The Calvin Theatre Company (CTC) is performing “Bye Bye Birdie,” its first musical in 12 years. Opening night was on April 10, and the show will be performed again on April 17 at 7:30 p.m. and April 18 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the Gezon Theatre.
“Bye Bye Birdie” follows the braided storyline of two prominent dilemmas. The first follows Albert Peterson, the president of a struggling music corporation, and Rose Alvarez, Albert’s secretary and significant other, as Conrad Birdie (an Elvis-Presley-like celebrity whose contract has been sustaining Albert’s music business) is drafted into the army. As Albert begins to panic about his business, Rose comes up with a plan. Conrad will release one final song titled “One Last Kiss,” and one random member of his numerous fan clubs will be selected to receive his final kiss before he leaves for the army. The musical’s second storyline follows the selected fan: Kim MacAfee, a teenage girl from Sweet Apple, Ohio, who is going through her own dilemma of wanting to be understood and to be thought of as an adult.
During the casting for the show, the CTC decided to incorporate American Sign Language (ASL) into the production. Ashley Vredevoogd, one of the stage managers for the production, noted that the decision was prompted by Eleanor Plutz, who is hard of hearing and was auditioning for the part of Kim. “We see something really interesting here that we can play with, and it kind of changes a little bit of the story,” said Vredevoogd.
Ultimately, the CTC decided to split the part of Kim into two roles: inner Kim and outer Kim. Inner Kim, played by Catelyn Danckaert, represents Kim’s inner thought life and how she wants to be perceived by others. Though inner Kim will be speaking, other characters on stage will not physically interact or make eye contact with her, according to Danckaert. Outer Kim, played by Plutz, communicates solely through ASL and will be the one the other characters can see.
ASL challenges and opportunities
Danckaert noted that the unique role has been “a fun challenge,” saying that “I think we’ve both been able to personalize Kim in different ways, but in ways that make sense together.” Plutz emphasized the difficulty of balancing the two aspects of Kim’s character, saying, “It’s hard because I don’t want to be overshadowing Catelyn [Danckaert], and I don’t want to split the role unevenly because she’s a really important part of Kim. … So that’s probably the trickiest part, is the dynamic with other characters not being able to see [Danckaert].” However, she also noted that the split role “adds a lot of depth to the role of Kim.” Danckaert agreed, noting that Kim is only 15 years old but wants to be thought of as mature. “[She] doesn’t know the secrets of the world or maybe what her boundaries are in life,” said Danckaert. “So what her head’s saying and what her heart is saying are maybe two different things.”
Vredevoogd noted that the CTC wanted to avoid making it seem like “inner Kim is the puppet master of outer Kim or is standing over her shoulder or guiding her through things, because ultimately outer Kim has the reins and inner Kim is really just the monologue.”
Along with Plutz signing all of her lines, other characters will be signing and speaking simultaneously during various parts of the performance. Plutz spoke on the difficulty of ASL, saying, “ASL is a whole different grammar structure, so I don’t really know my lines in English, I know them as signed. … It’s set up differently. I was kind of nervous about the other characters just because I know it’s not easy to SimCom [Simultaneous Communication], sign and speak at the same time.”
Plutz added that the cast has done incredibly well with learning ASL. “Seeing everyone learn sign language has been really enjoyable. Not many people know sign language, so it’s always cool to see, even if it’s just a little bit. It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s my language!’” she said.
Danckaert noted the importance of the other characters using ASL. “Because it’s so impressive, it means a lot to Kim throughout the show when people can communicate in both ways, and that’s when they fully see both parts of Kim, the inner and the outer, and it makes the character complete,” she said.
The addition of ASL contributes to the already-present theme of Kim feeling misunderstood, first by her parents and then by Conrad Birdie. “I think we’ve done a good job of dancing with some themes that ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ maybe hasn’t addressed before but are still baked into the story,” Danckaert said. She noted that the addition of Kim being deaf particularly contributes to her dynamic with Conrad. “Conrad [is] this big public figure who has all this fame and glory, but is he so great, and is he taking advantage of people?” she said.
Set design
Along with being the first musical at Calvin in over a decade and the first CTC production to incorporate ASL, “Bye Bye Birdie” also incorporates new technology into the set and lighting.
According to CTC’s technical director and designer Joshua Zietse, the set was designed to look like the inside of a jukebox, complete with a light-up arch and a record painted onto the revolve on the floor, which will be spinning at various parts of the show.
Along with using the revolve, the set will also incorporate movement in other ways. Zietse said that the CTC “got a couple of new toys for this show and for the department as a whole to use in the future. One of the real fun ones is our air casters.” Zietse explained that the air casters are a system of wheels that can be attached to any platform or furniture, along with an air tank that pumps them with pressurized air, allowing the wheels to extend and retract at the flip of a switch. “When it’s retracted, it just rests on the floor solid on its own. … You can stand on it, and jump on it, dance on it, do whatever. And then when we engage that system and the casters extend, they push into the floor and they raise the item off the ground so that it can freely roll on its own,” Zietse said. “It’s virtually silent. It’s quick and easy and clean. And so I look forward to using those a lot in the future.”
According to Zietse, the CTC also purchased new LEDs to power the colored lights on the jukebox arch, and, earlier in the year, they purchased a set of new microphones. “We used them for [‘Peter and the] Starcatcher’ as well, in part as a trial run to get things figured out,” said Zietse. “So we got a bunch of new equipment that will hopefully help us do the musical right.”
Zietse noted that this set presented a unique challenge due to the amount of movement present in musicals compared to other productions. “With a more static set, you can build sort of one look, and you don’t have to worry about anything moving or anything changing,” said Zietse. “At the same time, I really enjoy the mechanical things, the figuring out of how to do things like the air casters or how to manage brakes on a system or how to modify a piece of furniture that wasn’t intended to move, such as the oven or the fridge.”
Reflecting on the scope of the project, Zietse said, “It’s been a while since we’ve done a musical, and we’re diving in headfirst with something quite substantial. We’ve been very ambitious with all of the things. We wanted to use all of the toys that we have and get some new toys as well to really stretch what we’re capable of doing, both for this one and for more musicals that we’re going to do in the future.”
Vredevoogd invites readers to come see “Bye Bye Birdie.” “You won’t want to miss it,” she said. “This cast deserves a full house, and I am so excited for everybody to see the show.”
