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Richard, who had never heard of Christopher Smith, had no idea why he should care about a somewhat outdated Chicago production of a musical; nor could he immediately comprehend why Bob, as a Deaf man, would take a sudden work-related interest in American musical theater. Bob explained that West Side Story was in preproduction, but that turned out to be almost the last piece of information, for months, that Richard heard about the show. It wasn’t until the first auditions rolled around in November that Richard finally met Christopher. Even that meeting produced nothing in the way of cooperation, despite the best intentions of both the Drama and Deaf Ed departments. Now, with three weeks of rehearsals already gone, Diane concludes that the lack of adult cast members is sufficiently problematic to warrant a plea for help during a meeting of the general faculty. Toward the end of the meeting, she stands up, not very far from tears, and tells the assemblage that she is “almost desperate ” for help. She remembers asking for performers—in particular , adult actors willing to play the four adult roles—but when Richard approaches her after the meeting, he expects only to volunteer for managing the ticket sales or helping with the sets. Diane takes one look at Richard and asks if he will take the part of Lieutenant Schrank. Richard, whose last stage appearance was in 1964 (he played Professor Kokintz in The Mouse That Roared), says yes before he can fully grasp what he has committed to. It then takes him weeks to reveal to his colleagues that he has an active role in the play. Terrified that he’ll “bomb out,” he tells no one except his family. Richard has red hair, a rarity in the Jacksonville area, and he keeps it neatly parted just above his left ear. His smile is shy and ready; when pushed a little harder, the smile widens and joins with a quiet, pensive laugh. He is not a man who yells or abuses teenagers—even hoodlums. If he has a temper, and everyone says he does not, he certainly never shows it. Lieutenant Schrank is his polar opposite, a man who has dedicated his life to Quintet (Tonight Medley) 133 arm-twisting and forcing his will on others. He’s a man with a chip on his shoulder and an ulcer in his gut. If Richard and Schrank have any similarities, it would be in their offices. One can easily imagine Schrank with a map of the five boroughs—or at least the upper West Side—pinned to the wall just above his metal desk, and sure enough, Richard Fee has a large road map of Illinois stapled to an old bulletin board, just above an equally aged and, for Mac, standard-issue metal desk. Black filing cabinets lay claim to most of the available floor space, just as they surely would in Schrank’s world. But would Schrank keep a copy of The Bell Curve on hand? Richard Fee does, along with a Coca-Cola clock, round and perilously close to falling off its temporary resting place atop one of the aforementioned filing cabinets. Richard’s shelves also hold an enormous black-bound tome ominously entitled, The Disability Handbook. One doubts that Schrank would even admit a copy into the room. Typecasting, however, is not on Diane’s mind one way or the other, at least insomuch as it affects asking Richard to play Schrank. With very few options left, she takes whomever she can get, as quickly as possible, and Richard is a live body—and, better yet, a live body who can sign. To a point. Richard, despite three decades of experience as a Deaf Ed teacher and administrator, is not proficient in ASL. He can communicate using a limited version of ASL, and he understands most of what ASL users say to him, but that is as far as he can go. Signed English and CASE are much more his line. This, however, turns out to be a blessing. From the get-go, Diane has always thought of Schrank as a man whose clumsy signing arouses the active scorn of the ultrahip Sharks. With Richard in the role, her conception of Schrank’s imperfect signing becomes an instant reality. Meredith, watching Richard rehearse, notes sourly that she too was typecast. A crew member’s response: “Learn to live with it. You only have two types of casting: typecasting and casting...

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