[NEohioPAL] Fully-accessible performances of Children of a Lesser God

[Jan Harcar]

Sensitive Drama

'Children of a Lesser God'

to Illuminate the Weathervane Stage in February

The landmark drama that illuminated the world of deaf culture, Children of a Lesser God takes to the Weathervane stage for a three-week midwinter run. The production opens Wednesday, Feb. 20 and runs through Sunday, March 9, 2008, on the Playhouse's Grace Hower Crawford Main Stage.

Playwright Mark Medoff's sensitive play presents James, a newly-hired speech therapist at a residential school for the deaf, where many deaf children grow up together in a culturally deaf environment. There he meets Sarah, a graduate of the school who still lives on campus and works as the school maid. She is proud of her unique culture and language - American Sign Language - and takes great exception to hearing people who would seek to change her by forcing her to use her voice or read lips. 

When James and Sarah fall in love, each has to find a way down a difficult path full of cultural differences, stereotypes, discrimination and the expectations of the other people in their lives.

Medoff's play was originally written for hearing audiences, with many of its scenes employing only spoken English. In Weathervane's production, however, director Larry Nehring incorporates an ensemble of actors who will "shadow interpret" the play's spoken dialogue. These "shadows" appear on stage with the other actors, shadowing each performer and signing the spoken words. In this way, deaf audience members do not need to focus their attention to a remote corner of the stage, a traditional spot for ASL interpreters. This will remove the need for deaf audience members to decide whether to watch the actors or watch the interpreters.

Special Daytime Performances for School Groups

Children of a Lesser God is a Project STAGE production, the Playhouse's education-based program that introduces plays of great literary value to students in northeast Ohio. Reduced ticket prices for students and teachers, study guides and post-performance discussions are offered at the 10 a.m. performances on Feb. 27 and March 5. Support for Project STAGE (Students Through Acting Gain Education) performances comes from Akron Community Foundation, the Sisler-McFawn Foundation and Omnova Solutions Foundation. Tickets for these performances are just $5.

About the Play

Children of a Lesser God originated at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and then transferred to the Broadway stage in a production that opened March 30, 1980, and starred Phyllis Frelich as Sarah and John Rubenstein as James (both of whom won Tony Awards for their performances). The show ran for 887 performances, closing on May 16, 1982. The New York production won the 1980 Tony Award for Best Play. Playwright Medoff adapted his own play (along with two other screenwriters, Hesper Anderson and James Carrington) for the 1986 film of the play, which starred William Hurt and Marlee Matlin (who in her screen debut won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role).

About the Playwright

Mark Medoff was born in Mount Carmel, Ill., in 1940. He was educated at the University of Miami (bachelor's degree) and Stanford University (master's degree). He wrote his first play, The Wager, while employed in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol Radio Engineering Institute. When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? was his first play to be produced in New York; it ran for 302 performances in an off-Broadway production at the Eastside Playhouse and won Medoff the 1974 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Playwright. His 1980 Broadway breakthrough came with Children of a Lesser God, and his screenplay adaptation for the 1986 film earned him an Academy Award nomination. His other screenwriting credits include Clara's Heart (starring Whoopi Goldberg) and City of Joy (starring Patrick Swayze). For the past two decades, he has served on the faculty at New Mexico State University, where he has chaired the theater department and also co-founded the American Southwest Theatre Company. He is married to Stephanie Thorne; they have three children.

About the Cast

KRISTEN L. BOWEN (Sarah Norman) Mayfield Heights

Bowen is a graduate of National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), the world's largest technical college for deaf students (and one of the eight colleges of Rochester Institute for Technology in Rochester, N.Y.). At present, she is working on an associate's degree in personal-computer enterprising at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland. As a student at NITD, she helped with costume design on several theatrical productions and played Mrs. Van Daan in the NTID Performing Arts 2001 production of The Diary of Anne Frank. 

RYAN MCMULLEN (James Leeds) Cuyahoga Falls

Weathervane audiences last saw McMullen in the 2006 production of Angels in America: Perestroika, in which he played Joe Pitt. He was also in the Weathervane casts of Noises Off and Three Days of Rain, both in 2004. He has toured throughout America with Cleveland Signstage in productions of Aladdin, Snow White, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda. At The University of Akron, he played Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. At the Bang and the Clatter Theatre Company in Akron, he appeared in The Long Christmas Ride Home.

JESSE CATALANO (Orin Dennis) Kent

A student at Kent State University majoring in history and American Sign Language interpretation, Catalano says he looks forward to one day becoming a teacher. In 1999 he graduated from National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), the world's largest technical college for deaf students (and one of the eight colleges of Rochester Institute for Technology in Rochester, N.Y.). He appeared in the 1998-1999 NTID Performing Arts productions of The Odd Couple, West Side Story and The Tempest. Upon his graduation from NTID, he reprised his role as Stephano in The Tempest along with his fellow cast members when the show was remounted in a 2000 production at the Interborough Repertory Theater in New York City.

