The Hartford Courant, Conn., Frank Rizzo column: A Revival For National Theatre Of Deaf

Nov 20, 2008 (The Hartford Courant - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- HIG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- The National Theatre of the Deaf is back -- though it never really left.

Over the past decade, the 41-year-old organization went through some difficult times, losing funding and moving out of one home base after another. Most significantly, it dramatically downsized its operations and eliminated its main-stage programming as it soldiered on with its smaller, school-touring arm, the Little Theatre of the Deaf.

But funding is coming back in significant ways, there is a new artistic director and plans are being made for the return of its main-stage programming for the first time in five years.

All of this will be celebrated Saturday at the theater's fundraising gala at the Aqua Turf Club in the Plantsville section of Southington. (Reservations must be made by today. Information: 860-236-4193 or www.ntd.org.)

"We are getting NTD back on track," says Aaron Kubey, the organization's executive director.

Kubey, who was born deaf to deaf parents, began his theatrical career by attending the theater's summer school and then as part of the company in the mid-'90s. Before returning to Connecticut, the Chicago native was artistic director of the New York Deaf Theatre.

Kubey says he wants to bring more visibility to the organization, which began in 1967 at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford by founder David Hays. In 1980 it found a home in Chester, but when its fortunes diminished relocated to the Colt Building in Hartford. It subsequently moved to its current home at the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford.

A big boost for the NTD is a new line item in the state budget that will give the organization $200,000 a year over the next two years. Even more significant, federal funding in the form of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Department of Education is now possible, and according to Kubey likely.

At its height, the organization had an annual budget of more than $1 million, and received nearly $700,000 from the Department of Education and several hundred thousand from the NEA. NTD's current budget is about $300,000.

The theater is planning on launching a new main-stage work at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in June, and then to tour in theaters.

The new work, "This Island Alone," was written by two former members of the company and features four hearing and three deaf actors.

Meanwhile, the Little Theatre of the Deaf -- which has never stopped touring -- will continue its school-year road show with "Tree Wise," based on the children's book by Antoinette Abbamonte. The show, which features two deaf and two hearing actors, also will play the Caribbean this winter and will have a special production locally with members of the Hartford Children's Theater at St. Joseph College in West Hartford.

"Now the ship has been righted, it's time to put up our sails and move forward," Kubey says. "We haven't left port just yet -- but we're working on it."

Yale Musical

Yale is getting into the musical-theater business.

There will be workshops for three original musical-theater projects in June as part of the newly created Yale Institute for Music Theater, a collaboration with its schools of Drama and Music.

Two Yale School of Drama grads will head the program. Mark Brokaw (Broadway's "Cry-Baby," off-Broadway's "How I Learned To Drive") will be artistic director, and Beth Morrison will be producer of what is expected to be an annual two-week event. The launch will be June 7 to 21. There will be a "reading" of the musicals, yet to be determined.

The cost of the initiative was not disclosed.

A joint statement from the two arts schools said the institute "seeks to identify distinctive and original music theater works by emerging writers and composers, and to serve those writers by matching them with collaborators such as directors, music directors, and actors/singers who can help them further develop their work."

The deadline for applications for original musical projects in various stages of development is Jan. 23. Each applicant can submit one work. Writers and composers may apply as individuals or as part of a team. Participants must be available for the duration of the institute. Each member of the selected writing teams will receive a $1,000 honorarium, as well as round-trip transportation to New Haven and accommodations for the duration of the workshop

For more information on how to apply, call 203-432-1506 or see www.instituteformusic theatre@yale.edu. Successful applicants will be notified by March 15.

Shifting 'Carol' Cast

What happens when your soap opera character comes out of a coma?

You go back to work.

David Andrew Macdonald, who played Oberon in Hartford Stage's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" this fall, was expected to join the cast for the theater's annual production of "A Christmas Carol."

But the actor's character in the daytime drama "Guiding Light" suddenly "came to," and so Macdonald is stepping out of the holiday show to return to his TV gig.

Curtis Billings will play Macdonald's roles of Scrooge at 30 and Fred. Those roles will now be played by Hartt School student Rob Cunliffe.

In other "Christmas Carol" news, Jeffrey V. Thompson, who played the preacher in Hartford Stage's "Resurrection," will play Bert/Spirit of Christmas Present.

'Tuna' Returns

The final selection in the Hartford Financial Services Group's Broadway series will be the two-actor comedy "Greater Tuna," by Joe Sears, Jaston Williams and Ed Howard. The production will run May 26 to 31. The show will be self-produced by the Bushnell under Scott Galbraith, the center's vice president for programming. Tickets go on sale Nov. 28. The show's original tour began at Hartford Stage in 1982.

'Looped' In West Palm Beach

There was some speculation that the next production of Matthew Lombardo's "Looped" starring Valerie Harper would find a home at TheaterWorks. After all, Lombardo's "Tea at Five" had a run at Hartford Stage; Rob Ruggiero, who staged "Looped" in its premiere at the Pasadena (Calif.) Playhouse, is associate artistic director at TheaterWorks; and Harper starred in the solo show "The Dragon and the Pearl" at TheaterWorks based on author Pearl Buck in the '90s.

Alas, the production next goes to the Cuillo Centre for the Arts in West Palm Beach, Fla., Dec. 31 to Feb. 15. Jarrod Emick (Tony Award winner for Broadway's "Damn Yankees") will be featured in the play, which is loosely based on Tallulah Bankhead's eight-hour looping (dubbing) session during the film "Die, Die, My Darling" late in her career.

Woodward Back On Stage

Joanne Woodward and James Naughton will be featured in the cast for "A Christmas Garland" at the Westport Country Playhouse, Dec. 13 to 21. The show will feature holiday songs, stories, readings, jokes, poems, as devised by Eileen Atkins and John Tillinger, who directs the show.

Short Takes

Tony Kushner's "Angels in America Part 2: Perestroika" will be presented tonight through Saturday at the Kent McCray Theater in the Handel Performing Arts Center, the new Albany Avenue facility of the University of Hartford's Hartt School Theatre Division. Coincidentally, Kushner will be featured in the Connecticut Forum's "Storytellers and the Stories They Tell" Friday night at the Bushnell (along with fellow Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks and TV writer David Simon, who created the series "The Wire." Bob Edwards moderates.) ... Lucinda Cox, whose play "Happy Now?" made its American premiere last month at Yale Repertory Theatre, has written the screenplay for "The Danish Girl," based on David Ebershoff's novel. Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron will star in the film. ... Former Hartford Stage artistic director Mark Lamos will direct the reading of Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. as part of the Obie Award-winning Revelation Readings series, at Theater of St. Clement's in New York. Lisa Peterson, who directed Hartford Stage's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" earlier this fall, will direct "Electricidad" by Luis Alfaro (Hartford Stage's "Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner") Jan. 12 as part of the same series. ... Michael Wilson, artistic director of Hartford Stage, has a Broadway opening tonight, directing Horton Foote's "Dividing the Estate" at the Booth Theatre.

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