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Kenny Leon to direct Broadway revival of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD...

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#3

Kenny Leon to direct Broadway revival of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD...

Posted: 9/29/14 at 2:34pm

Well, I'm hoping they hire ALL deaf actors to play the roles of deaf students. Not many people know about the extraordinary deaf actors across the country and especially here in NYC, so I'm hoping that this will give some of them the chance to finally get in a big production and be seen.
#7

Kenny Leon to direct Broadway revival of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD...

Posted: 9/29/14 at 2:41pm

I'm hoping that the backlash of the last MIRACLE WORKER production results in the right decisions being made this time. Not sure I'd see a production without deaf actors.

And you're right, Jordan - ALL of them should be utilized, not just Sarah.
"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman
#8

Kenny Leon to direct Broadway revival of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD...

Posted: 9/29/14 at 2:42pm

Shoshannah Stern (who played Hunter Parrish's deaf girlfriend on WEEDS) was really good in the Deaf West production. She'd be a good choice. But there are plenty of other deaf actors--I'm sure they wouldn't cast a hearing actress in the role.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#16

Kenny Leon to direct Broadway revival of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD...

Posted: 9/29/14 at 3:13pm

Kenny Leon is pretty good at respectable productions of classic plays, so I hope he will do well with this work. He is at the very least a tasteful director so I'm sure he wouldn't have the nerve to cast hearing actors in the deaf roles.
#17

Kenny Leon to direct Broadway revival of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD...

Posted: 9/29/14 at 3:14pm

Has anyone seen this play recently? Has it aged well? I am a bit leery of American work from the lean, leeeeeeean years of the late seventies/early eighties.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali
#19

Kenny Leon to direct Broadway revival of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD...

Posted: 9/29/14 at 4:36pm

Unless they've gotten around it, there is a stipulation that Sarah MUST be played by a hearing impaired actress. (Or if they no longer request that)
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#20

Kenny Leon to direct Broadway revival of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD...

Posted: 9/29/14 at 5:36pm

I agree Stern was fantastic in WEEDS, back when the show was brilliant and not the mockery of itself it became in later years. If she has stage chops, one would think she'd be ideal for the role. Either way, I certainly hope this production gives the chance of a lifetime to the deaf acting community in NY (or even around the U.S).
I haven't seen enough of Leon's work to make a value judgment on his work, but what he did with last season's production of A RAISIN IN THE SUN was breathtaking. Thinking about the opening image of Sophie Okonedo listening to the phone ring still gives me chill, and he got nuanced, haunting performances from all his actors. Who are people thinking for James? How old is the character supposed to be? Is Liev Schreiber too old?
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#21

Kenny Leon to direct Broadway revival of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD...

Posted: 9/29/14 at 5:44pm

I agree Stern was fantastic in WEEDS, back when the show was brilliant and not the mockery of itself it became in later years. If she has stage chops, one would think she'd be ideal for the role.

Not only does she have stage chops, she's already played the role of Sarah in a major production to very good notices. I saw her and she was great. She would be my first choice, though that shouldn't be interpreted to mean that there aren't any other deaf and hearing-impaired actors who are equally worthy.

How old is Schreiber these days? Into his 40s? John Rubenstein and William Hurt were both in their thirties when they did the role, though I couldn't imagine why someone slightly older wouldn't work.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#22

Kenny Leon to direct Broadway revival of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD...

Posted: 9/29/14 at 6:59pm

AC126748, that's great news re Stern. Like you, I'm sure there's plenty of hearing-impaired actresses who could do wonders with the role. I just always wanted Shoshannah Stern to break out after seeing her in WEEDS, and was disappointed--if not surprised--when she didn't. This would be the role of a lifetime for her. Either way, I'm sure Leon will get a fantastic turn from whomever he ends up casting.
If Schreiber can take some time to come to NY (I believe he's based in LA now that he works on RAY DONOVAN), he'd be my top choice for James.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#25

Kenny Leon to direct Broadway revival of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD...

Posted: 9/29/14 at 8:34pm

Hal Luftig gave some insight into the plans for this production in the Times. He says the team is committed to casting a deaf actress as Sarah and that they'd ideally like to find an African-American woman for the role, hopefully opposite a name actor as James.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/29/children-of-a-lesser-god-to-return-to-broadway/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.

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