NEW "BIG RIVER" COMBINES DEAF AND HEARING PERFORMERS
by Stan Griffin

This month Broadway will resound once again with the sights and sounds of Roger Miller’s Tony Award-winning musical "Big River: the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." This show is not your traditional revival because the cast is a mixture of performers: those who are deaf and others who can hear.

The Roundabout Theatre Company and Deaf West Theater are presenting this work in association with the Mark Taper Forum. In the fall of 2002 it was staged in Los Angeles and won a number of awards.

"Big River" blends the "visual art form" of signing each role into a "synchronized ballet" of speaking and signing. It becomes a "third language for a unique theatrical event," and makes it possible for all of the audience (whether deaf or hearing) to enjoy, understand, and appreciate the experience.

Usually when there is a deaf interpreter present to help hearing-impaired in the audience, he (or she) stands on one side of the stage. This takes the eye away from the action and detracts from understanding and enjoying the story. In "Big River," there is no interpreter to be seen. Instead, the eye remains on stage center.

All songs and dialogue are signed as well as spoken and sung aloud. Roles are doubled: one actor is deaf and the other is hearing. The hearing performer speaks words as the hearing-impaired actor signs them; sometimes the hearing actor signs him (or her) self as he speaks and performs. In other situations, the deaf actor signs his words as his "shadow" speaks them aloud.

Rehearsal time has been quadrupled because deaf actors need extra time to "see" and "feel" the music they can’t hear. Hearing actors need extra time to learn American Sign Language so they can sign their dialogue and song lyrics. All 18 cast members can sign.

The last Broadway show to combine deaf and hearing actors on stage was "Children of A Lesser God" in 1980. It starred Phyllis Frelich, also a cast member of "Big River."

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain is considered "one of the greatest creations in American fiction." As staged in "Big River," the story begins on a Mississippi River raft in the 1840s. Huck, escaping from his drunken and abusive father, meets a runaway slave-- Jim. The story of their trip downstream is a classic that captures the "rhythms, sounds, and spirit of life on the big river."

Roger Miller who wrote the music and lyrics was one of the great country singer-songwriters. He won eight Grammy Awards before coming to Broadway. "Big River" won seven Tony Awards including Best Score and Best Musical of 1985.

Musical numbers include "Do You Want to Go to Heaven?", "Waiting for the Light to Shine," "Muddy Water," "River in the Rain," and "Worlds Apart."

The first performance is set for July 24, and the limited engagement is scheduled to end on September 14.