Till There Was You
There were bells . . . on the hill
But I never heard them ringing
No, I never heard them at all
Till there was you.
There were birds . . . in the sky
But I never saw them winging
No, I never saw them at all
Till there was you.
Meredith Willson
As many of you Dear Readers know, Mary & I are in our sixth year writing our blog on Poetry, Parks and Planet. Having attended the 23Jul22 Olney Theatre (Maryland) presentation of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man (Broadway 1957-1961), in this case presented both in music/vocals as well as in American Sign Language (ASL), we have prepared this post included under the banner of Poetry. The Olney Theatre Deaf inclusive show was in our opinion and the collective opinion of the audience, a huge success!
The fact that the show was Deaf inclusive is of personal interest to us. Our daughter, Mandy, lost her hearing in her left ear in 2014 and right ear 2021 due to Meniere’s disease. Mandy elected to get a cochlear implant, a surgically implanted device that provides a person who has moderate to profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. Without the device’s processor, Mandy is deaf and with it she is still hard of hearing. As a late deafened adult she is learning ASL. Her situation has inspired Mary’s and my interest in learning ASL as well. All this has made the Olney Theatre production of The Music Man extra special.
At the theatre, we learned that half of the cast was deaf as was a significant percentage of the audience. Of note, the theatre is near Gallaudet University, the global leader in education for deaf and hard of hearing students. All cast members signed throughout the play. The experience of attending a Broadway musical presented in both ASL and music/vocals (and where, close to the end, the performance was only in ASL) was inspiring to say the least and tended toward emotional/life-changing!
Regarding the song lyrics (poetry) at the opening of this post, Meredith Willson’s lyrics (poem) in this song were five verses, only the first two of which are presented above. Willson had the song sung at the end of the play by the piano teacher, “Marian”, who has fully fallen in love with traveling salesman, ”Harold.” “Harold” (it would have been difficult to guess this at the beginning of the play) has fallen in love with “Marian.” Our description cannot do justice to this song presented in ASL. All we can do here is write out our experience to the best of our ability and then encourage you to attend an ASL performance of this or another musical. You will be moved.
The thrust of the presentation (and this blog post) is that “deaf and hearing communities [can and do] live side by side” and “not being able to hear is not a barrier.” This play makes clear: “Art can be a model for a more inclusive society.” “There were see-through COVID masks, so the non-hearing actors could read lips and facial expressions. ASL interpreters were positioned across the stage. The set was created by a deaf designer with a minimum of stairs, so deaf actors didn’t have to take their eyes off their signing castmates.” The Co-Director (deaf) advised: “So while all the musical numbers are sung aloud, some scenes have dialogue only in sign language, with supertitles (across the top of the stage) to aid hearing audience members.”
Mary & I learned of this production via viewing a John Yang report on Public Broadcasting’s Nightly News. We were intrigued, called the theatre, identified a date we could attend, purchased the tickets, and arrived (7-hour drive) with 45-minutes left to read the Playbill. Should you be interested, try to research John Yang’s piece. Meantime, enjoy the new learning. We are. And, we’re thrilled to be sharing this with you!
Photo by The Washington Post
We took the below photo from the balcony at the conclusion of the play which clearly illustrates an audience member in front of us using a deaf mode of expression. She is indicating her approval of the performance. She, like most in the audience, raised her hands high, palms out, fingers open, to express approval versus the clapping by a hearing person. You could feel the emotion and it was thrilling. We were hoping this photo captured that and it did! And, thanks to Mandy for assisting us in this write up!
