Children of a Lesser God

a drama by Mark Medoff

Feb. 10 to March 9, 2008

Directed by Larry Nehring

Cast Biographies

RYAN MCMULLEN (James Leeds) last appeared in a Weathervane production in the 2006 production of Angels in America: Perestroika, in which he played Joe Pitt. He was also in the Weathervane casts of Noises Off and Three Days of Rain, both in 2004. He has toured throughout America with Cleveland Signstage in productions of Aladdin, Snow White, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda. At the University of Akron, he played Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. At the Bang and the Clatter Theatre Company in Akron, he appeared in The Long Christmas Ride Home. He lives in Cuyahoga Falls.

KRISTEN L. BOWEN (Sarah Norman) is a Mayfield Heights resident who graduated from National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), the world's largest technical college for deaf students (and one of the eight colleges of Rochester Institute for Technology in Rochester, N.Y.). At present, she is working on an associate’s degree in personal-computer enterprising at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland. As a student at NITD, she helped with costume design on several theatrical productions and played Mrs. Van Daan in the NTID Performing Arts 2001 production of The Diary of Anne Frank. Says Kristen, “I would like to thank my mom and dad for all their help and patience during this production. I would like to thank my family and friends who helped me practice. I also want to thank everyone who came to see this show and tries to understand what it’s like being deaf.”

JESSE CATALANO (Orin Dennis) is a student at Kent State University majoring in history and American Sign Language interpretation who says he looks forward to one day becoming a teacher. In 1999 he graduated from National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), the world's largest technical college for deaf students (and one of the eight colleges of Rochester Institute for Technology in Rochester, N.Y.). He appeared in the 1998-1999 NTID Performing Arts productions of The Odd Couple, West Side Story and The Tempest. Upon his graduation from NTID, he reprised his role as Stephano in The Tempest along with his fellow cast members when the show was remounted in a 2000 production at the Interborough Repertory Theater in New York City. He lives in Kent.

RACHEL REBEKKAH GERARD (Lydia) is a native and resident of Madison, Ohio, who makes her Weathervane debut with this production. She has studied educational interpreting at Kent State University and also studied dance for 14 years at the Fordu School of Dance in Madison. Her theatrical credits include roles in the 2006 and 2007 productions of Beauty and the Beast at the Beck Center for the Arts, and Suessical and The Foreigner, both at Madison High School. “LMI, Mom and Dad!”

CHRISTINE ANASTASIA MASON (Mrs. Norman and shadow interpreter) is a Kent resident and recent graduate of the American Sign Language interpreter-training program at Kent State University, Mason now serves as an ASL interpreter for Beachwood City Schools. She received her formal training in fine arts at the University of Michigan, after which she worked as a studio artist and created large-scale paintings and Chinese dragons for the theater. Mason says that “a strange sequence of events” introduced her to the deaf community, which in turn inspired her to begin her formal training in ASL interpretation, which led to an expanded interaction with the local deaf community. Along the way she stumbled upon perfect love and married a poor soul whose life as an English teacher was to be consumed by sign language, feral cats, and papier-mâché. Most recently, she interpreted a production of Alice in Wonderland at Twinsburg High School, consummating a perfect marriage of her passions for art and language. Thus, today she clambers happily into this weird and wonderful multi-cultural collaboration of theater friends with this production.

DAVID MYERS (Mr. Franklin) is an Akron resident celebrating his third onstage appearance at Weathervane. He played Herr Zeller in the Playhouse’s 2006 production of The Sound of Music, Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath in 2005 and Dr. Einstein in Arsenic and Old Lace in 2003. He is a graduate of Taylor University (with a bachelor’s in philosophy and computer science) who teaches at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in Stow.

BRIAN ARMOUR (Edward Klein) has been a musician for the past 13 years but makes his stage debut with this Weathervane production. This junior at the University of Akron lstudying secondary education says his long-term goal is to make a career out of acting. He lives in Copley and plays in a local band that specializes in soulful rhythm-and-blues/inspirational music. Brian says, “I would like to thank my mother, Diane Armour; my brother, Michael Armour, Jr.; and my encouraging friends, Aisha Ray and David Jones. Also, John Hedges and Larry Nehring for the opportunity. And the entire cast for bearing with me while I learn the ropes.”

CYNTHIA SEAL (shadow interpreter) is a newcomer to Weathervane. She is an Elyria resident and part-time staff member of Cleveland Signstage Theatre, having served the organization as a deaf actor and as an American Sign Language translator and instructor. She has served on the board of the Deaf and Deaf-Blind Committee on Human Rights, an advocacy group based in North Olmsted. She is also a support-service provider for deaf and/or blind members. She points a big “thank you!” with pride to her support team: her hearing mom, Pat; her deaf dad, Steve; her young hearing son, J.J.; and many friends.

