DOWNTOWN — The tension in the garage was familiar to anyone who’s ever been at a play rehearsal.
The garage, located in a house north of Montana Avenue, had been dressed up to look like an outdoor café. Actors ran over lines and worked out blocking, sometimes repeating lines and tweaking movements, nailing their parts in a heartbeat.
But, unlike most other actors, everyone in this company was visually impaired. Most were totally blind.
These actors were part of Theatre by the Blind, a performing arts program for visually impaired adults. The program is part of CRE Outreach, a West Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that uses theater to reach visually impaired individuals and at-risk youth.
The program was created by Christina Kokobo, who took people from the Braille Institute and put them on stage where they engaged an audience and told the stories of their lives.
After Kokobo died in 2007, the program fell into the hands of artistic director Greg Shane and executive director Bryan Caldwell.
Shane and Caldwell, who had a mutual background in theater, turned the program into a touring group that produced and put on self-written shows.
Although most years the characters and stories are generated by the actors, this time the source is from outside the group.
The work is “Private Eyes,” written by Stephen Dietz, a thriller that presents a play within a play about an actor whose wife appears to be having an affair with a director.
“I thought it would be a really interesting challenge,” Shane said.
Although Shane has worked with a variety of people, from the mentally ill to life sentence prisoners, this work is personal for him. Shane was born blind in one eye, he said.
“I think I have an understanding of what it’s like to be blind and I have a sensitivity to it that allows me to work the way that I do with these actors,” he said.
Scripts are provided in braille or are recorded onto CDs so that the actors can memorize them. Blocking is worked out using rubber mats on the floor and pieces of furniture and other props as landmarks across the stage.
And apparently, the work pays off. Audience reaction has been very good, Shane said.
“People are so moved,” he said.
One important element happens after the show, he said.
“One of our actors is highlighted and speaks for the rest of the group,” Shane said.
The actor tells their own story, which further connects them with the audience, he said.
It’s also proof of how far some of the actors have come.
“I honestly think the program has changed their lives,” he said.
Leela Kazerouni is one of the actors whose life was changed, Shane said.
“She could not speak when she started.”
Kazerouni, who lives in Glendale, was born with limited vision, but has been completely blind since she was a child.
She has been with the program for the past 15 years, since its beginning, she said, when Kokobo drafted her into the program.
“She pushed me and broke me out of the shell I was in,” Kazerouni said.
Even after Kokobo died, Kazerouni stayed with the company.
“I’ll continue it as long as I can,” she said.
Kazerouni’s parents were actors, so Kazerouni claims that acting is more than therapeutic, it’s in her blood.
“It helps me to be a different person for a moment, to be on stage,” she said.
For Hollywood resident Tori Taite, the company presents a chance to hone his acting skills for his dream job: voice-over work.
“This is the best way to learn the craft,” he said.
Taite was born blind, but thanks to surgery he received when he was about 3 years old, he has limited vision.
Although he has some light perception, he’ll never be able to drive a car, he said.
In the group’s last play, “Decider,” Tatie played an evil henchman. While he said that role was fun, he is glad to be playing a more complex part in the new play: Matthew, an actor whose wife is cheating on him.
“This one is a little more challenging,” he added.
Taite has only been with the company for three years, but will stay as long as he continues to grow as an actor, he said.
South Los Angeles native Arnett Coates has been with the company much longer than that; in fact, he says that he’s forgotten just how long.
“When you’re having fun, you lose track of what you’re doing,” he said.
Coates was born with vision, but gradually lost it during his youth, his sight going from bad to worse before giving out altogether, he said.
Coates, who acted in high school, says that the program has given him courage and confidence in himself, all while providing him with an opportunity to do something he loves: expressing himself and interacting with other people.
“It’s good to do something you enjoy doing; this, I enjoy,” he said.
“Private Eyes” runs Saturday, March 10, through Sunday, April 8, at the Promenade Playhouse. For more information, visit www.creoutreach.org.
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