The 2003 national conference of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf was held in Chicago—perfectly timed after the release of the film version of the musical Chicago. The conference committee hired local Chicago performers Amy & Freddy (Amy Armstrong and Freddy Allen, along with some of their friends from Voltaire Theatre) to perform several songs from the musical Chicago.
Three RID members volunteered to interpret the performance in the shadowed style: Brooke Macnamara, Danny McDougall, and Kim Willett. Recordings of the performance are mixed together from several sources.
While most of the songs were performed as they were written for the musical, Cell Block Tango was adapted for the audience at RID. Having practiced the re-written dialogue for the song, Amy wasn’t sure what to expect: Is this funny? Everyone on stage was thrilled with the abundant laughter from the audience during the performance.
Danny McDougall, PhD, CSC — “Dr. Danny” — owns and manages TerpTheatre. Since 1986, he has interpreted in hundreds of plays, musicals and other performances on stage – most in the shadowed style. He teaches and lectures on the theory and practice of theatre interpreting. Danny is the chair of Sign Language Studies at Madonna University, and holds a PhD in Translation and Interpretation from Heriot-Watt University – where his dissertation explored the relationship between space and meaning during interpreted theatre performances.