Playing a hearing character.
Harvard is part of the (mostly) new cast of Broadway’s hit production of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” with Ed Harris following Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch and LisaGay Hamilton succeeding LaTanya Richardson as the housekeeper Calpurnia.
11 comments:
This is incredibly exciting for this actor. Having lived his whole life being defined by one trait, it’s excellent to hear that he was offered a role that wasn’t defined by being deaf. I can imagine that actors who are not fully able in some obvious way tend to be cast because of their disability. It’s much less likely to put an actor onstage in a wheelchair, unless the character needs to be in a wheelchair for the purpose of the plot. Normalizing this character by just making it that way is excellent for the whole population because it forces us to see them just as people. This idea is also something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently with respect to minorities. As a white person, you’re more likely to just get cast in roles, whereas it’s more likely to get cast as a persona of color in a role that is for people of color. Obviously we want people representing their own stories, but I’m sure it’s infuriating if that’s the only type of role you end up playing.
I saw this actor in King Lear this spring on Broadway, and I thought it was a progressive idea to have a deaf actor play a role in a Shakespeare show that was not written as deaf. But Harvard’s new role in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ takes progress one step further in terms of normalizing the casting of differently abled persons in roles, period. I thought it was interesting that Harvard’s played many of the prominent deaf roles in the past decade, including the adult males in the Deaf West production of Spring Awakening, and the lead role in Tribes. Aaron Sorkin commented that introducing a character that used sign language to communicate, but whose words were audibly communicated by Jem and Scout, might be a logical leap for the audience, but with the narrative nature of this play, it seems like the choice would flow throughout the show and not be cause for disruption.
This is incredible. It made be really happy to see the inclusion Broadway is attempting to support in shows like To Kill A Mockingbird. I never heard of anything like this before but I think it's wonderful that the creative team was able to cast Russell Harvard in a show even though he is not able to hear. It seems like a big challenge as well, if you do not know sign language communicating will be more difficult. I wonder what the specific precautions were set in place so Russell Harvard would be as included in the cast and rehearsals just as much as anyone else. I remember seeing him as the kid in There Will Be Blood and thought he was amazing on TV. I am sure he has only improved since then and I hope to get the chance to go see this unique production of To Kill A Mockingbird.
-Pablo Anton
This is amazing! The entire history of the entertainment industry it has almost always been able-bodied people playing disabled characters. No matter how wonderful the rest of the movie or show is there is always a moment where the character who will “never” be able to walk suddenly can dance, the one who can’t talk can sing. We see sin models of disability (your parents or you did something to deserve this) and the miracle models of people with disabilities looking for “cures” as if something is inherently broken in them that must be fixed, instead of accepting them for who they are. It’s about time we not only start letting disable folk play the parts of themselves, but also play the parts of at least “traditionally” able bodied characters too. Not to mention, ASL is a part of American English that should be taught more and more widely used. I am so excited for this production!
I’m so excited that roles are opening up for deaf actors. Personally, I have not seen a play that has a deaf actor or an actor with impaired hearing. But it’s hard to imagine what the Harvard described in the article, that at some performances an interpreter is in place to interpret ASL to the audience. That clearly creates a barrier and I feel like it would undermine the actor’s acting and craft to some extent. I also hate the ableism that exists in the industry, in casting in this case. For people with disabilities, I feel like society has the tendency to define them just by their condition. The same goes for people with disorders and illnesses. These actors can’t play characters that are not similar to them. As Harvard said, they should be cast “not about being hearing, not about being deaf.” I’m looking forward to seeing more progress be made.
This seems like such a remarkable choice to include someone in a way that they have been hoping their whole lives they would be offered a chance. It is important in the arts that we progress forward and this seems like a significant step in that direction. As Bridget said in her response, it is interesting to see the kinds of roles that Russell Harvard has had in the past and how this one differs from that now. It seems like there will be accommodations in place or changes made to effectively incorporate him into this role, which is great that the team would be welcoming of him. One would only hope that a role like this and the amount of attention it is garnering will only open the doors to more people who are in a similar position as he is, and will also hopefully challenge other creative teams to find ways to be inclusive in new and exciting ways.
