Hundreds of shows in a history spanning more than twenty years. TerpTheatre’s approach is the collective result of creative partnerships with thousands of theatre artists. During this time, some unique relationships stand out.
Wild Swan Theater
Hilary Cohen and Sandy Ryder, co-founders of Wild Swan Theater, were a strong early influence on TerpTheatre’s founders, Dan McDougall and Shelly Tocco, and their then-partner, Kim Willett. Wild Swan Theater is one of America’s most respected professional theater groups for the family. Their focus: Making theatre accessible to everyone.
Sandy and Hilary are visionaries. It is among them that we honed our script analysis and blocking strategies. They and their committed ensemble of choreographers, actors, craftspeople, and artists provided the perfect working environment for developing our style of work.
Stagecrafters
Interpreters: Jean-Luc Pharand and Valoree Boyer |
The Baldwin Theatre is home to Stagecrafters – the Detroit area’s most established community theatre. Its commitment to interpreted theatre also makes Stagecrafters a stand-out. What started as an experiment in 1998 has grown to a creative relationship involving hundreds of Detroit area actors, Deaf patrons and hearing fans. In the 2006-2007 season, TerpTheatre and Stagecrafters partnered to offer members of the Deaf community special opportunities, like backstage tours and talk-backs after interpreted performances. A highlight of the season was a production of The Miracle Worker. The show’s message was punctuated by educational displays in the lobby and an introduction to the show that was filmed by a member of the local DeafBlind community.
Volunteers make almost everything happen at Stagecrafters. Directors, board members, actors, lighting and sound crew – all of them, volunteers. Since 1998, some of the people have changed, but Stagecrafters has remained remarkably committed – with both dollars and creativity – to interpreted theatre. They’ve even accepted continue efforts from TerpTheatre to ‘push the envelope.’ Thanks, Stagecrafters.
Universities
The theatre departments at Oakland University [Rochester, MI] and Wayne State University [Detroit, MI] are two of our favorite working environments. The faculty of each university includes a theatre director with unusual sensitivity to interpreting on stage. At Oakland, it’s Karen Sheridan – At Wayne, it’s Lavina Hart. Each professor/director has developed her own combination of interpreter aesthetic and a process for including TerpTheatre in her production. Karen has taken us from Into The Woods to a rock-and-roll version of Lysistrata, an ancient Greek play.
Many of the photos on this site are of Lavina’s production of Translations, Brian Friel’s depiction of language conflict in Ireland. Her vision for the production included sign language as a component of the language struggle on stage. TerpTheatre performed in each of 23 performances at The Hilberry Theatre, using American Sign Language and Signed English to parallel the storyline of conflict between Irish speakers of Gaelic and English-speaking visitors.
These creative learning environments give developing actors an opportunity to explore the use of interpreters as a creative opportunity on stage. With less commercial pressure, the creative exploration between interpreter, director, and actor can result in tomorrow’s theatre interpreting innovations.
Film Craft Labs
Film Craft Labs [ a division of Grace and Wild ] hired TerpTheatre's founders, Michele Tocco and Dan McDougall, to translate and perform the poem, Surrender. Film Craft Labs was the sponsor of an independent film festival, and the poem was shown prior to festival screenings.
ASL Translation © Dan McDougall & Michele Tocco [ Click for Audio Transcript / English version ] |
McDougall and Tocco translated the original English version of the poem into an ASL poem, creating an interplay from three perspectives - the two performing signers and the camera itself. On the set, Film Craft Labs' director and crew responded to the physical re-interpretation the poem with a language of their own - unique camera angles, special effects (many NOT produced digitally), and beautiful editing. Shot over a two-day period, Film Craft Labs used more than 40,000 watts of light, a rotating stage, and unique movie film stock to achieve the final product. [ The first one and one-half minutes is included here. ]