Learn more about the creators and process of Tone a Blind Eye
Performers
Michael Andrews ‘24 (Hansel)
Michael Andrews (he/him/his) is originally from Seneca Falls, New York.
Hansel’s story is set in the early 1930’s during the Great Depression. Hansel is an 11-year-old child living in a small coal mining village in rural Pennsylvania. Still recovering from the loss of his mother a few years ago, life has been going nowhere but downhill for Hansel. Hansel’s father has remarried and now his stepmother threatens to send Hansel to work in the coal mines with his father to help pay the hefty cost of living.
Michael wanted to explore the relationship between Hansel and his father more in Tone A Blind Eye because in the original fairy tale it is mostly left to the reader's imagination. These were trying times, and relationships between people were tested in all sorts of ways. Hansel pleads to his father in a moment of desperation at the thought of what might be lying in store for him in the future.
Lillian Davis ‘24 (Margo)
Lillian Davis (she/her/hers) is from Essex, Vermont.
Margo lives in Germany during the Nazi regime with her partner and two children, and her story is based on the Father in “Hansel and Gretel.”
In the Grimms’ version of the story, the father abandons his children in the woods twice when his wife asks him to, despite his own misgivings. Lily wanted to explore Margo’s personal struggle between living by her own beliefs and doing what others ask her. She also wanted to connect Margo’s internal conflict to large scale patterns of indifference, ignorance, and societal abandonment. These themes are present all throughout human history and our lives today, but the unique circumstances, such as the Nuremberg trials and collective guilt propaganda at the end of World War II, as well as the attention given to Germany at this time, provided a relevant setting for her story.
Eliyah Roberts ‘24 (Evangeline)
Eliyah Roberts (she/her/hers), is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Evangeline follows the Evil Stepmother story from Hansel and Gretel. Evangeline’s story is set in the contemporary time period during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ever since she was little, Evangeline has had to work 10x harder than others. Even now with a wife, she still continues to bend over backwards, and she doesn’t want this hard knock life anymore. She desperately desires to run away to the flower meadow with her wife by her side, letting all her troubles melt away and abandoning those troublesome kids.
Eliyah chose these circumstances for Evangeline because she feels like the Evil Stepmother is good at heart but her actions reflect otherwise. She is seen as a misunderstood character, but when you peel back all her layers, all she wants is freedom from her oppressive life she has lived and to run away where she doesn’t have to wait on someone hand and foot.
Alaina Tremblay ‘24 (Gretel)
Alaina Tremblay (she/her/hers) is a first-year student at HWS from Clifton Park, NY.
The time period of Gretel’s monologue is set in the dystopic future.
Alaina chose this time period because a prominent theme in the story of Hansel and Gretel is hunger. Alaina thought it would be very interesting to explore hunger in relation to our ongoing climate crisis and what our future could hold.
Kels Veeder ‘21 (Witch)
Kels Veeder (they/them/theirs and he/him/his) is a Theatre major from Troy, NY.
The Witch's story is set primarily during the Great Famine in Europe during the early 1300s. The Witch is a trans character, cast out from their home for their difference and forced to live alone in the woods...until children begin to arrive, left to die by their families as a result of the famine.
Kels chose this setting for the Witch because they wanted to explore a trans character's perspective of hunger, abandonment, community, and isolation during a period of great upheaval. Exploring trans perspectives across history is an important project for Kels as a theatre scholar and artist, and he is grateful to have been able to bring that to life for this production.
Design / Production Team
Heather May (Director, Audio Description Editor, Captioning, Website)
The initial concept for this production came out of a combination of H’s sabbatical investigation into questions of accessibility and theater and the constantly shifting terrain of COVID-19. A series of monologues seemed like the most flexible option, allowing for either group rehearsal or solo, in person or online, video streaming or with a live audience. As discussions about the production developed during early design meetings, the production team decided to make the decision to pre-record all monologues and do away with any form of live performance in order to allow them to concentrate energy on learning new technologies and approaches without having to shift gears at the last minute. This decision also had an impact on H’s initial plan of creating movement-heavy pieces that explored the use of body metaphor and disability (think “turn a blind eye” or “tone deaf”) as a statement about contemporary life. Realizing that the pieces would likely need to be more contained, H decided to turn to fairy tales for inspiration because their widespread knowledge would allow the team to focus on character development and not plot. For a fuller explanation of the final shape of Tone a Blind Eye, check out H’s director notes.
Adrian Bayless-Marr ‘21 (Stage Manager)
Adrian Bayless-Marr (they/them/theirs) is a Psychology major and Theatre minor from Shaker Heights, OH.
Adrian was interested in working on this project because of its commitment to accessibility and inclusion from its inception. Adrian hopes to continue to place an emphasis on issues of accessibility in their own theatre work going forward, and was grateful for the opportunity to learn from this process.
Ed Hallborg (Scenic and Lighting Design, Technical Direction)
Ed Hallborg (he/him/his) is the Resident Designer and Technical Director for HWS Theatre. Follow the hyperlink in his name to get to his professional page.
