AURORA | Nicki Runge had access in mind when she founded the Rocky Mountain Deaf Theatre company a year ago.
It wasn’t simply a question of access to local stages for deaf actors, actresses, directors and producers, said Runge, who has faced her own challenges as a deaf actress, director and producer looking for jobs in a hearing theater world. Runge has met those challenges with zeal; her local credits include roles in the PHAMALY troupe’s 2011 production of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and the Community College of Aurora’s 2010 reinterpretation of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” one that reframed the familial conflict of the Capulets and the Montagues as a face-off between hearing and deaf families.
But Runge’s mission for the company went deeper. In creating RMDT, a troupe geared toward the local deaf community, Runge said she wanted to create a resource for both communities, a troupe that could serve as a common ground for the hearing and the deaf alike, with American Sign Language as a bridge.
That mission is challenging enough. Over the past year, however, Runge has also had to deal with the considerable demands and pressures of starting a new business. Runge, who teaches drama and ASL by day, has had to juggle her creative ideals with constant questions of logistics and funding. Since formally cutting the ribbon on the company in 2011, Runge has mounted three different productions in two different metro-area theaters.
“There have been a lot of ups and downs. It’s been like a roller coaster since I started this business,” Runge said. “I’m just trying to pull through. We’re one year old, so we’re still taking baby steps. I’m still crawling,” she added with a laugh. “It’s still growing and so am I.”
The company has reached an important stage in that development process. As the troupe kicks off its fourth production, a dark comedy titled “Some Girl(s),” Runge and RMDT Executive Director Betsy Quillen no longer have to worry about going from theater to theater in search of a stage. Earlier this year, Vintage Theatre Artistic Director Craig Bond announced that the troupe’s new home would host three productions by the RMDT in the coming year, including their current “Some Girl(s).”
“Vintage is strengthening artistic partnerships to offer these fledgling companies,” Bond said earlier this year. “We’re trying to work with some lovely new companies and get more people through the door.”
Having that dependable home base has been a boon for the young company, Runge said. The upcoming productions of “Eight Reindeer” in December and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” next year will benefit from being in the larger space on Dayton Street, a facility that includes a 135-seat main theater and a new, 70-seat black box stage.
Runge decided to run “Some Girl(s),” the troupe’s debut production at Vintage, in the smaller, black box theater. With a cast of four principal actors and action that takes place entirely in hotel rooms, the location feels appropriate. Voice interpreters sit in the wings near the lighting booth and deliver lines through microphones for hearing audience members, while the actors deliver all of their dialogue through ASL. The story, rooted in the emotional scars and hang-ups of relationships gone bad, benefits from the more intimate setting, said Runge, who directed the production.
“In deaf culture, there’s a lot of drama, just as there is in the hearing culture. This is about dating, break-up, dating, break-up,” Runge said. “It shows that it’s the same. It’s about a man who’d dated four different girls in four different states. He’s flying to each state to try to fix the conflicts before he gets married.”
It’s an intimate, immediate type of narrative, a story rooted in everyday drama and casual interactions. The dialogue-heavy play demands plenty of ASL, a feature that aligns with the company’s larger mission.
“I really want to get more people to learn ASL, to learn the deaf culture,” Runge said. “It’s good to have the hearing interpreters, to have them involved in a professional theater. I want to have people come from out of state to support the theater. That’s my ambition.”
“Some Girl(s)”
8 p.m., Oct. 12 and 13
2 p.m., Oct. 14
Vintage Theatre
1468 Dayton St.Tickets start at $20.
Information: 970-373-5266 or rmdeaftheatre.com.
Congrautlations, keep up your hard working, I admired you alot for your efforts and striving for your goals n for the deaf actors and actresses, too. God bless your theatre.