SOUNDS OF SILENCE: BLENDING SIGN LANGUAGE WITH MUSIC

“If a Broadway show is a jigsaw puzzle with 20 pieces, this is a jigsaw puzzle with 350 pieces.” This comment, made by BIG RIVER director/choreographer Jeff Calhoun, alludes to the degree of difficulty of coordinating a cast of both hearing and deaf actors. Mr. Calhoun had to figure out how to move the hearing actors on the stage so they could see the signing actors and “mirror the voice with the signing.” To block the musical numbers, Mr. Calhoun used visual cues- little body movements- to coordinate the signing with the singing. The visual cues, “tell the actor when to start signing and then...after so many beats, there’s another visual cue, so they know whether to speed up or slow down.” In other words, the talking, singing and signing occur simultaneously. Actors off stage are the voices for the deaf actors on stage. Each element of song, body movement and voice are painstakingly melded together. The end result is pure theatrical magic!

But where did this remarkable music come from? It came from the mind of the late composer-singer Roger Miller. Miller is a legend in country music and penned such Grammy Award®-winning songs as “King of the Road” and “Dang Me”. Miller initially balked at the idea of composing songs for BIG RIVER, but Broadway producer Rocco Landesman persisted until Miller agreed. Miller eventually found that his own difficult childhood-he lost his father when he was three and was reared by his aunt and uncle in extreme poverty- helped him to relate to Huck. The resulting music is an emotional and sonorous blend of gospel, bluegrass, ballads and spirituals. In other words, “Roger wrote his life into BIG RIVER.”