An unforgettable love story inspired by one of the most romantic movies of all time. Stephen Sachs directs Deaf actors Deanne Bray (Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, Heroes) and Troy Kotsur (title role in Cyrano at the Fountain, Big River on Broadway) in Sachs’ newest play, inspired by the screenplay for Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter. The world premiere of Arrival & Departure will open on July 14 and continue through September 30 at the Fountain Theatre. The cast also features hearing actors Jessica Jade Andres, Adam Burch, Brian Robert Burns, Shon Fuller, Kyra Kotsur, Aurelia Myersand Stasha Surdyke.
In Sachs’ new spin on the classic 1945 British film, a Deaf man (Kotsur) and a hard-of-hearing woman (Bray), two married strangers, meet accidentally in a New York City subway station. As their casual friendship develops into something deeper, each is forced to confront how their simmering relationship could forever change their lives and the lives of those they love.
“A train station is a place of transition, a place people go when they’re on their way to someplace else,” notes Sachs. “‘Arrival & Departure’ is not only a travel term. It expresses the journey of change that the people in this play are experiencing. What happens when you find your soul mate, but the circumstances of life get in the way?”
Kostsur and Bray are married in real life, and Sachs wrote the play with them in mind.
Deanne Bray and Troy Kotsur
“This is my valentine to the two of them,” he says. “But the characters they portray aren’t the only ones seeking human connection in the play. Other storylines interweave through the piece. Each character has a reason to reach out to someone.”
The 1945 classic film Brief Encounter, directed by David Lean with a screenplay by Noël Coward and starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, was named “the most romantic film ever made” according to 101 industry experts polled by Time Out London. The Film Society of Lincoln Center named it “one of the most achingly romantic films ever made.”
The play is performed simultaneously in spoken English and American Sign Language with additional use of open captioning, so that both Deaf and hearing audiences can enjoy the production.
The creative team for Arrival & Departure includes set designer Matthew G. Hill, lighting designer Donny Jackson, video designer Nick Santiago, composer and sound designer Peter Bayne, costume designer Michael Mullen, prop master Michael Navarro, movement director Gary Franco and ASL masters Lisa Hermatz and Jevon Whetter. The production stage manager is Emily Lehrer. Simon Levy, Deborah Culver and James Bennett produce for the Fountain Theatre. Executive producers are Karen Kondazian; Diana Buckhantz and The Vladimir and Araxia Buckhantz Foundation; and Carrie Chassin and Jochen Haber. Producing underwriters include Dorothy and Stanley Wolpert; Suzanne and Don Zachary; Lois Tandy; Debbi and Ashley Posner; and The Howard and Helen Family Foundation.
Arrival & Departure is supported, in part, by generous grants from the David Lee Foundation, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
Deanne Bray was born deaf and has been bilingual in American Sign Language and English since the age of two. She kicked off her acting career in 1991 at the Fountain Theatre, where Stephen Sachs directed her in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Bray is best known for the title role in Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, which ran for three seasons on the PAX network. She has appeared in numerous TV shows, including a recurring role on NBC’s Heroes alongside Milo Ventimiglia and Masi Oka. On stage, Deanne has been seen in Deaf West Theatre productions of Big River, Sleeping Beauty Wakes and My Sister in This House. A graduate of Gallaudet University, she has a Masters in Sign Language Education and a California K-12 Teaching Credential from CSUN. She currently teaches ASL at Oak Park High School.
Troy Kotsur has been acting and directing for over 24 years, earning multiple awards for his work on stage. Deaf since birth, he attended Gallaudet University, where he played basketball for three years before leaving to become a professional actor with the National Theatre of the Deaf. In 1994, Troy moved to Los Angeles and joined the company of Deaf West Theatre, where he has performed in countless productions. His television guest-starring roles include Criminal Minds, Scrubs, CSI: NY and Sue Thomas F.B.Eye in a recurring role (starring alongside Deanne Bray) that became a fan-favorite. In film, he stars in Wild Prairie Rose and in the upcoming Inside Track, and he has had notable supporting roles in The Number 23 with Jim Carrey, Universal Signs and Father’s Day Breakfast. He directed the award-winning independent film No Ordinary Hero: The Superdeafy Movie, the first film in the history of SAG commercial feature films to be directed by a Deaf director and to be executive-produced exclusively by Deaf executive producers. Troy’s stage credits include the Tony Award-winning run of Big River on Broadway, as well as starring roles in Deaf West Theatre productions of American Buffalo (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award nominee), Our Town at The Pasadena Playhouse, Cyrano at the Fountain (L.A. Drama Critic’s Circle Award for best actor, Ovation Award nominee), A Streetcar Named Desire (L.A. Drama Critics Circle and LA Weekly awards) and Of Mice and Men (LA Weekly Award for best actor).
Stephen Sachs is an award-winning playwright, director, producer and the co-artistic director of the Fountain Theatre, which he co-founded with Deborah Culver in 1990. He recently adapted and directed a celebrity reading of the screenplay for All the President’s Men at Los Angeles City Hall starring Bradley Whitford, Joshua Malina and Jeff Perry. His stage adaptation of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric (Stage Raw Award at Fountain Theatre) inaugurated Center Theatre Group’s Block Party at the Kirk Douglas Theatre and was chosen to represent Los Angeles theater for Grand Park’s new Our L.A. Voices Arts Festival. His play Bakersfield Mist enjoyed a three-month run on London’s West End starring Kathleen Turner and is now being produced in regional theaters across the country, translated into other languages and performed worldwide. Other plays include Cyrano (L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, Best Adaptation), Miss Julie: Freedom Summer (Fountain Theatre, Vancouver Playhouse, Canadian Stage Company, L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award), Central Avenue (PEN USA Literary Award finalist), Sweet Nothing in My Ear (PEN USA Literary Award finalist) and several others. He wrote the teleplay for Sweet Nothing in My Ear for Hallmark Hall of Fame which aired on CBS starring Marlee Matlin and Jeff Daniels. Sachs’ directing credits My Name is Asher Lev (L.A. premiere); Athol Fugard’s The Blue Iris (U.S. premiere); Bakersfield Mist (world premiere); Completeness by Itamar Moses, starring Jason Ritter; Side Man starring Christine Lahti; The Train Driver by Athol Fugard (U.S. premiere); Conor McPherson’s Shining City (L.A. premiere); the world premiere of Fugard’s Exits and Entrances at the Fountain (Ovation Award, L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award) and off-Broadway at Primary Stages; Fugard’s The Road to Mecca (L.A. premiere); Arthur Miller’s After the Fall (Ovation Award); Sweet Nothing in My Ear (world premiere); Hippolytos, inaugurating the outdoor classical theater at the Getty Villa in Malibu; and many others. Sachs was recently honored with a Certificate of Commendation from the Los Angeles City Council for “his visionary contributions to the cultural life of Los Angeles.”
The Fountain Theatre is one of the most successful intimate theaters in Los Angeles, providing a creative home for multi-ethnic theater and dance artists. The Fountain has won over 225 awards, and Fountain projects have been seen across the U.S. and internationally. Recent highlights include being honored for its acclaimed 25th Anniversary Season in 2015 by Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Los Angeles City Council; the inclusion of the Fountain’s Citizen: An American Lyric in Center Theatre Group’s Block Party at the Kirk Douglas Theatre and again, this year, as the centerpiece of Our L.A. Voices at Grand Park; and an all-star reading of All The President’s Men at Los Angeles City Hall. The Fountain’s most recent production, The Chosen, enjoyed rave reviews and ran for five sold-out months.
