine-ish or Navy-ish.

In Othello the sea battle in Cyprus never takes place because wind blows the Muslim Ottoman fleet off course and destroys them—as happened during Shakespeare’s time with the Spanish Armada (it wasn’t so much that the British conquered them than that winds killed them). So Shakespeare’s interest in that is not historical; it’s psychological, or almost mystical—that is, it’s a journey through a tempest, which as we know from The Tempest or from King Lear is always a potent metaphor for him.

The idea of telling the story backward, in retrospect, gives us license in reenacting it to set it anywhere. The challenge of doing it in the cozy confines of Theatre on the Run is that you have to find a unit set that will work; there’s not a whole lot of room to move scenery in and out, which I like, actually. I like finding a central metaphor for a particular production and going with it. The governing metaphor for the world of this play is that these people are meeting late at night without permission in the control room of some sort of nautical vessel—a ship, a submarine. The whole play is a psychological journey; it’s not a literal journey. We don’t have to adhere too closely to the kind of literal facts that Shakespeare didn’t care about, so we won’t. The basic world of this play will be like a conning tower control room or a nuclear submarine or a ship at sea or a ship docked somewhere.

The first scene, which is between Iago and Roderigo, will likely take place via some sort of surveillance cam; there will be video footage shown on surveillance camera as if it’s captured in some entranceway or elevator or convenience store, and they’re plotting. This will be by way of saying, This is what you did; we have you red-handed; now just tell us why. And that’s really what the play is. More than a whodunit—most audience members know that already—it’s a whydunit. It’s a psychological thriller.

What kind of experience can the audience expect from the show?

Ultimately it’s a tragedy. It’s very wrenching and sad what happens to this glorious couple, this marriage between Desdemona and Othello. They are star-crossed lovers, ill-fated, because he’s from a different culture. He is military through and through; he is not used to being in civilian clothing in civilian territory. He is much older than she is. She on the other hand had many other suitors, turned them all down and chose Othello. There are glimpses of what those two are to each other and could have been to each other. Some of the most beautiful and heightened poetry that Shakespeare ever wrote about relationships exists in the brief exchanges between Othello and Desdemona and in words that they use about each other. It’s a very moving love story. These are two who should’ve been able to overcome these odds and create one of the great marriages, one of the great romances of all literature. And it was shipwrecked by one guy’s machinations. So experiencing that story—along with the meta-story of what happened and why—is a large part of the journey of this play.

__________

For complete performance schedule and ticket availability, call 703-418-4808 or click here.

A visual dramaturg acts as the eyes of the Deaf and hard-of-hearing audience.  A visual dramaturg well versed in ASL and Deaf culture can be an invaluable consultant to a director, who may not know ASL and Deaf culture or may be just too busy to attend to this aspect of the production. My job on Visual Language production has been to ensure that the overall stage presentation of sign language, open captioning, visual production elements, and Deaf culture-related matters are all on point with the script and clear to an audience.

There may be some overlap in the duties of the Director of Artistic Sign Language (DASL), depending on the depth and range of assigned responsibilities during a production.  The DASL on Visible Language is Aaron Kubey, who has been heavily involved in the translation of the English dialogue and lyrics into ASL for the signing actors.  He has also taught the ASL lines to actors who do not know signs.

Here are some of the production elements or visual concerns that I am always on the lookout for as a visual dramaturg:

1. Are my eyes looking at the right places in the play?  A hearing audience’s attention is  drawn mostly by the direction of sounds or voices.  A Deaf audience’s attention is guided by movement.  A motion as simple as an actor unintentionally wiping his nose can draw the focus of the entire Deaf audience away from something important happening on stage. Extraneous or intentional actor movement that inadvertently draws focus may need to be cut, re-choreographed, or timed differently. Sometimes this matter is resolved simply by getting the actor(s) to find ways to visually draw focus while the others nearby give focus where needed.
2. Are signing sightlines clear for the Deaf audience?  Spoken words can go through or around the body and reach the audience but not signed words. Sometimes the signing of an actor may get blocked by the positioning of certain actors (or props) on stage.  Audience members sitting in the first couple of rows may not be able to see the hands of signers if there’s an actor or two standing in the way.

   

3. Are the captions well positioned and visible to the audience? All of Visible Language will be captioned in plain view on a screen above the stage. I once dealt with a situation at a theatre that used projected captions.  The very tip of the text was blocked by a set piece in front of the projector and none of the tech team noticed it until I mentioned it.
   