JAMES LENAHAN (shadow interpreter), a newcomer to Weathervane, is a Lakewood resident who says he “loves the challenge of this show.” Lenahan has many Northeast Ohio theater credits to his name, including roles in the Beck Center for the Arts productions of Porgy and Bess and Jekyll and Hyde. At Cuyahoga Community College’s Metro campus, he appeared in Othello, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and From Cleveland to Hollywood. For the silver screen, he got to play a construction worker in Spider-Man 3, for which a number of scenes were shot in Cleveland. “Many thanks,” Lenahan says, “to Larry Nehring for talking me into doing this show.”

Larry Nehring (Director) directed Weathervane’s 2005 production of Much Ado About Nothing. Nehring says he is thrilled to be returning to Weathervane as the director of such a challenging play. It is, he says, the melding of his two great loves: theater and American Sign Language. He has been an ASL interpreter for the last 15 years, and started learning ASL when he was 12. As an actor, director, theatrical interpreter, and fight choreographer he has been very active all over Northeast Ohio, working with Great Lakes Theater Festival, Cleveland Play House, Playhouse Square, Cleveland Signstage Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, Bad Epitaph, Magical Theatre Company, the Beck Center for the Arts, Cain Park, Willoughby's Fine Arts Association, and Clague Playhouse. He has also been a cast member of the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, toured internationally with Sunshine Too (a deaf/hearing theatre company based in Rochester, N.Y.), and taught at numerous international conferences. Viewers of PBS may recognize him from his role as George Washington in the 2006 TV miniseries, The War That Made America, a documentary shot in Pittsburgh that detailed the French and Indian War. Larry is the Artistic Director of the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival and a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and the Screen Actors' Guild. He lives in Lakewood.

Judy Willemsen (Stage Manager) says, “When I found out Weathervane would be doing Children of a Lesser God, I jumped at the chance to be stage manager. I fell in love with deaf theatre the first time I saw a performance done by Cleveland Signstage.” For many years Judy has been involved in deaf theatre by serving as a member of Signstage’s board of trustees, designing props and sound for its shows and also developing teachers' guides for its shows and Signstage on Tour. Says Judy, “I want to thank the cast of COLG. We have deaf, hearing-imparied, experienced actors and non-experienced actors in the show. Each of them gives to Weathervane a gift of magic. A gift Weathervane gave me was the opportunity to know and work with Betty Williams. Betty, I should have told you sooner I could sew!”
Todd Dieringer (Scenic Designer) is thrilled to be designing again for Weathervane after his designing debut last year with The Sisters Rosensweig. He began volunteering here as “the fly guy” on the props crew of The Rocky Horror Show. Todd returned to that task for last summer’s award-winning production of The Full Monty. In addition to making scenery fly, he has served on set-construction crews for nearly every production since 2005. Todd has a bachelor’s degree in public relations from the University of Akron, where he also studied theater. He currently serves as the systems administrator in the admissions office at UA. Todd says, “Many thanks to my family, friends and the amazingly talented volunteers at Weathervane.

Lean Magnus (Lighting Designer) Leah has held backstage roles for almost every show at Weathervane since 2003, when she ran spotlight for Gypsy. In 2006, she worked on the lighting crew for Madeline's Rescue; served as assistant stage manager and properties designer for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; provided properties design for Angels in America: Perestroika; served as assistant lighting designer for Lend Me a Tenor; and served as master electrician for Wait until Dark. For the 2007 production of All My Sons, she designed the lighting. A senior in the Visual and Performing Arts program at Firestone High School, she served as assistant stage manager for The Colored Museum and the school's One Act Play Festival. She was Weathervane's Erin Dillon Youth Award winner at the 2006 Chanticleer Awards and she took first place in properties design at the 2007 State Thespian Conference. Most recently, she designed the lighting for Coach House Theatre’s Drowning Sorrows. Leah says her favorite Weathervane experiences to date have been working on props crew for both parts of the Angels in America plays.

Dan “D.J.” Jankura (Sound Designer) is a student studying technical theater at Kent State University who lives in Cuyahoga Falls. For Weathervane’s Production Board, he chairs the Sound Department. With his expertise in this field, he aided and guided the team that recently installed the sound console in the rear of the Grace Hower Crawford Main Stage auditorium. This season, he worked on the sound crews for The Frog Prince, I Do! I Do! and Moon Over Buffalo – and he coordinated and manipulated the dozens of body microphones worn by the “cast of thousands” in our most recent production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Helen Vari (Costume Designer) joined the Weathervane Women’s Board in 2006 and says she is “thrilled to be a member of the Costume Committee and associated with such a creative and talented group of women.” This show mark’s Helen’s first foray into costume design. A resident of Ravenna, she is a certified public accountant who retired from the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine (aka NEOUCOM), where she met another Weathervaner, Margaret Dietz, who first introduced her to the Playhouse. Her past civic involvement includes a stint as treasurer of the Portage County unit of the American Cancer Society and a seat on the board of the Rootstown Water Company. At present, she is a member of the Rootstown Township Zoning Commission and occasionally substitute-teaches. Besides enjoying her role as doting Grandma to her grandchildren, she enjoys reading, camping, her “red hat” group, and occasional casino-gambling trips with friends. For her costume-design venture, Helen thanks Henrietta Cook, Dorothy Kies, Judy Adamson and Randie Sass for being mentors and helping every step of the way.

