Bunnicula
By Deborah and James Howe
Adapted by: Jon Klein
Music: Chris Jeffries
Gallaudet University,
Washington DC
Creative Team:
Directed by: Cheryl Lundquist Scenic Design: Ethan Sinnott Costume Design: Kala Granger
Lighting Design: Casey Analco Sound Designer: Justin Schmitz Stage Manager: Trent Harper
Music Direction/Voice Acting Coach: Tracey Stephens
Directed by: Cheryl Lundquist Scenic Design: Ethan Sinnott Costume Design: Kala Granger
Lighting Design: Casey Analco Sound Designer: Justin Schmitz Stage Manager: Trent Harper
Music Direction/Voice Acting Coach: Tracey Stephens
About This Experience
Being asked to do this design, was initially a tough call for me. I had just completed four back to back tech processes and was itching for a vacation. Something in the back of my mind said, "here's an opportunity to grow, take it!" I listened to that voice, reached out to Ethan, who is the head of the Theatre Department at Gallaudet, and the rest as they say- is history.
The precursor of being a sound designer, privileged with the gift and ability of hearing, while walking onto Gallaudet's campus, became apparent to me from the get-go. It's so quiet, a welcomed relief as an aural person in a very large metropolitan area. What I could not expect, nor be prepared to encounter, was the sound of pure laughter, communication of a new sense, and a love of passion unknown to an outsider. Ethan was so gracious and careful to welcome me in with an email that let me know that I may experience a great deal of difficulty in communication and frustration with my initial production. It is overwhelming to the senses and to the mind to re-learn communication. similar to learning a foreign language, American Sign Language (ASL) is full of rules, strictures, and execution styling that ultimately impacts how a message is conveyed to whomever you are in communication with. This is where my saving grace in interpretation services became my critical life line to working with these amazing theatre collaborators. From quickly typed out texts, to note pads flurrying with scribbled notes, to signing, communication is critical in theatre.
Interpreters are there for everyone's benefit. They are quick to hear speech and translate to ASL any and all needs I had as a designer, but also as someone who knows ASL, they quickly and effectively relate information to me in reverse. Our lighting designer Casey Analco and I formed a very tight bond over the first few days of designer runs and meet and greets. We decided to combine tables and sit next to each other to collaborate closely and to discuss how deaf audiences perceive sound, how deaf audiences understand lighting design, and overall performance. I had never been to a fully signed deaf performance before in my life, so not only was I learning what I needed to do from a designer's stand point, I also needed to learn how and what the overall experience would be for audiences. I am eternally grateful for the patience, the explanations, and the discussions we, the creative team, had encompassing my education as a hearing person. I will never forget the openness from which each member of the whole production would share how they were experiencing my design, or offering me suggestions to help better the show throughout tech. I am always open to discussion particularly when I cannot completely relate in whole to a situation.
Cheryl our director and I had a wonderful chat after we got the show opened about her experience as a hearing individual and her remembrance of music before losing hearing at age 5. It reminded me of a critical point in our discussions during tech chats about the perception and understanding of: "why a musical children's production?" We often struggled in the beginning days to align singing actors and signing actors together with music. At first there were many discussions about how to change and manipulate music to fit the signing, then we had reverse discussions about how to line up signing with music. Circling in a catch 22 is difficult. Both ideas are right and wrong at the same time, and it takes a great deal of emotion to figure out solutions that fit for everyone. What became apparent: we all did not share a common language of music. At first this news broke my heart. Music has always been my life, in some capacity from early on, I have always been drawn to the melodic structures and melismas there within. I decided to take a chance and be brave enough to ask everyone to understand music through my interpretation of lighting and scenic elements that we could all see: a common language again. I became emotional when discussing music through visual elements, I had never shared my life's passion through another medium before, and here I was- finding a way to help us all be on the same page. Once we had a common base established, we quickly turned to our choreographer Nick and he offered up the opportunity to help signing actors onstage pace with the singing actors in the rear of the auditorium. Finally, a solution that fit both needs extremely well for performances.
Next came the creation of materials that could easily be perceived by Deaf audiences and Hard of Hearing audiences. Again, I turned to Cheryl our director as she told me that the perception of sound waves is a stronger feeling in the Deaf community. As a hearing person, I can feel the subwoofer low-end waves of sound and at times can perceive the mid-range if boosted enough, but to feel sound pressure waves at many frequencies is a gift I do not have. This was a real bit of information to have and to learn how to alter my designs to help tell our story. Thunder cues, noises from next door, dogs barking, cats meowing, magical vegetables losing their juices, one must be creative and inclusive in the design approach. Children of all ages would see the production, and the styling of cartoon informed many of our exaggerated choices overall.
By the time we hit Opening Night, I was on my own. No interpreters. I flourished, I was signing terribly awful ASL with my collaborators who were helping me every second to sign new things. I'm definitely a beginner and learning new signs all the time: YouTube, Facebook, friend, gurrrrrl (yes! Even gay slang!), proud, and thank you. I have been enjoying every single minute of it! I'm trying to use what I have learned and move myself forward, my incredible interpreters were so willing to help me learn signs that are relevant to my field, like microphone- don't mix it up or you'll be getting some very strange looks!
I know this feels like a powerful "I statement"- type story, and in many ways it is; but I hope that you, dear reader, can also take away what it means to go completely out of your comfort zone, to make accessible choices in our field, and in turn, have your life and perspective opened to new horizons. There is so much more to this story that I don't want to make you read, upcoming there will be a video that I am creating with my interpreter friend Colleen Doyle, and it will share more of my experiences working with Gallaudet soon. Until then- feel free to reach out and let's chat!
