Deafening Silence: Firelight Theatre Workshop takes on non-verbal communication in latest production

PETERBOROUGH – About two-thirds of human communication is nonverbal. Yet when people think of theater, most emphasize the dialog, but the latest production by Firelight Theatre Workshop puts spoken word to the sidelines. "Small Mouth Sounds" by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Bess Wohl brings six strangers together for a silent wellness retreat. The vow of silence doesn't put a damper on the need to communicate, relying on hand gestures and eye contact. Scenes take place during the day when the cast is listening to the off-stage retreat teacher and intimate, private night scenes. The show opened on May 9 to a sold-out crowd and runs on weekends through June 7. Firelight Co-founder and Director Nora Fiffer said when looking for plays, the leadership at Firelight read over 100 shows trying to find something that brings a unique angle on the theater experience. "How can we create a really original, fresh experience for people who are regular theatergoers who we hope will be surprised by theater when they come here or people who think they may not like theater but when they see something at Firelight there's something they haven't experienced before that really does interest them," Fiffer said. "That criteria is really hard to meet." For "Small Mouth Sounds," that unique criteria is the limited dialog. Jason Lambert, co-founder of Firelight and an actor in the production, said robust character descriptions in the script help provide insight into who the characters are and how to play them, despite mostly not coming out in the play itself. More stage direction helps guide the production while leaving room for improv. Wohl was inspired to write the play after attending a silent spiritual retreat in upstate New York with a friend. Within the first day, she found creative inspiration and started jotting down notes on the experience and people's interactions. "You're watching people's listening and behavior, what they do when they're full of expectation, full of need and want and fear, and what their bodies and mouths do. You're not looking at the person speaking," Fiffer said. "We see that in movies, but in theater it is such a dialog driven event that audiences and humans are trained to look at the speaker, but here you can't. So, the focus is really on the receiving." Theater is its own kind of silent retreat, Fiffer said, because of rules in place such as not using cellphones, sitting still during the show or knowing the other audience members while also hoping the experience is worth it and "surrendering myself to the unknown, to whatever might happen. I'm opening myself up, available to feel and change." Despite not talking, each character has a set of sounds they make, which Fiffer said helps the audience pay attention to the full range of sounds humans make. For example, an audience member told her during the show's opening weekend they heard a stomach growl and wasn't sure if it came from the cast or audience. One challenge, she learned, was figuring out how to interact with the audience and guide people's attention. Usually, the audience will look at the character speaking, Fiffer said, but the cast needs to draw the audience's attention without speech. "There's so much simultaneous action on stage with multiple characters and no dialog to direct the audience to look over where," she said. "We have to create movement and small mouth sounds to say 'Hey, the story is actually over here on this corner of the stage. These people are really interesting too, who are putting on Chapstick and rustling through their bag, but over here there's a conversation going on even if it's not dialog." The cast used the concept of A-stories and B-stories. While there's a main story happening, the other things happening on stage are "fully lived in" and communicate their own things about the characters involved. At its core, Fiffer said, the story asks whether people are capable of change. One thing always in focus during this process, Fiffer said, is breaking down actions in three parts. For example, if a character needs to light a stick of incense, then the actor needs to have a thought, decide to do it, and then take the action. This also helps bring attention to a certain character. Essentially, this put the thought process behind dialog into the actions being taken. Lambert said "Small Mouth Sounds" is a unique experience because Wohl's writing leaves space for the actors to find the art and science of the piece. Essentially, the actors worked through creating dialog that isn't said to inform the motions and sounds they're making. There's also letting go when something doesn't work. "You're invited to generate, but it has to fit," he said. "You have to follow the intent of the playwright. You're caught between the art of invention and the science of sculpting the invention into something that matches up with the playwright's direction so it can fit together. Then we have some of that sculpting and we need to go back to a cycle of art and science because we need to refine the science of comedy and find the art in human experience." For more information, visit firelighttheatreworkshop.com.