BWW Interviews: DUMMY HOY playwright Allen Meyer on bringing the play to a wider audience

The Signal Season of Dummy Hoy, by Allen Meyer and Michael Nowak, is the tale of William Ellsworth Hoy, one of the first deaf baseball players to make it to the major league - and the man some people credit with the creation of baseball signals. The play opened last week at Lakewood Theatre Company in Old Hickory, running through August 27, in a production directed by John Carpenter.

Featuring onstage "shadow interpreting," as well as conventional sign language interpretation, The Signal Season of Dummy Hoy delves into Hoy's struggles for acceptance, friendship and understanding among his fellow players.

"The Signal Season of Dummy Hoy is more than just a baseball play. Baseball simply serves as the backdrop for a play about overcoming obstacles and changing the minds and hearts of people through actions that speak louder than words," Carpenter explains.

As required by the playwrights, deaf actor Brice Pruyn makes his Lakewood stage debut in the role of Dummy Hoy, staying true to the story told by the play. Meyer explains that he and his co-writer, Nowak, ask that a deaf actor always be cast in the role of Dummy Hoy to further underscore the work's message.

For Lakewood - for Middle Tennessee theater, as a whole - "this is a groundbreaking production," says Carpenter. "We have assembled a talented cast with years of experience in community and professional theatre."

Meyer, who has visited with cast and crew members at Lakewood and will be on-hand for the final weekend of performances, took time to talk about the play with us and to offer some further insight into the legendary baseball players whose life provides its subject matter.

How did you first become aware of Dummy Hoy? I have a deaf daughter who is now 32. I became very active in her upbringing, and eager to make sure she as educated as a hearing child (which is a great challenge when you have a deaf child). In those days (the early 1980s), there was little available for deaf children in terms of books, TV  (captioning was in its infancy). I acquired six VHS tapes from Gallaudet University (the college of the deaf in Washington, D.C.; the "Mecca" of higher education for the deaf in the world). These were called Rainbow's End, and they were kind of like the Sesame Street for deaf children. One of the shows had a vignette about William Ellsworth Hoy and his connection to the signals in baseball.

What prompted you to write a play about him? I am a huge baseball fan, and was stunned to learn about Hoy. Actually I became a bit angered, as baseball is full of folklore and stories such as Hoy's. Why didn't I know about him; especially after finding out what a good ballplayer he actually was? As an aside, our play takes place in 1886 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, which was his first year of professional ball. He had a long career, including becoming the first batter to ever come to bat for the Chicago White Sox when they joined the American League in 1901. I needed to do something with this story...it just needed exposure and to be told. I met his heirs; they took a liking to me despite having had many promises made to them by Hollywood that a property would be made out of Hoy's story. It never happened; they believed my promise, and signed the rights to the story over to me.

How many other productions of your play have been mounted? We opened in Chicago in 1987. My writing partner Michael Nowak is a Chicago actor and radio personality (he currently has a gardening show). We had a terrific first run at The Commons. But as you know, plays take time to develop. The irony, and forgive me for being immodest, is that our play was too good. That is to say, we were immediately offered a slot at Off-Broadway's Hudson Guild Theatre (which no longer exists). They saw the play in Chicago, and actually replaced a play in their next season with ours. We couldn't say no!

So a short five months later, we opened in New York City. Michael spent a lot of time in New York doing rewrites and we had a very credible production with some high-powered talent: sold out for six weeks; very good reviews, standing ovations, feature articles in the New York Times, etc., etc.

However as good as the reviews were, the review in the New York Times was not so. Not to sound "sour grape-ish," but the review was poorly written, it misnamed and misquoted characters. But it was the New York Times. So despite our lead actor winning an Obie, the New York Times ' review injured our plays' future, and to this day we are still climbing and clawing back. Subsequently, we have had extremely successful professional productions in Portland, Oregon and Los Altos, California, and  community theatre productions and eight college and high school productions. Oh, what joy it is to see high school kids do the play.