His initial idea in this production was to avoid some of the common elements associated with theatre scenery ie. walls, platforms, defined space, etc. After the director encouraged thinking in abstract and metaphorical terms for each character, Ed generated and eliminated many ideas before coming down to a final concept. Ed found that using film as a “filter” was both an advantage and a challenge. The advantages being the ability to work within a specific, unmoving frame. By focusing on one specific story per shoot, Ed found freedom to put a bit more detail into each piece. However, we also quickly discovered that the sets and lighting would not always translate as we intended, requiring a quick fix and sometimes a slight departure from the original concept.
Katharine Tarkulich (Costume Design)
Katharine Tarkulich (she/her/hers) is a costume designer and creator of custom clothing and accessories.
Katharine's costume and makeup design was strongly influenced by the issues of hunger, betrayal, and othering that both the fairy tale and the adapted monologues unearth, as can be seen in her distressing of all costumes other than Gretel's. She writes that her reflections during the design process have made this a production "that will stick with me for a long time. I have run the gamut of emotions" considering "all that continues to occur in this country, while also thinking about accessibility and flexibility as pertains to theatre not only during a pandemic but also as we look to the future." She was moved by watching students dig way down and access their own voices as they wrote and performed these monologues and overjoyed by true collaboration with wonderful people again. "It has been an experience that challenged and changed me, and I can’t wait to come back next year.”
Kelly Walker (Sound Design, Original Music, and Cinematography)
Kelly Walker (he/him/his) is is the Resident Sound Designer for HWS Theatre. Follow the hyperlink in his name to get to his professional page.
Kelly is not generally a filmmaker. He's done some work in film and video over the past ten years, but generally with the assistance of aspiring student filmmakers. The graduation of our most recent aspiring filmmaker as well as pandemic safety measures meant that a more of the camera work fell to Kelly than might generally be his comfort level.
Kelly relied on Ed's expertise in lighting a great deal, but even then there was a lot of trial and error to capture the scenes in a way that would do justice to Ed's sets, Katharine's costumes, and the creative work of our actor/writers and director.
In the end, we have created five short films that Kelly believes still capture the essence of live theatre. Theatre and film have their own, separate aesthetics and while we borrowed the delivery of this work from the world of film, Kelly was resolved that in the end, we bring to the stage a work of theatre.
Accessibility Design Team
Claire Abelson ‘20 & MAT ‘21 (Website, Multisensory Design)
Claire Abelson (she/her/hers) is from Greenfield, Massachusetts.
As a part of the accessibility team, she primarily worked on the website design and closed captioning pieces of Tone A Blind Eye as part of her graduate project on accessibility and technology. Claire originally became interested in the show because of the lack of emphasis on access within the arts, and wanted to complete a project that would have an impact on her immediate community. Having never designed a website before, she has learned a lot about the ins and outs of accessible website design and hopes to implement many of the things she has learned into her classroom technology moving forward.
Karina Connolly ‘23 (Audio Description)
Karina Connolly (she/her/hers) is originally from Rexford, NY and loves spending time in the Adirondack Mountains. Karina co-authored all audio description and voiced the audio description for Hansel and Margo.
As a member of the Accessibility Design Team for Tone a Blind Eye, she co-wrote and co-dictated the audio descriptions that are integrated into the performances along with July Winters. She chose to become involved in creating audio description because she has a cousin who is blind and understands just how much of a difference audio description can make for a visually impaired viewer. Writing and recording the audio description for Tone a Blind Eye has been a welcome learning curve, and an exciting experience!
Sophie Ritter ‘20 & MAT ‘21 (Website, Multisensory Design)
Sophie Ritter (she/her/hers) is from Geneva, NY.
As a part of the accessibility design team for Tone a Blind Eye, she primarily worked on the website design and closed captioning as part of her graduate project on accessibility and technology. Sophie became interested in this project because it seemed like a really cool way to mix her love of the performing arts with her passion for creating accessible spaces for people with disabilities. This project has been an exciting challenge for her as she has little background in website design, but she hopes to implement some of the new skills that she has learned into her future classroom!
July Winters (Audio Description / Accessibility Design Coordinator)
July Winters (she/her/hers) is part of the HWS class of ‘24. She is originally from Long Island, NY and has a love for the city. July co-authored all audio description and voiced the audio description for Gretel, Evangeline, and the Witch.
As the Accessibility Design Team Coordinator for Tone a Blind Eye, July observed all parts of the design processes. She was also on the audio description team, working to write and dictate audio descriptions that could be integrated into the performances. As someone who has a passion for the Arts and people, creating more opportunities for people to access the magic of theatre was the reason she joined the crew. Being on the team has been a wonderful learning curve, and taught her a lot about how to craft new processes.
Color Correction and Grading: Alex Kerai ‘19
Set Construction: Janne Knieke and Troy Tedeschi ‘22
Special Thanks to: Mahamadou Bala, Joe Calabrese, Tessa Carr and Auburn University Theatre, Kevin Colton, Jonathan Garcia, Mary Kelly, Eric Klaus, Mary LeClair, Pam Pietrusinski, Natalia St. Clair, Lindsey Williamson
Production Photos: Kevin Colton.