Seventy six trombones marked the first time I remember a movie having a significant impact on me. It was in the Maplewood outdoor movie theater, bulldozed many years ago, that I saw The Music Man with my parents. From what I recall, the story didn't really make a lot of sense to me, but the music rolled over me like a summer storm. The singing, the dancing, the rhythms, had me dreaming about band instruments, old time trains, and small towns for weeks. It's still a marvel to me that one person, Meredith Willson, could be so creative as to come up with the story, the screenplay, and the very original score. The 1957 broadway production was virtually replicated in the 1962 movie version. And the version currently being presented by the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis also stays true to the original production.
Thanks to Mariah and her sister, Tiffany, we had the opportunity to see the Guthrie show with my parents, who also fondly remember the movie. We were seated in the section reserved for deaf patrons, since those were the seats made available by Tiffany, as she is a teacher of sign reading in the public school system.
Yes, you read correctly - "the section reserved for deaf partrons." You might wonder, as I did, why would a deaf person choose to come to a musical play? After all, you may be able to capture the gist of the dialog through a signer standing in front of you, but how do you capture the music? And if you can't hear the music...? But it was this feature of the play that captured a significant part of our attention.
Three signers stood before us in the lower left section of the theater, or stage right of the thrust stage. Before the start of the play, they were signing with each other and with others in our section,which was a mix of both deaf and hearing people, clearly enjoying themselves. They sat in the first row of the section as the play opened, but all stood just before the first exchange of dialog. It was a play within a play. They each assumed roles, playing the dialog to each other. Included were emotional expressions from the scene. The signers were actors, too, but with hands and arms occupied with communicating the dialog directly. If you were focused on them, you could still get the feeling and the rhythm of the play, if not the music itself. I found myself often concentrating on their delivery, even though I had no idea what the signs meant. We were all a bit captivated by their production, which must have included a lot of choreography and practice in preparation for the very few shows that include this service for the hearing disabled.
It's clear that the provision of signers for events in civic life has increased, as it should. But I wasn't so clear on how it was being adapted for recreational activities such as the theatre. From this experience, I can imagine that a hearing impaired or deaf person could gain a lot of pleasure from a theater production, even one that includes musical elements. It's wonderful that organizations like the Guthrie expand their audience by providing this kind of service, delivered by true professionals that merge the arts of non-verbal communication with theatre.
It enhanced what was already a fantastic production by the Guthrie, which we all thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend. I understand, due to the popularity, it has been extended into the middle of August.
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