What do you hope to accomplish through this play? What are your goals for it? Simply put, we want it to be seen. I hope you get a chance to see it. To a person, audiences are surprised as the play is "not what they expected." It is a poignant comedy, a fun, family oriented play. The more it is seen, the better the chance it has to be seen again. And then, who knows? Everyone says it should be a movie. I can't think beyond just wanting it to be seen, and for Michael and me to know it still has "that chance" to be produced in bigger venues, including television or cinema.

Does Dummy Hoy get the attention he should be getting from baseball fans? Not at all. First of all, you need to know that it was his choIce To be called "Dummy." He lived to 99, and threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the fourth game of the 1961 World Series in Cincinnati. He was 99, and the oldest living ex-major leaguer. He was interviewed every year on his birthday, and the reporters called him Mr. Hoy. He would bang his cane as say, "call me Dummy, as always." In the official Major League player registry, he is listed as Dummy Hoy. We do explain that it was his choIce To be called Dummy in one of the scenes in the play. In this way, the audience understands that we are not being politically incorrect.

Until the last few years, most "famous" baseball players, and those inducted in the Hall of Fame, were home run hitters, high batting average players and great Pitchers. Hoy was a classic lead-off batter. He has great stats for a player of his position, and was an upstanding person. Bill James, the baseball historian, called Hoy "the most admired superstar of the 1890's." His wife knew Helen Keller, he became the foreman of a deaf crew at a major Goodyear factory in Akron. He should be in the Hall of Fame regardless of his deafness.

What was his most significant contributions to baseball? While some think he actually invented the signals in baseball, Michael and I refer to it as apocryphal. I believe he at least contributed to the evolution of signing in baseball. Although the deaf community strongly identifies with Hoy as a role model and that he actually invented the signals, there is no specific data on how they were invented. I think they just evolved. It doesn't matter with regard to the play; we call it "fiction based on fact." As to his contributions:  A) He was a great player; and holds some unprecedented records. B) He was a gentleman in an era where baseball was played by drunkards and ruffians. C) He stood for dignity, and as a deaf person he made sure that no one related to him with xenophobia. He attended all baseball events, until his death. There are photos of him teaching signs to the greats of his day, including Connie Mack. He was extremely bright and lingual.

I know you've been to Nashville for rehearsals at Lakewood...what did you think? I am always touched by how the casts bond together. This is not an easy play to do; there are a lot of stage directions and unconventional theater techniques. The various casts, as at Lakewood, quickly realize this is a special play. They also realize, as challenging as it is, it is an awful lot of fun to do. And clearly the more fun they have, the more dedicated they become. The funnier the play is, the more powerful the messages becomes. This is what is happening at Lakewood.

Michael and I insist that the role of Dummy Hoy be played by a deaf actor. This is not always easy, and Bryce will be a very good job (we do make exceptions for high schools and, on occasion, colleges).

What do you hope people take away from your play? Justice; justice. First and foremost, an evening of entertainment. Without that, nothing will follow. The comment I receive the most from audiences is that the play is "nothing like I expected." People expect the play to show the pitiful handicapped character overcoming whatever. Sure, there is some of that.

But this is a play about relationships, and juxtapositions of strengths and weaknesses. It is not a baseball play, per se. Audiences see a handful of parallel stories going on, not just Hoy's. Of course they all relate to Hoy, but they have their own subplots. I just hope people get more sensitized to deafness, non-verbal communication, their own fears and, perhaps, gain a little confidence in their perception of "the other."

Showtimes  for The Signal Season of Dummy Hoy are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. through August 27. All shows will be interpreted by sign-language interpreters from Hearing Bridges (formerly The League of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing). Tickets can be obtained at www.TicketsNashville.com, or a limited number of reservations are available through the Lakewood box office (615) 847-0934. Lakewood Theatre is located at 2211 Old Hickory Boulevard.

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