4. Will the Deaf audience understand name signs and locations that may seem out of context? It is important to seek creative ways to introduce character names and places.  Plays often have names of characters and locales.  To the hearing ear, the English word lends itself to easy identification without any need for explanation. In Deaf culture, name signs are invented to represent a particular person.  Take for example the name Gallaudet. It is created by forming the fingerspelled letter “G” and swinging it over one eye.  This name sign came from the eyeglasses worn by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. It is also the name sign of the university where this play takes place. If the name Gallaudet comes up in dialogue, there has to be clear reference to what or who this name sign is in reference to:  Thomas Gallaudet, his son Edward Miner Gallaudet, or the university itself.  Inadvertent visual confusion must be avoided. For instance the name sign for Edward Miner Gallaudet almost resembles the sign for breasts—so some kind of visual context needs to be created for the Deaf audience to know that the dialogue topic at hand is not about breasts. Bottom line:  Careful thought must go into ways to introduce character name signs and signs for locations to help the Deaf audience with understanding exposition.
5. Is the presentation of ASL legible on stage?  During the early part of the rehearsal process for Visible Language, the actor playing Helen Keller was exploring tactile reading of Annie Sullivan’s signing: With historical accuracy, Helen was putting her hands over Annie’s hands to “read” fingerspelled and signed words. But from an audience’s point of view it was hard to understand what Annie was signing. The solution was to have Helen “cheat” a little by not covering so much of Annie’s hands, and one way we found to do this was for the actor playing Helen to put her hands on the wrist of the actor playing Annie.

When you attend Visual Language, you may never notice everything that I as visual dramaturg must always be aware of and watch out for.  But that’s as it should be. If I’ve done my job right, you can just sit back enjoy the show!

Visible Language, with book and lyrics by Mary Resing and music by Andy Welchel, runs October 21 to November 16, 2014, at Gallaudet University. For more information, click here.

About Willy:

I am an actor, director, playwright, and translator, and have been a theatre arts professor for twenty years, seven as a department chairperson. My work as a visual dramaturg stems from watching the rehearsals of my fellow faculty directors, where we often ask each other for feedback on our respective productions. One of my early works in this capacity was at CenterStage in Baltimore during the production of The Hostage. I was the associate director under Irene Lewis. In essence my role was really that of a visual dramaturg, since I was responsible for the direction and look of a signed song that was performed by the ensemble during the show. I have also worked a number of years as a DASL for various theatres such as Arena Stage, the Kennedy Center, Studio Theatre, and Everyman Theatre. It is my wish that more professional theatres involve the work of DASLs and visual dramaturgs when sign language is involved in future productions.

 

As a historian, I am always interested in new ways of bringing the past to the public. Visible Language, written by Mary Resing, does so in a unique way—presenting the controversy between oral education and sign language through a musical.

Set in 1893, Visible Language is the true story of the battle over founding a teacher’s college at the National Deaf-Mute College, which is now known as Gallaudet University. The key players in this battle, Edward Miner Gallaudet (played by Gallaudet faculty member Tom Baldridge) and Alexander Graham Bell, are well-known in the Deaf community today; and the historic controversy between them, the debate between oralism and manualism, lives on to this day.

Theatergoers will learn a great deal about Alexander Graham Bell through Visible Language.  Although frequently seen as a proponent of the oral method exclusively, Bell was in fact able to use some sign language, and willingly conversed with adults in sign—though with children he preferred to speak, to improve their skills.  In Visible Language the character of Alexander Graham Bell (played by Harv Lester) gives a lecture on Visible Speech that actually took place, in 1880, at Kendall Green’s own Chapel Hall, which is now the home of the Gallaudet University Museum. That year Bell received an honorary doctorate from the college—but ten years later the controversy over the teacher’s college began, and the relationship between Bell and Gallaudet suffered tremendously.

Visible Language also weaves in another story related to education, that of Helen Keller (played by Gallaudet graduate Miranda Medugno).  Alexander Graham Bell was a great friend of the young Helen, and was indeed known to have been one of her teachers in what later became known as the Tadoma Method—teaching Deafblind individuals to read lips and speak by feeling vibrations on the face.

Mary Resing’s book is very faithful to Deaf history, but it does take a few liberties to enhance the storytelling on stage. For instance Helen did visit Kendall Green twice in her life, though not with Bell as shown in the play.  Additionally, Helen’s method of communication with Anne Sullivan was fingerspelling rather than sign language, but in Visible Language the characters  Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan (played by Sarah Anne Sillers) use tactile sign, which is what modern Deafblind people use, so that their dialog with each other can be seen by the audience.

Another historical adaptation in Visible Language—one that may surprise theatergoers—is the inclusion of a young African American character, presented as an Honors graduate of the college.  Audience members familiar with the history of Gallaudet will likely recognize the name Andrew Foster, Class of 1954, who was the school’s first African American graduate—but they may not be aware that two other African Americans preceded him.

