Interview with Caroline Parker, sign song director of the Song in Sign opera project, which is currently on tour! (BSL)

Song in Sign is a creative musical project led by FormidAbility with workshops crafted by deaf musician Ruth Montgomery and delivered in collaboration with FormidAbility’s Joanne Roughton-Arnold.

The project delivers concert performances in various venues as well as student and community workshops. With performances consisting of two opera singers, a pianist and two signing actors, sign song director and well known deaf performer Caroline (Caro) Parker tells us more about the venture.

Hi Caro! How does it feel to be involved in Song in Sign? Have you done anything like it before? 

Never before have I worked in Opera. Indeed this is a dream job for me! I feel privileged to have this opportunity to learn about the culture and music of opera.

I do hope this is the first of many jobs in this arena. I could not have achieved this challenge so well without the amazing Daryl Jackson by my side when he was BSL consultant for this concert. 

Tell us more, what is Song in Sign, what’s going to happen on the tour? 

Song In Sign is a concert performed by two singers and two deaf performers signing the songs, consisting of 23 songs from various composers such as Strauss.

The songs are all connecting in themes relating to a specially commissioned song inspired by the Oscar Wilde story ‘The Happy Prince’ which was composed by Rylan Gleave. 

The tour has opened in London and Birmingham and then it goes to Manchester and Glasgow. There are also workshops connected to the show for the music students and for the community too. 

Why is this project so significant for the deaf and musical communities?

It is so rare for deaf performers to sign the opera songs alongside the singers on stage, this kind of access is so new in its creative form. So it is incredible for deaf audience members to now have such creative translations of the songs and for the musicians to learn how to work with us by sharing their music in new ways. 

Who are the creatives involved in this behind the scenes and also performing? 

Joanne Roughton-Arnold who created and is CEO of FormidAbility is the power house of Sign In Song came up with the idea of this concert involving BSL, audio description and she decided which songs to use. She is also one of the singers in this concert, herself blind. 

We have Rhiannon May and Petre Dobre who are both deaf performers. Cha’nel Kaa Luke is the Māori sign language consultant and is also deaf. 

Daryl Jackson is the deaf BSL consultant, Nigel Foster is the pianist and Ben Thapa is the tenor singer.

How were the rehearsals for this tour? Have there been any memorable moments you could share with us?

Because of the pressure of lack of time, we had to translate the songs during the rehearsal period, and so we had no time to rehearse performances!

We used captioning of the song lyrics projected on the wall, had discussions on how the songs were sung, what impact the emotions, rhythm and speed (slow or fast) had on the words sung.

There were some funny moments matching the signs to the lyrics when the speed was too slow or fast. We set up visual cues from the singers for such thing and to also ensure the correct song was being sung or signed! 

Do you think there are enough accessible projects like this? 

There is certainly stigma in deaf people choosing to learn music. At school back in the 1970s I was not allowed to study music at the hearing school I was at. People do not expect us to enjoy music let alone work in this industry.

This is why this concert is so important for society to witness. At the moment there is a distinct lack of concerts and shows being creatively accessible. 

What misconceptions around deafness or music would you like to change?

There are deaf Musician’s and singers out there, people should know this. Deaf people can and do enjoy music, people should be aware of this. We also dance too as many people found out with Rose through Strictly. The more things we see like this concert, it will hopefully inform society of this. 

Why should the deaf community go along and see this tour?

The deaf people who come and see this concert will have a glimpse of the opera and its beauty. They will discover that music has stories with journeys and emotions. 

This show is captioned, audio described and songs creatively and inclusively signed by two deaf performers alongside the two singers on stage. 

Finally, do you have any advice for budding sign singers or deaf people who aspire to do the work you do?

When translating the songs, one of my tips is dump the English! Think about how the song can be shown visually. Do you change the English lyrics around to fit the BSL grammatical order? Sign less not more. Too much signing tires out the eyes who are watching. 

Know why you want to sign the song you choose, not just because you like it. As yourself does the song have a journey with emotions, do these change in the song? If the song lyrics have repetition, change how you sign the words, either start small and go bigger or the other way round. 

It’s not enough to just sign the words, and please – if there is music in between the words show this with movement, don’t just stand still!

For further details about the Song in Sign project and tour dates see here.

Photography credit Helen Murray.