(Richard vocalizing) (Richard vocalizing) - Hi, I am Josué Martinez and I'm a student here at Central Gwinnett School of the Arts.

- Hello, my name is Richard Appenzeller.

- (Josué) I grew up with no access to language, so the only way that I could feel, like, free was when I would go outside and perform and I would dance, and it made me feel understood, and that just was everything for me.

I didn't know that I wanted to do musical theater.

I just knew that I wanted to do something with music and expressing my stories.

That's all musical theater in one.

So when I came here to SOTA, that was the perfect fit for me.

- I'm Lilliangina Quiñones.

I am the head of theater at School of the Arts at Central Gwinnett High School.

Students have to audition to get into our program.

We accept between 12 and 15 students per year into the theater department.

The announcement came out on Playbill, "Hadestown School Edition" has been released.

I thought, "I think we can do this."

Josué has been in our program since he was a freshman.

I knew that he was going to audition.

I had a feeling I'd find a place for him somewhere in the cast 'cause he's wonderful.

I love working with him.

He immerses himself so fully in every moment and in everything that he does.

He had a callback.

Everybody in the room was in tears, and I just knew that I was gonna have to figure out a way for him to be the one to tell this story.

There was no question.

It's a sung through musical, and so I was just thinking of a voice that makes you feel things.

Richard is just that person.

He has a really broad depth of emotion.

(Richard vocalizing) (Lilliangina) Josué did the entire show in ASL, and Richard served as the voice of Orpheus.

- (Richard) When we got our cast setting in stone that Josué was gonna be Orpheus and I was gonna play his voice, my immediate thought was, "This is gonna be one interesting, creative show."

(group gasps) - (actor) And the boy turned to gold.

(group gasps) because he thought no one could hear.

(group gasps) But everybody knows that walls have ears.

(group gasps) ♪ And the workers heard him ♪ If it's true what they say ♪ With their hammers swinging - (Josué) Orpheus is touched by the gods with the gift that he has the ability to communicate through ASL.

And ASL was the language that brought humanity together.

So when people from the above world went to the underworld, they forgot ASL.

I have to use my language to help them to bring the people together.

When the cast list was released, the first thing I told Ms.

Q, "We need an ASL choreographer.

Okay?"

Because I cannot translate all these songs in the show myself.

♪ Show the way so we can see ♪ Show the way the world could be ♪ ♪ If you can do it, so can she - (Josué) It's complicated with the language, translating the words in the song.

You can't just read it and then sign word for word.

That's not how it works.

You have to be able to read through it, okay, and then dissect it and discuss it.

What does that word mean?

What does it look like in ASL?

The ASL choreographer was necessary.

- (ASL Choreographer) I'm gonna go ahead and teach you your lines and what you're supposed to do.

(Josué) Remember, their job was to analyze the scripts and the lyrics, come up with the signs, make it flow to make sure that it fit the music, and making sure that the concept was correct.

ASL, it is a beautiful language.

It's visual.

One sign means so many different things.

It could mean so many different things.

I wanted to do this show justice.

I wanted to represent my Deaf community the best that I could.

♪ And you, and you ♪ I believe our answer matters more than anything they say ♪ ♪ We stand and listen - (Richard) How we got the flow of how our characters work with each other.

- (Josué) We would look and sit in front of each other and I would sign and he would sing for me.

- (Richard) He would get a sense of how I sing a certain lyric or a certain phrase, and I would get the sense of how he would sign it.

That just kind of gave the flow and the balance between my voice and his sign.

(Richard vocalizing) - (Josué) I would tell him my thoughts of what I was thinking, my perspective of my character, and we were like throwing all of our thoughts, like brainstorming, making some soup and stew, you know, mixing it up from his head and my head and see if it tastes good.

Yeah, that's good.

It works.

And if it was bad, we were like, throw it back.

Let's try it again and do something different.

♪ Wait for me ♪ I'm coming ♪ Wait, I'm coming - (Josué) Working with Richy, he's very open-minded.

He's willing to change if I ask him to do something.

He's willing to give me more ideas, and that's what made our role really just blend beautifully and flow so well.

You're a good collaborator.

- (Josué) Hello!

(Lilliangina) Hi, Josué!

(Josué) The song is called "I Met a Girl" from "Bells Are Ringing."

(Lilliangina) All right, let's do it.

(Josué) ♪ I met a girl, a marvelous girl ♪ ♪ She rarer than uranium and fairer than a pearl ♪ ♪ I found me a treasure and I want to shout ♪ ♪ This is what I'm getting so excited about ♪ ♪ I met a girl and I fell in love today ♪ - (Lilliangina) Yay!

Thank you!

Good job.

Good job.

How you feeling?

- (Josué) I feel proud and I'm grateful for all of my SOTA teachers.

They were there to encourage me and to teach me my gift.

I didn't know I had one.

I kind of shut that place out of my life, and then when I came here, it slowly started to open and I was able to expose that gift.

- (Lilliangina) The person that I've had the pleasure of working with this last semester is somebody who just wakes up in the morning and decides today we'll have challenges and I will just figure it out.

Give your gift in the places that it's earned.

Don't forget to text me all your updates, 'cause I wanna know everything.

- (Josué) Right now, I've been thinking about my future and I'm going to Pace University for musical theater program with the BFA.

I'm excited to have all these new opportunities to grow as a human and as an artist.