Reading this article was absolutely heartwarming. It's a amazing to see that someone with a disability, such as being deaf, is able to take his place on the stage, not as a deaf man, but as a man portraying another man in a play having nothing to do with him being deaf. Harvard's role in "To Kill a Mockingbird" shows the world that he is not his disability. This honestly makes me think of my younger brother. He is 15 years old and autistic. Many people address him as though he is nothing but an autistic boy. I always try to push to remind him that being autistic is not his whole identity. He is not autism. Autism is simply a part of who he is. This is a reason why I appreciate that the team on "To Kill a Mockingbird" decided to include the sign language. Russel Harvard plays two men who can hear, but adding sign language to the production, to me at least, shows that being deaf with always be part of who Harvard is, but it's not his whole identity.
Articles like this one are a great feel good read. The theatre community is wonderful, yet extremely flawed. Acceptance of everyone is praised, yet there are still groups who struggle to be heard and seen in the industry. It is not often that a person with a disability is cast in a show. If they are, it is usually to play a character that has the same disability as them. A person's disability does not prevent them from being a fantastic actor. That’s why reading about Russell Harvard and his casting in “To Kill a Mockingbird” is so fantastic. He was seen for his talent rather than his disabilities which is so important when it comes to any career. One of, if not the most, essential themes to “To Kill A Mockingbird” is not to judge people based on prejudices, so it makes sense that the director would follow that mindset when casting his show. I am happy that Harvard is being given more chances and hopefully hell stand as an example for future castings.
A lot of the time, casting deaf actors becomes "progressive" when it adds depth and more layers to the role or show, like we saw in Deaf West Spring Awakening, which is true. But, to me, it seems even more progressive to cast a deaf actor in a role not specifically written or altered to be deaf. In the Spring Awakening revival, the characters weren't altered exactly, but it was very clear that Michael Arden was trying to make a point with the casting of deaf actors in specific roles. But here, there's no point to be made and I think that's really special. I do think it assists the theme of Mockingbird to a certain extent, but it's not something that's put into the audience's mind at all, it would only affect your view of the story and staging if you knew it. I think this casting is so important to the industry and marginalized actors involved in it. And it's not just that they cast a deaf actor in the show; they cast a deaf actor to play one of the most central roles in the show. Boo is not just a central character, he's kind of the character the whole story revolves around. All in all, I really like the implications of this casting choice. In an industry that can seem so hopeless for marginalized people, this is such an important development and makes thinks seem much more hopeful.
Deaf theatre is an experience that I think everyone should be able to see at least once in their life. Because American Sign Language (and other variations of sign language) relies so heavily on bodily and facial emotion, many pieces of performance are often heightened by deaf actors. I think that it is especially important that it was made clear to both the actor and - ostensibly - the audience that Russel Harvard’s characters (especially in the character of Link Deas) are not deaf, necessarily, and are not meant to be “deaf versions” of those characters. I think that the struggle of type-casting in the deaf community can very nearly be equated to those of racial minorities; the thinking is typically - in my experience - that deaf actors can only play deaf roles, end of story. Sher’s slight adaptation of the play (bringing in ASL and deafness as a symbol), in my mind, strengthens the show even more.
This is some of the most heartwarming and honest conversations I've seen on this page and I'me really impressed with how he talks about his art. I think that its imperatively difficult for an actor that is hard of hearing to jump into a role where they are expected to convey a whole lot of emotions using primarily sign language. When looking at roles that are traditionally made for actors that can hear, its easy to see that most of the other text work comes easy for them. In roles like this in shows like "To Kill a Mockingbird", there is an added level of tradition that comes into the entire thing. These actors need to make sign language and a deaf perspective work for a traditional show that demands a lot of traditional conventions in terms of acting. I hope to see more theater that not only integrates but also highlights actors that are hard of hearing and actors that have disabilities in order to create a more cohesive and imagined production.
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