The precursor of being a sound designer, privileged with the gift and ability of hearing, while walking onto Gallaudet's campus, became apparent to me from the get-go. It's so quiet, a welcomed relief as an aural person in a very large metropolitan area. What I could not expect, nor be prepared to encounter, was the sound of pure laughter, communication of a new sense, and a love of passion unknown to an outsider. Ethan was so gracious and careful to welcome me in with an email that let me know that I may experience a great deal of difficulty in communication and frustration with my initial production. It is overwhelming to the senses and to the mind to re-learn communication. similar to learning a foreign language, American Sign Language (ASL) is full of rules, strictures, and execution styling that ultimately impacts how a message is conveyed to whomever you are in communication with. This is where my saving grace in interpretation services became my critical life line to working with these amazing theatre collaborators. From quickly typed out texts, to note pads flurrying with scribbled notes, to signing, communication is critical in theatre.
Interpreters are there for everyone's benefit. They are quick to hear speech and translate to ASL any and all needs I had as a designer, but also as someone who knows ASL, they quickly and effectively relate information to me in reverse. Our lighting designer Casey Analco and I formed a very tight bond over the first few days of designer runs and meet and greets. We decided to combine tables and sit next to each other to collaborate closely and to discuss how deaf audiences perceive sound, how deaf audiences understand lighting design, and overall performance. I had never been to a fully signed deaf performance before in my life, so not only was I learning what I needed to do from a designer's stand point, I also needed to learn how and what the overall experience would be for audiences. I am eternally grateful for the patience, the explanations, and the discussions we, the creative team, had encompassing my education as a hearing person. I will never forget the openness from which each member of the whole production would share how they were experiencing my design, or offering me suggestions to help better the show throughout tech. I am always open to discussion particularly when I cannot completely relate in whole to a situation.
Cheryl our director and I had a wonderful chat after we got the show opened about her experience as a hearing individual and her remembrance of music before losing hearing at age 5. It reminded me of a critical point in our discussions during tech chats about the perception and understanding of: "why a musical children's production?" We often struggled in the beginning days to align singing actors and signing actors together with music. At first there were many discussions about how to change and manipulate music to fit the signing, then we had reverse discussions about how to line up signing with music. Circling in a catch 22 is difficult. Both ideas are right and wrong at the same time, and it takes a great deal of emotion to figure out solutions that fit for everyone. What became apparent: we all did not share a common language of music. At first this news broke my heart. Music has always been my life, in some capacity from early on, I have always been drawn to the melodic structures and melismas there within. I decided to take a chance and be brave enough to ask everyone to understand music through my interpretation of lighting and scenic elements that we could all see: a common language again. I became emotional when discussing music through visual elements, I had never shared my life's passion through another medium before, and here I was- finding a way to help us all be on the same page. Once we had a common base established, we quickly turned to our choreographer Nick and he offered up the opportunity to help signing actors onstage pace with the singing actors in the rear of the auditorium. Finally, a solution that fit both needs extremely well for performances.
Next came the creation of materials that could easily be perceived by Deaf audiences and Hard of Hearing audiences. Again, I turned to Cheryl our director as she told me that the perception of sound waves is a stronger feeling in the Deaf community. As a hearing person, I can feel the subwoofer low-end waves of sound and at times can perceive the mid-range if boosted enough, but to feel sound pressure waves at many frequencies is a gift I do not have. This was a real bit of information to have and to learn how to alter my designs to help tell our story. Thunder cues, noises from next door, dogs barking, cats meowing, magical vegetables losing their juices, one must be creative and inclusive in the design approach. Children of all ages would see the production, and the styling of cartoon informed many of our exaggerated choices overall.
By the time we hit Opening Night, I was on my own. No interpreters. I flourished, I was signing terribly awful ASL with my collaborators who were helping me every second to sign new things. I'm definitely a beginner and learning new signs all the time: YouTube, Facebook, friend, gurrrrrl (yes! Even gay slang!), proud, and thank you. I have been enjoying every single minute of it! I'm trying to use what I have learned and move myself forward, my incredible interpreters were so willing to help me learn signs that are relevant to my field, like microphone- don't mix it up or you'll be getting some very strange looks!
I know this feels like a powerful "I statement"- type story, and in many ways it is; but I hope that you, dear reader, can also take away what it means to go completely out of your comfort zone, to make accessible choices in our field, and in turn, have your life and perspective opened to new horizons. There is so much more to this story that I don't want to make you read, upcoming there will be a video that I am creating with my interpreter friend Colleen Doyle, and it will share more of my experiences working with Gallaudet soon. Until then- feel free to reach out and let's chat!
Cheryl (In purple) with Jim Klein, discussing his reaction to the performance after opening night.
|
The cast and crew of Bunnicula including all of the onstage signing talents, voice acting talents, backstage crew, Cheryl our director, and Tracey Stephens our music director.
|
Our voice actors in the rear of the house performing in tandem with our signing actors onstage
|
Music Sample- Bass BoostedFor Deaf audiences, music can be felt through the feet when played through subwoofers and edited with EQ'ing in the low-frequencies. I didn't want to lose intelligibility of the upper end of the music, so we constantly were checking in with our Deaf collaborators to make music edits that were felt and perceived but still maintained the artistic integrity of the music as a whole.
|
Magical ElementsHere is a magical "poof" sound effect that was cranked through the subwoofers to give Bunnicula an extra magical feeling.
As the Celery Monster character sprang forth from the refrigerator, we ended up including high voltage sounds to keep the tension in the room aurally, and through the constant perception of buzzing under the audience's feet.
|