TRAVERSE CITY — While very different stories, both “The Little Prince” and “The Man Who Fell To Earth” center around aliens arriving to Earth, seeking something, to find themselves an audience to humans.
“They both experience the best and worst of humanity, so they see humans as being these beautiful things and also being these really complicated things, capable of hurting each other,” said Lesley Alicia Tye, director, writer, and co-founder of Mashup Rock & Roll Musical.
The troupe presents “The Little Prince and the Man From Mars” starting at 7:30 p.m. tonight at The Match, with evening shows Jan. 10, 16, 17 and a 3 p.m. matinee Sunday, Jan. 11.
Tye wrote the original script in 2018, two years after David Bowie and Prince died amid what felt like a “fractured” time in America — and also drew inspiration from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s quote from “The Little Prince:” “Language is the source of misunderstandings.”
“The other inspiration was trying to understand why things were so difficult and a lot of us were just feeling worried about the future, and just sort of our inability to understand how much we don’t listen to each other as a people,” Tye said. “There’s this notion of communication, of not always hearing each other and not always trying to understand the meaning behind it.”
Tye’s adaptation follows a group of survivors at the end of the world, banding together and bonding over the apocalypse. But communication remains at the crux of the story — so much so that the 2018 version was fully American Sign Language-interpreted, a first for the group, and the 2026 version goes further.
Tye worked with Stage Hands owner James Cech, Tom Hoxsie of LIS’N (Local Interpreter Services Network), and Brian Cheslik, director of Deaf Austin Theatre, to create the experience.
“I think one of the things that I really learned from the first time was there’s a difference between being accessible and being inclusive,” Tye said. “Being accessible means you have the tools that if somebody shows up who needs those tools, they have those tools available. Being inclusive means actually inviting them to the table and making something that’s meaningful for them and that they feel speaks to them, or that involves them.”
The matinee production will feature Cech, performing in ASL, who assisted Tye in planning out this show, alongside deaf performer and interpreter Rosina Switras.
To be a bilingual production, they hashed out different ways to align resources to make sure hearing and deaf performers communicate effectively during rehearsals and performances. ASL also adds a performative element, Cech said.
“If you were to imagine a bilingual show with English and Spanish, there’s only so much auditory space. You have people talking over each other. With sign language, because we’re only taking up a visual space, we can enhance the performance,” Cech said. “So even if a person does not know sign language, there’s an extra layer of understanding, emphasis, artistry and color, that seeing the sign language performer and hearing the words and seeing the actors and incorporating the movement, that we bring.”
This elevates the experience for the average patron, and pushes their perceptions of theatre and accessibility, especially in a place like northern Michigan, he said. It’s good to “bump into” considering what another person’s life is like and how they interact with the world.
“The northern Michigan deaf community struggles daily to get interpreters, so I really commend Lesley for kind of having this inspiration and then committing to it, to see it through to the end,” Cech said.
Traverse City’s Anthony Ascione, a returning cast member, looks forward to working alongside Switras onstage for the pivotal “fox scene.”
“It’s the heart of the whole thing,” Ascione said. “… I think that representation in general is one of the most important things that we can do, especially in something like live theater, especially in entertainment, something that’s supposed to appeal to everybody. Why wouldn’t we want to try to make it as appealing and accessible to everybody as we can?”
After the eight-year gap between the two shows, Ascione will reprise his character, which he notes was closely written for his own personality, as were many of the other personas. For the cast members, the show is not just an opportunity to be onstage, but to reunite and recognize the growth of castmates.
“We’re all such different people than we were then — in such different places in our lives. The really cool thing is seeing how people have matured. In people’s acting, they’re doing different things, making different choices and it’s just a lot of fun to watch,” he said.
One aspect of Mashup Rock & Roll’s mission is to promote stories that highlight inclusion, acceptance, and space for voices unheard, and for Tye, this production highlighting bonding across all barriers does all of the above.
The show partners with Disability Network Northern Michigan and is at the Mashup’s new venue, The MATCH, at 1728 S. Garfield Avenue in the Cherryland Center. Tickets on sale at https://mashuprockandrollmusical.com/