Massimo (Jacob Hoffman) sings and signs to his daughter, Orella (Catalene Sachetti-Manganelli) in the soaring ballad, "You Are the Only One" as Orella's voice (Nicole Vande Zande) and the Fortune Teller, Allegra (Alexandra Wailes) look on.
Earlier this month, I finished up a reading of a fascinating new musical, Stepchild, by David Boyd and Chad Kessler. Performed at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center as a part of the Rough Draft Festival, it was a riff on the Cinderella fairy tale, but set in the Italian Renaissance, with a deaf central character, named Orella. The Prince and the Fairy Godmother were also brilliantly portrayed by deaf actors, and the rest of the talented ensemble cast were hearing/hard of hearing actors, proficient in American Sign Language (ASL). The story was told for a diverse audience in various combinations of singing, signing, and captioned performances, and received a tremendous response. It was great to reconnect with some old friends, too, including multi-instrumentalist Joe Brent and director Kim Weild.
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