Deaf actors take on a Tony-winning musical — and deepen its meaning

Washington Post

3 days ago

The emotional climax of 'A Strange Loop,' now playing through Aug. 10 at Atlas Performing Arts Center, unfolds in a fierce and vulnerable silence. Usher, the narrator (played by Gabriel Silva), is confronting his father (Wade Green) about a lifelong pileup of misunderstandings and resentments. Audience members can either read the heated dialogue in captions projected on the set or, if they understand American Sign Language, watch the actors' impassioned gestures.
The musical by Michael R. Jackson, which played a pre-Broadway tryout at Woolly Mammoth before transferring to Broadway and winning the Tony for best musical in 2022, is built around a meta conceit: Usher is a musical theater writer trying to write a musical about a musical theater writer trying to write a musical, and so on. Among Usher's biggest challenges is struggling to feel seen and supported, especially by his parents. As he expresses in the opening number, Usher wants to write himself into a musical to show people what it's like to 'travel the world in a fat, Black, queer body.'
In this version, which marks a return for the musical to D.C., Usher also happens to be deaf.
The co-production between the D.C.-based company Visionaries of the Creative Arts (VOCA) and Deaf Austin Theater (DAT) — which will next play the Long Center in Austin from Aug. 28 through Sept. 14 — features an ensemble of deaf, hard of hearing and hearing performers. Tyler 'T' Lang plays the voice of Usher, often joining Silva to speak and sing the character's lines, while the constellation of six thoughts that plague Usher, and variously embody his parents and others in his orbit, communicate with a mix of vocal and sign language.
'There is this preconceived notion that if a person is deaf, their entire world is silent. This is not true at all,' the production's director, Alexandria Wailes, wrote over email. 'Internal thoughts can be incredibly loud at times,' as demonstrated by Usher's intrusive menagerie of doubts.
'A Strange Loop,' which won the Pulitzer for Drama in 2020, presents an unflinching look at what life is like for someone like Usher. There's a song about cruising for sex on Grindr and facing ridicule for not being fit, White and well-endowed. And another with a gospel-style chorus suggesting that 'AIDS is God's punishment' for Black gay men. The show highlights the experiences of marginalized people with tender and provocative wit, which made it an ideal fit for both theater companies.
'You can tell the playwright really bared their soul onstage — that's what inspired me,' recalled DAT artistic director Brian Cheslik of seeing the Broadway production. Given the show's focus on Black characters, to produce it he sought to partner with VOCA, which was founded in 2019 with a mission to serve deaf artists and audiences of color. The collaboration also allowed the relatively young companies (DAT was also founded just before the pandemic) to pool their resources and present the show in both of their home cities.
The staging at Atlas is relatively modest but entails a complex range of technical cues, including video projections, a la 'Hollywood Squares,' of characters who beam in to pester Usher (whether in vocal or sign language), captions timed to every line and the audio needs of an onstage band. (A glitch during the second performance resulted in a brief pause, a bit of bustling around backstage and enthusiastic applause when the action restarted.)
'I think hearing people have the misconception of deaf culture. They have no idea about how we live, how we communicate or even how we think — or everything we have to navigate just to survive,' VOCA artistic director Michelle Banks said. 'I really want audiences to see and understand that. 'A Strange Loop' takes us down all those different rabbit holes.' (Both Cheslik and Banks communicated through an interpreter in a Zoom interview.)
Jackson, the author, voiced his support for the production through a statement shared with the companies and posted on the show's website, saying, 'I believe these two theaters will crack the piece open even further in a unique way that only they can do.'
The production's multifaceted means of communication — spoken dialogue and music, ASL and closed captioning, often used simultaneously — add a compelling dimension to the show's themes. Usher's effort to tell his own story is expressed not only through Jackson's script and music but through physical movement that captures something beyond what's on the page: signs for words such as 'living,' 'torn,' 'hungry' and 'freedom' that get at Usher's feelings behind the language.
Usher's desire to carve out a place for himself in the theater industry — beyond working as an usher at 'The Lion King' — resonates with the deaf companies as well. Only a few productions featuring deaf artists have come to Broadway over the past 25 years, including 'Spring Awakening' (in 2015) and 'Big River' (2003), both produced by L.A.'s Deaf West Theatre. (The company is reportedly at work on a musical adaptation of the Oscar-winning film 'Coda.') Those productions also combined deaf and hearing actors with a mix of spoken and sign language, as did a 2022 production of 'The Music Man' at Olney Theatre Center.
'We as deaf artists are constantly struggling to get jobs,' Cheslik said. 'Theaters are not willing to be open-minded to casting deaf actors in any type of show.'
The collaborators hope that 'A Strange Loop' in particular, with its focus on an artist trying to share his own experience, will resonate with their companies' missions as well as with audiences. Wailes said, 'I hope folks leave with a deeper appreciation for how much courage it takes to embrace who you are and live your life fearlessly.'