Communication key to ‘Distance’ production

In one sense, “Across a Distance” is the tale of two virtuosic performers, a boy-meets-girl romantic comedy and an intensely personal journey to turn an offhand thought into reality.

In another, it’s a multimedia, bilingual work with frustratingly intermittent translation. And puppets.

“We probably spent a year trying to put a paragraph together just explaining what it was,” says composer Scott Gendel. “It’s not a difficult show to experience, but difficult to discuss.”

There’s no easy way to describe it, but after five years of work, it’s finally come to life. Renowned soprano Julia Faulkner and Deaf actor Robert Schleifer have united with Gendel, director Kelly Bremner, playwright Nick Lantz, dramaturg and scenic designer Kristin Hunt and a talented crew to mount an unusual but remarkable work of art.

On stage and off, the work tells the story of communication and connection. The characters, a man and woman who inhabit separate islands, find each other and fall in love. Like so many couples before them, however, they must then deal with the realities of their different backgrounds.

The production uses many visual elements to tie the story together. But in places where a hearing audience might rely on a translator to understand the signing performer and vice versa, the translation bows out to put the focus squarely on the performers. As the audience — both hearing and Deaf — tries to make sense of what is said, they connect with the characters’ own frustrations at trying to understand one another. When Gendel struggled to compose the unsingable, he turned to Kristin Hunt’s text preparation and visual design to give form to the music.

The idea came out of the friendship between Faulkner, assistant professor of voice in the School of Music, and Schleifer, an acclaimed actor whose performances include leading roles with Steppenwolf Theatre and the Milwaukee Shakespeare Co. As a Deaf actor accustomed to nonverbal communication, Schleifer also coaches vocalists looking to add expression to their singing.

Despite being Deaf since birth, Schleifer loves classical music performances.

“An orchestra is almost like a visual language,” says Schleifer, through an interpreter. “There’s no words involved, of course, but I enjoy watching the group and how they move and play together — all the different instruments and how they work together as a team. That’s fascinating to me.”

Schleifer and Faulkner struck up an e-mail conversation about art, communication and collaboration. One day, Faulkner asked Gendel (then completing his doctorate in composition) if he would consider writing a piece incorporating elements of American Sign Language, or ASL.

ASL has grammar and structure entirely separate from English. With fewer words, the speakers add inflection through body language, speed and styles of movement, as a hearing actor might bring vocal inflection or nuance.

“It has to be an equal experience,” says Bremner. “It’s very hard for the audience to take their eyes off of Julia and put them on Robert; we’re writing contrapuntally, but one of the lines doesn’t make any noise! So it’s really exciting and rewarding to do that with a composer.”

The project gained more focus when Bremner came on board. A specialist in devised performance, Bremner works with performers to create unique works out of their own experiences. As Gendel’s spouse and frequent collaborator, she had a unique view of the project’s genesis.

“I got wind that they were working on a piece of music, and I thought, ‘A piece of music won’t do this paradox justice,’” says Bremner, who completed her doctorate in theatre at UW–Madison. “She defines herself by the music of her voice, and he doesn’t hear it. They have this amazing connection through the arts. What is that about? I wanted in.”

The four worked during several summers, bringing on poet Nick Lantz when it became apparent that a script would give the story a narrative thread. Lantz wrote in English before creating an ASL “gloss” (a code used to write signs). Finally, the team workshopped the piece at a festival in Chicago.

“There were a lot of Deaf people and translators in the audience,” recalls Gendel. “So many of them told Julia what a beautiful performance she gave. Robert has such rich body language, and even though I don’t speak ASL, it’s beautiful to see the energy of an artist at work. Which, I think, is why we had the idea to do this show. How much of communication is about the literal content of the words? Sure, some of it is, but there’s intention, energy and self-expression.”

At its heart, the work is a tribute to its originators: Faulkner and Schleifer, shooting e-mails back and forth in the ether; Gendel and Bremner, leaning over their kitchen table to unravel a scene. The four live in different states and even two different time zones. Yet they, like their characters, found ways to communicate and create.

Theirs may be a new spin on an old story, but it must still be seen and heard.