DAVID MYERS (Mr. Franklin) Akron

This production marks Myers' third onstage appearance at Weathervane. He played Herr Zeller in the Playhouse's 2006 production of The Sound of Music, Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath in 2005 and Dr. Einstein in Arsenic and Old Lace in 2003. He is a graduate of Taylor University and teaches at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy.


CHRISTINE ANASTASIA MASON (Mrs. Norman/Assistant Director) Kent

A recent graduate of the American Sign Language interpreter-training programs at Kent State University, Mason now serves as an ASL interpreter for Beachwood City Schools. She received her formal training in fine arts at the University of Michigan, after which she worked as a studio artist and created large-scale paintings and Chinese dragons for the theater. Mason says that "a strange sequence of events" introduced her to the deaf community, which in turn inspired her to begin her formal training in ASL interpretation. Most recently, she interpreted a production of Alice in Wonderland at Twinsburg High School.

RACEHL REBEKKAH GERARD (Lydia) Madison

Gerard - a native of Madison, Ohio - makes her Weathervane debut with this production. She has studied educational interpreting at Kent State University and also studied dance for 14 years at the Fordu School of Dance in Madison. Her theatrical credits include roles in the 2006 and 2007 productions of Beauty and the Beast at the Beck Center for the Arts, and Suessical and The Foreigner, both at Madison High School.

BRIAN ARMOUR (Edward Klein) Copley

A musician for the past 13 years, Armour makes his stage debut with this Weathervane production. This junior at The University of Akron studying secondary education says his long-term goal is to make a career out of acting. He plays in a local band that specializes in soulful rhythm-and-blues/inspirational music. 

CYNTHIA SEAL (shadow interpreter) Elyria
A newcomer to Weathervane, Seal is a part-time staff member of Cleveland Signstage Theatre, having served the organization as a deaf actor and as an American Sign Language translator/instructor. She has served on the board of the Deaf and Deaf-Blind Committee on Human Rights, an advocacy group based in North Olmsted. She is also a support-service provider for deaf and/or blind members. 

JAMES LENAHAN (shadow interpreter) Lakewood

This newcomer to Weathervane says he "loves the challenge of this show." Lenahan has many northeast Ohio theater credits to his name, including roles in the Beck Center for the Arts productions of Porgy and Bess and Jekyll and Hyde. At Cuyahoga Community College's Metro campus, he appeared in Othello, Joe Turner's Come and Gone and From Cleveland to Hollywood. For the silver screen, he got to play a construction worker in Spider-Man 3, for which a number of scenes were shot in Cleveland.


About the Director

Larry Nehring's last directing assignment at Weathervane was the 2005 production of Much Ado About Nothing. Nehring says he is thrilled to be returning to Weathervane as the director of such a challenging play. It is, he says, the melding of his two great loves: theater and American Sign Language. He has been an ASL interpreter for the last 15 years, and started learning ASL when he was 12. As an actor, director, theatrical interpreter, and fight choreographer he has been very active all over northeast Ohio, working with Great Lakes Theater Festival, Cleveland Play House, Playhouse Square, Cleveland Signstage Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, Bad Epitaph, Magical Theatre Company, the Beck Center for the Arts, Cain Park, Willoughby's Fine Arts Association, and Clague Playhouse. He has also been a cast member of the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, toured internationally with Sunshine Too (a deaf/hearing theatre company based in Rochester, N.Y.), and taught at numerous international conferences. Viewers of PBS may recognize him from his role as George Washington in the 2006 TV miniseries, The War That Made America, a documentary shot in Pittsburgh that detailed the French and Indian War. Larry is the Artistic Director of the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival and a proud member of Actors' Equity Association and the Screen Actors' Guild. He lives in Lakewood.

Weathervane Community Playhouse and its dedicated volunteers offer vital performing arts resources for the people of Northeastern Ohio. We create exciting and thought-provoking shows with impressive production values. Through educational programs and volunteer opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds, Weathervane serves the theater community, our patrons and our volunteers.


The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, education excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.


Additional 2007-2008 sponsors:
89.7 WSKU-FM and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
Project STAGE performances are supported by:
The Shaw Fund of Akron Community Foundation
The Sisler McFawn Foundation
OMNOVA Solutions Foundation

Weathervane Playhouse
Akron, OH

Times: Feb. 20 to March 9, 2008
ONE Wednesday (Feb. 20) at 7:30 p.m.
TWO Wednesdays (Feb. 27 and March 5) at 10 a.m.
ALL Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.
ALL Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.
TWO Sunday matinees (March 2 and 9) at 2:30 p.m.
Prices: $14 to $20

For tickets: Call 330-836-2626 or visit www.weathervaneplayhouse.com
Deaf and TDD/TTY patrons may use the Ohio Relay System to place a ticket

order by calling 1-800-750-0750.

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