The project began as a friendship
between Julia Faulkner (a professional opera singer and voice professor in the
UW-Madison School of Music) and Robert Schleifer (a Deaf professional actor)
that began a series of dialogs on the nature of Music, Art and their respective
modes of artistic expression. Out of these dialogs, came the seed of this
project: how can these two seemingly mutually inaccessible worlds
interact with each other artistically? What can we all learn by exploring
this notion theatrically? What can we teach others about what we have
learned?
Beginning with this idea,
the pair approached composer Dr. Scott Gendel in the Fall of 2006 about writing
a piece of music for them to perform on this theme. Stage Director Dr.
Kelly Bremner was brought into the project in January of 2007. During the
summers of 2007 and 2008 the project was more fully conceived in
workshops. Playwright Nick Lantz was brought into rehearsals to help
craft a script in the second summer of work (2008) and by the Fall of that same
year ACROSS A DISTANCE was a complete script. During the summer of 2009
the play text itself was carefully workshopped by the company and
dramaturg/designer Dr. Kristin Hunt. Fragments of the play were performed
as part of the New Play Development Workshop by the Chicago based Infusion
Theatre Company in September of 2009.
Image: Scene designer Kristin Hunt's rendering of the trees that live on Woman's island. | 