In a landmark decision in 1896, in a case called Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that laws requiring racial segregation in public education were constitutional under the doctrine of “separate but equal.” Up until then, black children had been educated on Kendall Green, and were not barred from applying to the college. So it was that in 1886, James Gilbert Jr. became the first student to receive the notation “Colored” (the term used then for black) in the alumni record. Gilbert was followed five years later by another African American student, Ennals Adams Jr. (his actual alumni card, with his name misspelled “Ennal,” can be seen here). In Visible Language, the character of Ennals Adams Jr. (played by Gallaudet graduate Aarron Loggins) appears as a rising star. In actual fact both Adams and Gilbert withdrew before graduation.  Gilbert became a concrete worker, and Adams was one of the first deaf individuals to take the U.S. civil service exam, though he did not pass.  Still, the inclusion of the historical character Ennals Adams Jr. in Visible Language serves as a dramatic reminder that Kendall Green was initially racially progressive, which was highly unusual during the period after the Civil War and before “separate but equal” took hold.

Staging this world premiere musical at Gallaudet University has rich historical resonance.  Visible Language takes audiences into the compelling human stories behind the debate on signs versus speech in the very neighborhood where the argument broke out. The production brings together Deaf and hearing actors and off-stage creative team to present an often overlooked part of the school’s history to both Deaf and hearing audiences.  From October 21 to November 16, 2014, inside Eastman Studio Theatre, pivotal real history will come alive again—in sign and song.

Meredith Peruzzi is the Interim Manager of the Gallaudet University Museum, and the curator of its first permanent exhibit, Gallaudet at 150 and Beyond.  A native of the Washington DC area, she graduated from Gallaudet University in 2011 with University Honors.  Her Capstone thesis, Gallaudet at 150: Chapter One, represented years of interest and work in the field of Deaf history, particularly the history of Gallaudet.  She presented at the 150th Anniversary Symposium on the subject of Platt Skinner’s relationship with the founding of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf, and continues to conduct research in the field of Deaf history.  Currently earning a Master’s in Applied History at George Mason University, she is a public historian committed to preserving and presenting the rich and complex history of deaf Americans.

Oftentimes I’m asked what I do in the theatre industry, and oftentimes I pause to think about how I can answer. To the person who asked the question, it’s a simple one. For me it’s a loaded one, given the various roles I’ve played in my 20-plus professional years in the industry.

I started out as an actor, evolved into a director, grew into a producer; got invited to sit on panels, present workshops, teach classes; and was hired as a consultant to theatre companies on the topic of Deaf theatre and theatre interpreting. Mostly these days I focus on working with theatre interpreters in my role as a DASL— Director of Artistic Sign Language.

My primary responsibility as a DASL is to help the theatre interpreters—and in this particular production, the whole cast of Visible Language—how to show the world how American Sign Language (ASL) is a beautiful language, how much more vividly a story can be told through ASL, and how moving language can be without having to be spoken.

Visible Language is a unique circumstance, because this play is actually a musical and will combine the spoken word and ASL in song as well. There are so many layers of how moved the audience member can, will, and should feel at the end of the night. Will the hearing audience completely understand what is being signed? Will the Deaf audience completely understand what’s being spoken? And will both audiences share the common experience of feeling antipathy towards the show’s antagonist and love for the show’s protagonist?

What I try to do as the DASL ties in to what Visible Language strives to do, because the common theme that is threaded throughout the show is communication. There’s a dramatic conflict in the play—as there was in real life—over whether Deaf students should be educated using ASL or whether Deaf students should be educated using oral methods. There’s also the unseen storyline of feeling isolated versus feeling inclusion. My role as the DASL for Visible Language is to help the director and the cast make sure these themes are portrayed clearly though ASL to the audience each and every performance.

I do hope that you will come to Eastman Studio Theatre at Gallaudet University and see for yourself what the cast of Visible Language will be working on—no, toiling through—over the next weeks until previews begin October 21. And when do, I hope that you walk out of that theatre with a clear sense of how important and beautiful communication is, no matter which method you use.

Visible Language, with book and lyrics by Mary Resing and music by Andy Welchel, runs October 21 to November 16, 2014, at Gallaudet University. For more information, click here.

 

About Aaron (in his own words):

I moved to Washington, DC, in 2011. Prior to moving to DC, I was the first Deaf and youngest Executive Director/President of the National Theatre of the Deaf from 2007–2011. Prior to becoming the Executive Director/President of NTD, I worked at several prestigious law firms in Chicago and New York City.

