On Good Morning America this morning Rosie O'Donnell is speaking out on the problem of auditory processing disorders, and I wasn't paying attention until I heard them reading an excerpt that they offered up to illustrate the sounds a sufferer of the syndrome hears. It was H.L. Chase's version of Little Red Riding Hood: "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut." Chase wrote a number of pieces collected in the book Anguish Languish, illustrating how words in English often sound like other English words. If you arrange them well, you can effectively tell a story, as long as you can hear the sounds and not pay attention to the spelling. I thought it was a strange use of the story, and they gave no credit to Chase.
1 comment:
Dear Horseshoe 7,
Since you’re clearly a fan of The Anguish Languish/Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, I thought you’d enjoy the following link:
An Anguish Languish Lesson 11/3/2008
9 min - Nov 15, 2008 -
Ladle Rat Rotten Hut in the Anguish Languish, as originated by Professor Howard L. Chace and translated by a mysterious "Sergei" individual....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl7_J-reLxg -
It was about six years ago while studying Robin Williams' (a female writer -not the Actor) Non-Designer's Design Book, that I discovered Howard L. Chace's Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.
It was a series of wonderful discoveries because:
it slowly dawned on me that these were not just random words . . .
it slowly dawned on me that this was a story . . .
it slowly dawned on me that I knew this story . . .
The moment I knew that it was LRRH, -everything started to fall into place, and boy was it fun!
I've tried (and succeeded) to include that sense of discovery in this performance. The audience has the opportunity to see, hear and speak the Anguish Languish, which helps them grasp it from three directions.
Thanks
Drew Letchworth
PS I have done some work with the 'other' Robin Williams. I played his incompetent lawyer in Mrs. Doubtfire
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