'Shadow' performers bring art to the deaf in Rochester Civic's 'Miracle Worker'

Apr. 18—ROCHESTER — In her role as Anne Sullivan in Rochester Civic Theatre's "The Miracle Worker," Rebecca Sands is giving two performances at once.

Sullivan gained her reputation helping Hellen Keller find her voice by helping bridge the blind and deaf child's communication gap. "The Miracle Worker" is a dramatization of the real-life events that led Keller from an isolated existence to an author, college graduate and advocate for people with disabilities. Keller became deaf and blind after an illness when she was about 19 months old.

The Civic's performance of the show will also fittingly bridge the communication gap to a deaf audience.

Almost every one of the characters has a "shadow" signing the characters lines in American Sign Language. Every character except Sands' Sullivan who fittingly bridged the communication gap for Keller. She does the same for the audience, the ASL interpreters and the characters on stage.

Sands, an ASL interpreter, speaks and signs her lines simultaneously. It's not as simple as signing the literal words she speaks, Sands said. Signing requires different syntax and dialect than repeating the words she is saying.

"It's two different things happening on stage at the same time," Sands said.

That's where Rebecca Demmings, the show's deaf consultant comes in. Demmings brought grammar and syntax to her signs, Sands said.

In the rehearsals leading to the April 14 opening, when Sands struggled to remember her speaking line, she called out the word, "line." For the ASL version, she called for "sign."

Sands said she hoped knowing ASL would give her an edge in auditions.

"This is such a huge role," she said.

As much as Sands hoped her skills would land her the role, director Eric Decker said he thought an actor with Sands' skills would be a long shot.

"We can dream," he said of hoping for an ASL-fluent actor.

Decker said the putting on the show with ASL interpreters was an opportunity to try something new and a chance to put on a performance for an audience he hasn't before reached. It was also a "steep learning curve," he said.

The show requires nearly twice as many bodies on the stage at once. The first night of having actors and interpreters walk through the scenes did not go well, he said.

"It was a mess of bodies," he said. "It looked like a circus was going on."

The second time through was better, he said.

With help from Demmings, the ASL version of the show came together well, he said.

"The interpreters are so expressive and wonderfully dynamic in telling the story, my actors were having trouble keeping up with them," Decker said.

Terryann Nash, one of the ASL shadow performers, said she has acted on stage before and has provided ASL interpretation but never done both at the same time.

"This has been a really awesome, cool experience for me," Nash said.

She called the use of ASL interpreters "long overdue."

A show about using language to bridge a communication gap to reach one mind should do the same for its audience, she said.

"It's something every parent should want."

In addition to incorporating ASL signing into the show, the Civic is displaying the traveling exhibit "

A Child in a Strange Country.

" The interpretive displays, on loan from the Museum of American Printing House for the Blind in Kentucky, are set up in the Civic lobby. They allow people to experience first-hand how Keller, other hard-of-hearing and deaf people study math, science and geography.

What: Rochester Civic Theatre presents "The Miracle Worker."

When: 7 p.m. April 14-15 and April 20-22; 2 p.m. April 16, 23.

Where: Rochester Civic Theatre, 30 Civic Center Drive SE.

How much: $28; $25 for seniors; $20 for students. Tickets are available at

rochestercivic.org

or at the box office, 282-8481.