I have worked on numerous television, film, and theatrical productions over the course of my professional career. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to interpret Jersey Boys several times and am thankful for those memorable experiences! Oh! What a night! I also have been fortunate to have interpreted at the Kennedy Center, as well as other theatres around the country. I also travel to present my theatre interpreting workshops (Spoken English to ASL and ASL to Spoken English).

I am a 1994 graduate of the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD) at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. In 2006, I earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree in Theatre Studies from the Theatre School, DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. A proud native of Chicago and avid Cubs fan (GO CUBBIES!), I was the first Deaf admitted student and graduate from this prestigious institution.

In 2009, I was commissioned by Open Circle Theatre to write a signed/spoken musical. The subject was the battle between Alexander Graham Bell and Edward Miner Gallaudet over who would control Deaf education in America. In simple terms, Bell wanted Deaf children to learn to speak and Gallaudet believed in educating them through sign language. Gallaudet’s views ultimately prevailed (Gallaudet University is named after his father), and every Deaf person in America who signs has been the beneficiary. But there are echoes of the sign-versus-speech battle all around the country even today.

Granted, this important but little-known history is not exactly your typical subject for a musical! But hey, a great story is a great story. And the high drama of the battle and the fascinating cast of characters around these two men soon made this one fly out of my pen and onto the page.

I’m a native Washingtonian and D.C. is the center of Deaf culture in America, so I’ve been around signers my whole life. But, even so, when I started working on the book and lyrics that became Visible Language, [su_highlight background=”#fffb99″]I—like most hearing people—knew very little about sign language. Working on Visible Language converted me.[/su_highlight] I’m now a big fan of sign language and Deaf culture. And I believe Visible Language will speak to other hearing people with exactly the same power.

[su_dropcap size=”4″]T[/su_dropcap]o give you a preview of what I mean, here are five fascinating things I learned about sign language that will be evident onstage when you see Visible Language.

1. [su_highlight background=”#fffb99″]American Sign Language (ASL) is not word-for-word signed English. It’s its own language, with its own vocabulary and grammar. [/su_highlight] This was really important information to me as a playwright. Half of the main characters in Visible Language are Deaf, and I wrote their lines of dialogue in English. However, onstage the majority of those characters will communicate through sign. Thus, the actors playing those roles will perform their dialogue in a language different from the one in the script.
2. People who translate English into sign are called Interpreters not Translators. This is because there is no one-to-one correlation between English and ASL. A sentence in English might be conveyed in ASL in a number of different ways. In addition, there are regional, ethnic, and generational distinctions in ASL. Teenagers might use different signs than their grandparents. A Southerner might use different signs than a New Englander. Thus, any one of my lines of dialogue could be signed in dozens of ways.
3. Plays that involve sign language require a Director of Artistic Sign Language (DASL). It is the job of this person to come up with a signed version of the dialogue for the actors. For Visible Language, the DASL is Aaron Kubey.
4. [su_highlight background=”#fffb99″]Theatrical sign language is different from conversational sign language, just as theatrical speech is different from conversational speech. [/su_highlight]Signed dialogue onstage must be easy to see and understand for anyone sitting anywhere in the audience. This is very tricky and takes a lot of skill and experience. At Gallaudet University’s Art, Communication and Theatre Department student actors learn how to sign onstage.
5. ASL is a living language. New words are added all the time. The style of signs (big gestures versus small gestures, one-handed signs versus two-handed signs, etc.) also shifts with time. This is particularly important to Visible Language because the sign language used in the 1890s (the era when the play is set) was quite different from the sign language used today.

Visible Language, with book and lyrics by Mary Resing and music by Andy Welchel, runs October 21 to November 16, 2014, at Gallaudet University. For more information, click here.

 

 

Mary Resing is a playwright, director, dramaturg and producer, and the founder of Active Cultures Theatre.  In 2012, the Maryland State Arts Council recognized her with an Individual Artist Award in Playwriting for her signed/spoken musical Visible Language. She previously collaborated with composer Andy Welchel on the musical Hansel and Gretel Eat Crabs. Her work has been seen around the country at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Hartford Stage, Ann Arbor Rep, Empty Space, New Dramatists, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth, and Source Theatre Company.  She has served on panels for the Theatre Communications Group, Fulbright/CIES, and The Rockefeller Foundation.  A proud alumna of U Michigan-Ann Arbor, NYU, and Spring Hill College, Dr. Resing was a 2005–2006 US Fulbright Scholar to Armenia.  In 2005, she also received an Offstage Award from the League of Washington Theatres for her body of dramaturgical work at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.  With Tim McKeown, she is co-owner of the successful startup ResingMcKeown Unlimited.