{"id":1311392,"date":"2019-06-13T20:36:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T02:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/creating-new-bridges\/"},"modified":"2019-06-14T08:18:43","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T14:18:43","slug":"creating-new-bridges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/creating-new-bridges\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating new bridges"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Thunder RIver Theatre Company\u2019s Executive Artistic Director Corey Simpson, who is directing TRTC\u2019s\u2018Tribes,\u2019 sets up a the cast from left, Suzie Brady, William Bledsoe, Dana Gaubatz, Michelle Mary Schaefer, Meredith Nelson-Daniel and Brittany Dye for a scene during walk though rehearsal in Carbondale earlier this week.<\/strong>
Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

When Corey Simpson, Thunder River Theatre Company executive artistic director, selected \u201cTribes\u201d as the company\u2019s final production for the season, he had no idea how much it would change him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to admit I didn\u2019t take all of the intricacies of this piece into account when I selected it,\u201d Simpson, who is directing the production as well, said. \u201cIn part that was based on me not having experience with the deaf or hard of hearing community before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Written by playwright Nina Raine, \u201cTribes\u201d tells the story of a Jewish family of five: a mom, dad and three children.<\/p>\n

The play follows the family as they assimilate the youngest child, Billy, who is deaf, into the hearing culture as much as possible.<\/p>\n

Billy meets a young love interest that is going deaf, who proceeds to teach Billy sign language.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fell in love with the piece,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cIt is a beautiful, funny, incredible, and heartfelt piece, with lot of things about that I was looking for in filling the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Simpson, the research for this project was really interesting. He searched for deaf theaters in Colorado and located one in Denver.<\/p>\n

Simpson said he found contact information for the artistic director.<\/p>\n

\u201cPicked up my phone, and I was halfway through dialing it when I realized I was calling someone who is deaf, and had no idea how that process would work,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cIt was not even part of my reality until then. That was the first experience I had where I knew all of us working on this piece were about to have a really eye-opening experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing Simpson realized quickly was the lack of resources on the Western Slope.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resources I was hoping would be available here, but, as it turns out, the resources for the deaf and hard of hearing in our valley are extremely limited,\u201d Simpson said. Simpson learned that the Aspen Deaf Camp had recently closed, and many of the employees had moved because of the lack of resources.<\/p>\n

Through his research Simpson was able to make contact with Michelle Mary Schaefer, a deaf actor from Austin, Texas, who is playing Billy.<\/p>\n

Simpson said he has been in awe of her ability.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first met her, we had never spoken face-to-face, or even on the phone before,\u201d he said. \u201cIt had all been over email and texting. I was really nervous when she showed up, because I had no idea what the process was going to be like directing someone who can\u2019t hear me.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy universe has been completely blown open by working on this piece, and also by working with one of our actors who is deaf,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cMichelle has just been amazing to work with, she can speak, is fluent in lip reading and sign language, and at the same time some of us in the cast crew have really worked to learn as much sign as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simpson said it has been a lot of fun and created a lot of hilarious moments between the casts, and a lot of laughter in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an incredibly powerful piece, and we have experienced that every night in rehearsal, because the actor playing the main character is deaf,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cWhat the audience is going to experience is a situation that most of us don\u2019t experience every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simpson said seeing someone portray this role who has lived through so much of what this character experiences really takes this play to different level. It just adds another layer of reality and strength to the message of this play.<\/p>\n

The cast of six also includes guest actor and former valley resident Brittany Dye, who now lives in New York City, and talented locals William Bledsoe, Meredith Nelson-Daniel, Suzanne Brady and Dana Gaubatz.<\/p>\n

After five weeks of rehearsal \u201cTribes\u201d takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 14, at Thunder River Theatre Company in Carbondale.<\/p>\n

Thunder River Theatre Company will be bringing in two ASL certified interpreters for the final two shows at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 28, and Saturday, June 29.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been changed by this process,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cI have leaned some sign, I\u2019ve made some life-long friends that I would have never connected with before, and since starting here at TRTC, I have really aspired along with the board, staff and actors to continue to open our doors more to the community. And this kind of play is really about creating new bridges between people that might not otherwise connect.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some ways this play is more. I think it is expressing what we\u2019re passionate about trying to do with theater, and sometimes its easy for those of us in the arts to forget that art really does have power and really can impact people in ways that change them, and I think this play is going to be a great reminder to us about how much theater can do in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

kmills@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thunder RIver Theatre Company\u2019s Executive Artistic Director Corey Simpson, who is directing TRTC\u2019s\u2018Tribes,\u2019 sets up a the cast from left, Suzie Brady, William Bledsoe, Dana Gaubatz, Michelle Mary Schaefer, Meredith Nelson-Daniel and Brittany Dye for a scene during walk though rehearsal in Carbondale earlier this week.Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent When Corey Simpson, Thunder River […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-29 23:32:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1311407,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311392\/revisions\/1311407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}