"I think they need to know how fast they want to speak," he says to choreographer Fred Beam, who has left his front-row seat at Imagination Stage to confer with Crowley. Some actors watch Crowley for instruction. Beam, who is deaf, and two actors focus on the sign language interpreter to understand Crowley's directions.

Welding two languages over fast-paced hip-hop beats spun by an on-stage DJ presents a communication and staging challenge greater than just translation problems. Performed by a cast that includes deaf performers, "Hip Hop Anansi" strives to be understood and appreciated by an audience made up of people who hear and those who cannot.

The children's show was written with that goal in mind, incorporating sign language into the play and writing music accessible to deaf performers, and with the belief that hip hop is something that can transcend the barriers that deafness creates on stage.

"The signing is integrated into the action of the play," said Kate Bryer, the associate artistic director. "We intentionally cast deaf actors and it was conceived of using deaf actors. We have a real mission here."

Reviews of the musical, which runs through April 13, have been mixed, but weekday shows for school groups and weekend performances have had full audiences, according to Imagination Stage spokeswoman Laurie Levy-Page.

The hip hop production is a relatively new form for 26-year-old Imagination Stage. But the mission of including actors with disabilities is not. At least once a year, the theater puts on a production involving disabled performers, including its most recent show, "Seussical," in which the character of Horton the elephant was played by an actor in a wheelchair.

Disability inclusion:

Imagination Stage has always had a goal of inclusion with its pieces that include "something that will speak to disability," said Bonnie Fogel, founder and executive director. "It's not preachy in any way. It's seamless."

With fast and freeform dance to music mixed by DJs working turntables, hip hop has long been a mainstay of nightclubs and pop culture. But recently, it has been woven into stage performances, such as those that set Shakespeare verse to a hip hop beat. New York has an annual hip hop theater festival and similar events are held in such cities as San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

But what sets "Hip Hop Anansi" apart from many hip hop theater performances is that rather than draping the music and dance over an existing play, the musical was written with hip hop at its core, according to Crowley.

The four elements of hip hop - break dancing, a DJ mixing music, graffiti and rapping or singing - are present. The set is covered in brightly colored graffiti, and at the center of the stage, a DJ named Peace Justice Universal stands on a high podium, his hands moving records back and forth on a turntable to create the soundtrack. The actors are usually in motion, whether spinning on the floor in break dance or moving freestyle. And they rap and sing as they travel across stage.

Imagination Stage commissioned playwright Eisa Davis to adopt the traditional Ghanian children's folk tale of Anansi, a trickster spider. In Davis' story, Anansi, played by Beam, gets help from his children to win the "fly pie" in a hip hop competition after he loses own his powers of trickery.

Director learned language:

The use of a partly deaf cast meant some departures from the creation of a traditional musical. Crowley had to learn American Sign Language, although he still uses an interpreter for some of the more complicated discussions. Loudspeakers were brought in closer to the actors to help the deaf performers feel the music.

"By listening, a deaf person ... can æeel' the bass and vibration from the loudspeaker," Beam told The Associated Press in an e-mail. "It is like you are in a nightclub where the music is banging so loud and you actually feel the beat, not following the words."

Beam didn't have much to work with when he choreographed the musical. There was little record of deaf involvement in hip hop, so he had to rely on some of the deaf actors who have experience in the form for cues. In creating their moves, he had to consider not only singing and dancing, but how they would sign the words they spoke.

He then worked with Peace Justice Universal (whose offstage name is Pedro Urquilla), who wrote the score knowing some of the performers would feel rather than hear the music.

"We can communicate music without sound, by people feeling the vibrations and the beat," Urquilla said.

As the theater staff fill the seats during a rehearsal, the cast performs a final scene where each steps to the front in turn to break dance or try some freestyle moves. As each finishes his or her routine, there is a smattering of applause through the crowd. Others watching hold up both hands and wave, the sign language form of applauding. On stage, the actors appreciate both.

By Stephen Manning
http://www.al.com/living/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/living/1141295114280990.xml&coll=2