Rob Winn Anderson talks about his journey back to Garden Theatre

Rob Winn Anderson has been a professional entertainer since age 13, working his way from Disney's Kids of the Kingdom to Tokyo Disneyland and back to Universal Orlando. While writing and directing for all the major theme parks, he's also been contributing creatively to Winter Garden's Garden Theatre since its opening gala, going on to serve as artistic director until he "burned out" and took a break in 2019. Anderson has returned as the Garden's consulting producing creative director, following last year's staff conflagration and season of outsourced shows.

I interviewed Anderson last week ahead of the opening weekend of Pippin (running through Sept. 15) — which incorporates two deaf actors and sign language into Stephen Schwartz's metaphorical musical — about his journey there and back again, as well as about ...

His personal connection to Pippin:

I was in high school, I guess, when it opened on Broadway. It became a favorite of mine at that time, and then two of the songs from the show were sung in our wedding. I had a real affinity for the show, [so] when I was looking at putting together this first season back, it was one I thought I really wanted to explore on my own.

His prior experience with sign language:

I studied ASL in college, and so I was really interested in the language. And then when I came to Disney, I was always enamored by the ASL interpreters for the shows. I felt they were a show unto themselves, [and] I thought to myself, I really would love to see that on stage as part of the show. And so it was in the back of my mind to do this for a very, very long time.

Working with Michelle Mary Schaefer, Director of Artistic Sign Language:

When you translate a script and lyrics into ASL, you take artistic license to do that. ... Obviously your goal is still to make sure that your deaf audiences can follow the story and be engaged, but it's not a direct interpretation. And so Michelle has been working for months now translating the entire show into what she calls her "gloss" [and] also working with our two deaf actors on their translations, because they carry such a huge load in the show.

Casting leading player Treshelle Edmond, who appeared on Broadway in Deaf West Theater's Spring Awakening revival:

She reached out to me last December or so, interested in All Shook Up. ... I wasn't able to accommodate that, but I told her, "I have a show next season that I'm really interested in. Can I come back to you?" What I am finding out is that there really aren't that many opportunities around the country for deaf actors. We are one of few that is allowing them to have a chance to do what they love to do and to be on stage.

Increasing audience accessibility:

We are also going to closed-caption the show, because ... there are quite a few people in the deaf community who don't sign and who want to see this show, [so] truly anyone can enjoy the show, whether you're hearing or deaf. We'll have one performance that will be ADI [audio description interpreted], and then there will also be two performances that are ASL interpreted.

It's an initiative that we want to try to continue, to really bring accessibility to the Garden stage. I feel like when you speak of DEI, A [for accessibility] is kind of left off a lot, and I really want to make sure that we are being truly diverse across the whole great spectrum of what it means to be diverse.

Returning to the Garden Theatre:

I love the theater. I've been around it since the beginnings. I've had a lot of passion for it and have seen what its potential was, so it broke my heart to see where things went and that people were hurt.

I knew that the board had done some work to really address internally the things that were being said. Also I know Keith Davenport, our CEO, well; I've known him for many, many years, I trust him completely. And Rich Taylor, the board president, is someone I've known for many decades; he was actually my best man in my wedding, so I know and trust him as well.

I was very clear there were some things that I needed to put into place that made me feel more comfortable with accepting the role again, and everybody agreed to that, and now we're just in trying to do the work.

Continuing controversy amid the theater community:

I know there's still a lot of feelings around it. I deal with it every day, when I'm trying to cast, when I'm trying to crew; it is something that we're all at the Garden extremely aware of. But we're trying to move forward and do the work, and we feel like that's going to really tell the story more than anything else. There's a lot that could be said, but words just don't really have as much impact as action.