San Diego (special) -- A Sign Upon Your Hand is a phrase taken from the V'ahavata prayer, as rendered from the Hebrew in Reform congregations such as Congregation Beth Israel: "Set these words which I command you this day upon your heart. Teach them faithfully to your children; speak of them in your home, and when you are away, when you lie down and when you arise. Bind them as a sign upon your hand..."

It is also the name of a play by Cara Freedman performed by Adam Stone and the Show BIS troupe of Congregation Beth Israel about a young man who is deaf and the special relationship he develops with a Hebrew school teacher who helps him prepare to recite that prayer and others for his bar mitzvah.

The play, presented last year to the Central Conference of American Rabbis, will serve as the finale of the two week long Festival of Learning sponsored by the Agency for Jewish Education. It will be performed at 4 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 14, at Temple Adat Shalom.

Stone, 17, a junior at Torrey Pines High School as well as at the twice weekly High School of Jewish Studies, is himself deaf. He brings to the part of Micah an authority that might elude a hearing actor. And thus, when Poway High School senior Josh Lamon--who plays teacher David Jeffries--and other cast members worked with Stone, they learned about deafness, even as the characters they portrayed also were learning.

In the play, Micah is the only quiet member of an otherwise unruly pre-bar mitzvah class which has been unable to retain a teacher. David Jeffries, a college student, has been talked into filling in as a teacher--and it is clear he would like to be anywhere else. But out of commitment to the principal, who is a friend of his mother's, he hands out assignments to the students, instructing them in the coming week to do a mitzvah. 

Impressed by Micah's determination to become a bar mitzvah, the novice teacher agrees to help him study for the rite--and the effect of doing a mitzvah is transformative for the teacher. Similarly, the impact of doing mitzvot on those students who took their assignment seriously also is life-changing, especially upon one student who helped prepare and serve food to the homeless--a project in which real life students of Congregation Beth Israel are regularly involved.

As in any Cara Freedman play, A Sign Upon Your Hand is brought alive with dance and songs with wonderful lyrics, including the opening number "Gotta Do a Mitzvah Now!"

Feed the hungry Clothe the naked Study Torah Gotta do a mitzvah now! Free the captives Build a Temple Sound the shofar Gotta do a mitzvah now! Don't wait to save someone from danger You're not allowed to harm the stranger Do not judge, hold a grudge, Gotta pay your help on time, be fair as a money changer ....

Put a mezuzzah on your door Give tzedakah to the poor Don't destroy your fruit trees even during times of war. Do not take God's name in vain Don't say anything profane When you have a holy text, do not erase God's name!

These and other songs showcase the considerable talent of Lamon, who has performed in several school and local professional productions, amassing such performance credits as Joseph and the
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Brighton Beach, and The Unsinkable Molly Brown. After  graduation next June, Lamon plans to move to Philadelphia to enroll in musical comedy courses at the University of the Arts.

For Stone, who is not an actor, the music and dance were more problematic. In fact, before the play went into production, some thought the idea was even crazy. Freedman said the play grew out of another play in which she decided to have the cast sign a song instead of dance to it. An interpreter who taught the signs to the class told her in passing about Stone's bar mitzvah and about Simcha Ben Ami, the interpreter who helped him learn the Hebrew.

Freedman said she responded that she would write her next musical about someone who is deaf studying for bar mitzvah. But the interpreter promptly told her, "You are out of your mind, you cannot write a musical based on anyone who is deaf, based on deaf people; it is not part of their culture."

Nevertheless, Freedman persisted, even though a deaf person who had accompanied the interepreter also protested that "this is stupid, wrong." 

"She came (last year) to the premiere at the Lyceum and she went out of her mind; she was so excited," Freedman said.

After writing a script, Freedman approached Stone's mother-- Jill Stone, who is president of Jewish Family Service and therefore well known to the entire Jewish community, about arranging a meeting at the Fish Market in Del Mar with the high school student.

In an online interview with HERITAGE, conducted via AOL, Stone said upon learning about the project, "I was excited because it would involve a Deaf role and in a Jewish environment." He capitalized the word Deaf explaining to me that "Deaf is the deaf culture; deaf is the
auditory condition."

Freedman's script, while inspired by Stone's story, did not parallel it. "It isn't even close to my life at all, but it's a very general (and dramatized) view on basically what a deaf Jewish person has to go through and the kindness of others."

He said that "the loneliness, the isolation of Micah is true. The inexperience of the teacher is true." On learning that Micah was deaf, teacher David Jeffries talks louder. "Speaking louder is usually the first reaction people have when meeting a deaf person," Stone said.

In the play, Micah initially sits quietly while the other students dance. Stone says if he were in such a class, he probably would have tried to fit in more. In fact, he said, he suggested that Micah be attempting to dance with the students in the opening performance number, instead of
sitting so quietly, but Freedman's view prevailed that for dramatic purposes the character needed to be set apart.

In the play's final production number, however, Stone actually does dance with the group. Even though he cannot hear the music, he could feel it. "As for the dance steps, I'd have to look at others and try to copy them," he said.

Lamon said that he was quite nervous before meeting Stone. He was not at all certain that he could act well with a deaf actor. "I was actually pretty scared," he said. "I wasn't sure how well I was going to be able to deal with this...but we literally clicked. He has a special way
about him where he clicks with everybody."

Lamon said actors need to be able to communicate to each other their ideas about how a scene should be played. "We both had ideas and the way we generally communicated was by writing things down, or mouthing out words," he said. "We were learning from day one." Eventually, he said, they learned not only to communicate off-stage but on-stage as well.

Freedman said she believes Stone "is a phenomenal actor and has an unbelievable way, just with his eyes, of pulling everyone into how he is feeling -- it is truly amazing."

He paired well with Lamon "who is fabulous," Freedman said.

Simcha Ben Ami, the interpreter who helped Stone prepare for his bar mitzvah, adds dimension to the play by signing the entire script from the wings.With its message and real-life chemistry, the play is education in action -which appealed to the Agency for Jewish Education which sough a
"family event" to culminate the Festival of Learning, according to Gail Littman, an AJE staff member.

So strong is the play as a teaching vehicle that a q&a session with the director and actors will be scheduled along with a session to teach some sign language immediately after the performance, Littman said.

Not bad praise for a play which is still an unfinished product. Written by Freedman to be performed within less than 30 minutes--the time allocated by the CCAR conference--A Sign Upon Your Hand lacks an entire middle act. 

The plot goes from identifying a problem (a class which is bored, and unruly) to students and teacher who are transformed by doing mitzvot, without viewers ever seeing the process unfold. We are told about what happened, but we don't see it -- a gap which Freedman
recognizes and would like to fill with new songs and action, provided there are future audiences in store for the play.

In addition to the mitzvot included in Freedman's song, a 614th mitzvah (one not among the 613 in the Torah) also is taught, not by word, but by example in the play: "Teach sincerely." Students, we
learn, will reflect the sincerity of their teachers.