High School Puts Innovative Twist on Musical

Plantation, Fla., Nov. 25, 2008— -- It was showtime at South Plantation High School. Backstage, students squeezed into costumes, dabbed one another with makeup and warmed up their voices.

But this was no ordinary high school musical.

South Plantation's production of the Broadway musical 'West Side Story" had a special twist. The school is Broward County's main high school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, so when auditions for the production were held in August, 120 students turned out for 50 coveted spots. Among them, a handful of deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

Drama teacher Jason Zembuch had done musicals with singers performing American Sign Language before, but he took a very different approach for "West Side Story."

"What's inherent in the script is that we have a clash of two cultures," Zembuch said. "The original production is a clash between the Puerto Ricans and the Americans. In this production, we have a clash of not only the Puerto Ricans and the Americans but also the deaf and the hearing."

Zembuch adapted the story: The Jets are hearing and most of the Sharks are deaf, including Maria. Initially, the love struck couple -- Maria and Tony -- can't communicate until Tony learns to sign.

There are actually two Maria's: the lead played by Giovanna Vazquez, 16, who is deaf, and her voice, played by Kellie Smith, 16.

Both appeared onstage at the same time in the same costumes. Zembuch artfully weaved the two Marias together with elaborate choreography. During the famous balcony scene, Tony visits Maria at her home and the two, seemingly interconnected Marias appear onstage; Giovanna in the balcony signing her words as Kellie looks on from the darkness below singing the familiar song.

"I want the audience to think that we are one person," said Giovanna, speaking through a sign language interpreter.

Giovanna is a high school junior who played the deaf Maria. "Because the two of us, as you see, we try to move the same," she said of the performance, which ended Sunday.

Kellie, a junior who sang and spoke Maria's lines, said, "I feel the same way. I feel like she is the actual Maria that everyone can see, but I'm like a facet of her personality. I'm there to support her, and I'm there to help her, and I'm just an inner-dimension of herself."

It was an ambitious interpretation, but it was remarkably effective.