Timothy H. Champion (Properties Designer) – While Tim is familiar to Weathervane audiences for his on-stage antics, he has also wrought much havoc over many years backstage and behind the scenes. In addition to service on the Board of Trustees, Tim has crewed props for six of our productions; run the light board and operated follow-spot for four others; and directed the Salon Series reading of Lettice & Lovage. Tim is a lawyer engaged in the practice of trust, estate, probate, and real estate law at Champion & Company, LPA in Fairlawn.

Alan Scott Ferrall (Technical Designer) -- see staff bios.

Kathy Kohl (Assistant Technical Director) -- see staff bios.

Children of a Lesser God takes place at a state-run school for the deaf. Much of the play’s onstage action takes place in the mind of James Leeds, a teacher of the deaf at the school, whose memories of his experiences at the school allow the play to progress in a non-linear fashion. James is a newly hired speech therapist at this institution, where many deaf children grow up together in a culturally deaf environment. It is here that he meets Sarah Norman, a graduate of the school who still lives on campus and earns her keep by working as the school maid. Sarah is proud of her culture and language – American Sign Language – and takes great exception to hearing people who would seek to change her by forcing her to use her voice or to read lips. These two strong characters fall in love and have to find their way through the difficult path of cultural differences, stereotypes, discrimination, and the expectations of those close to them.

The play was originally written for hearing audiences, with many scenes using only spoken English. In order to make this production equally accessible to deaf audience members, director Larry Nehring has incorporated an ensemble of actors who will “shadow interpret” the spoken words. These “shadows,” while not actually acting in the scene, make the spoken dialogue visible for every audience. In this way, deaf audience members do not need to focus their attention to a remote corner of the stage, a traditional spot for American Sign Language interpreters. Employing shadow interpreters removes the need for deaf audience members to decide whether to watch the actors or watch the interpreters.

Children of a Lesser God originated in a workshop production at New Mexico State University in April 1979 (and was directed by the playwright, Mark Medoff). A second production (with direction by Gordon Davidson) in October 1979 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles primed the production for a commercial transfer to the New York stage. On March 30, 1980, the show opened at the Longacre Theatre, where it ran for 887 performances, closing on May 16, 1982. The New York production starred Phyllis Frelich as Sarah and John Rubenstein as James (both of whom won Tony Awards for their performances). The show also won the 1980 Tony Award for Best Play. Playwright Medoff adapted his own play (along with two other screenwriters, Hesper Anderson and James Carrington) for the 1986 film of the play, which starred William Hurt and Marlee Matlin (who in her screen debut won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role). The film made the romantic story of James and Sarah its main focus, letting the cultural and political issues presented in the play fall largely to the wayside.

About the Playwright

Mark Medoff was born in Mount Carmel, Ill., in 1940. He was educated at the University of Miami (bachelor’s degree) and Stanford University (master’s degree). He wrote his first play, The Wager, while employed in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol Radio Engineering Institute. This comedy relates the complications that result from a bet between two grad-school buddies. When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? was his first play to be produced in New York. This gritty drama – about an off-kilter Vietnam War veteran and his hippie girlfriend who seize hostages in a sleepy diner in a small town – ran for 302 performances in an off-Broadway production at the Eastside Playhouse and won Medoff the 1974 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Playwright. His Broadway breakthrough came with Children of a Lesser God in 1980, and his screenplay adaptation for the 1986 film earned him an Academy Award nomination. His other screenwriting credits include Clara’s Heart (starring Whoopi Goldberg) in 1988 and City of Joy (starring Patrick Swayze) in 1992. Although Medoff may be best know for Children of a Lesser God, he is the author of 25 other plays. His most recent Broadway production, Prymate, starred Phyllis Frelich (the original Sarah from Children of a Lesser God) but played for only five performances in May, 2004. The play concerns two scientists who struggle for control over a gorilla named Graham who can communicate in American Sign Language but who may also be a valuable test subject for an AIDS-vaccine experiment. For the past two decades, Medoff has served on the faculty at New Mexico State University, where he has chaired the theater department and also co-founded the American Southwest Theatre Company. He holds an honorary doctorate from Galludet University He is married to Stephanie Thorne; they have three children.