`CODA' could turn into stage musical
The Oscar-nominated film “CODA,” in which a hearing child of deaf parents pursues a passion for singing, is being developed into a stage musical by Deaf West Theater, a highly regarded Los Angeles-based nonprofit with a strong track record in musical theater.
The project, which does not yet have a creative team or a production calendar, is a joint venture between the theater and two of the companies that produced the movie, Vendôme Pictures and Pathé Films.
“CODA,” written and directed by Sian Heder, is nominated for three Academy Awards, including best picture. The film is about a high school student torn between helping her family, which runs a fishing boat, and pursuing a newfound interest in singing; she is the only hearing member of her family. (CODA is an acronym for child of deaf adult.)
“`CODA' is unique among the entire canon of feature films in that it features us in our natural setting: among the world at large and among our own, often at home or in private settings,” DJ Kurs, the artistic director of Deaf West, said in an email. “As a Deaf person, I knew from the start that `CODA' would make a perfect musical: It addresses our relationship with music and how we move through the world of sound like immigrants in a foreign country, learning new, seemingly arbitrary rules on the fly.”
Deaf West, founded in 1991, is the nation's most prominent theater focusing on what it calls “Deafcentered storytelling,” and its productions are generally performed in both American Sign Language and spoken English by casts that include deaf and hearing artists.
The theater has previously staged five musicals, including two revivals that transferred to Broadway.
There are many connections between “CODA” and Deaf West; three members of the film's cast, including the Oscar nominee Troy Kotsur, as well as Daniel Durant and Marlee Matlin, have appeared in the company's shows.
Kurs said he hoped to stage an initial production of “CODA” within two years.