Adoptee
dramatizes
search
for his roots
The Frederick
Post
Frederick, Maryland
Friday, October 11, 1991
By Karen Gardner
Assistant Entertainment Editor
__KEYMAR — There's a strange
intensity in Christopher Eaves
as he melts into the role of Duckie,
standing in the living room of his
parents' home.
__"My
parents died in an accident
on the way from the hospital,"
he says in a Southern drawl,
standing clown-like with his feet
pointed out and his eyes darting
about, as if seeking approval.
Then Duckie starts to sing.
"It's the only thing they taught me
to do in the circus," he explains
in his drawl.
__Duckie
is Christopher Eaves'
creation, an adopted boy who
was taken in by the circus. He is
sort of an extended persona of
Mr. Eaves; he is the innocent
adopted child who wants to know
his biological roots.
__Duckie
is the protagonist of
"Birthmarks" a story of adoption
that combines movement, spoken
text, dance, video and song.
"Birthmarks" will be at Towson State
University's Mainstage Theater on
Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 14
and 15, at 8 p.m.
__In
character, Mr. Eaves not only
speaks, but moves fluidly. "I was
looking for a compromise between
physical gestures and using your
voice. It's a way of creating motions
through the whole body, using
muscles. I'm using my body
to speak."
__The
show stems from Mr. Eaves'
own experience searching for his
birth parents. Born 23 years ago
in Anne Arundel County, he was
adopted at the age of 2 by Carroll
and Rosalie Eaves, who then lived
in Walkersville.
__Two
years later, the couple
adopted another son, Steven,
also at age 2. The family lived
in Walkersville until the boys were
teen-agers, and then moved to
a small farm near here to open a
nursery, Sunnybank
Farm.
__They
were open to the boys about
their adopted status, and told them
what they knew about their heritage.
In Christopher's case, it wasn't much.
__When
it came time to choose a
career, he chose acting rather than
following in his parents' footsteps.
A Francis Scott Key High School
graduate, he earned a fine arts
degree at Towson State University
and then moved to New York
to enter the fledgling world of
movement theater.
__"Birthmarks"
is his second original
production. The central character is
swept into a "This is Your Life"
episode, and he's first introduced
to his birth mother, actually
a mannequin.
__Duckie
carries on a one-sided
conversation with her, and offers to
show her what he's learned while in
the circus. The action then shifts
to a video, where a teen mother,
played by Clea Montville, and her
teen-age boyfriend, played by
John Wehr, discuss the birth
of their child.
__Ms.
Montville also appears live,
as a crimson-draped, surrealistic
figure Duckie catches a glimpse of,
but can never reach.
__A second video is shown, this one
of a series of rallies put on by the
Council for Equal Rights in Adoption
petitioning for a law that would open
records for adopted children when
they reach 18.
__During
the video, the stage is
filled with chrysanthemums and Ms.
Montville appears on stage in a long
gown watering the flowers. "She's the
symbol of all women who give up
their children," Mr. Eaves said.
__She
disappears, and the flowers
continue to grow, the symbol that
adopted children do grow without
their parents.
__After
the performance a panel
discussion will center on the issue
of open or sealed adoption records,
and people on both sides of the
fence will talk. The audience will be
encouraged to ask questions.
__Like
many adopted children,
Mr. Eaves believes in open records.
"When a child turns 18, you should
be able to know you genealogy
and family history."
__Adoptive
parents need to know
this information upon adoption,
to know risks of family disease,
he said.
__Mr.
Eaves was working on his
production when he began seeking
information on his birth parents.
He knew he was born in Anne
Arundel County, at St. Agnes
Hospital.
__He
thinks the urge to find his
parents began as he entered
his teen years. "I don't re-
member thinking about it a great
deal, but in retrospect, I thought
about it more than I realized,"
he said, "Mom says it did affect me
more than I remember."
__At
the age of 10, he got the per-
forming bug, something neither of
his adoptive parents, had, and, as
it turned out, something neither
of his birth parents had. But he
wondered about his parents, and
conjured up a story of a Naval
Academy cadet and a Catholic
high school girl.
__"That's
because I was born near
Annapolis, and in a Catholic hospital.
Then I started making up the duke
and duchess stories."
__Last
winter, he called the Anne
Arundel County Department of
Social Services and learned that
a woman, his birthmother, had
called seeking him in 1984.
A social worker called his mother
back to see if she was still
interested in finding her son.
She was.
__"They
will help you if both parties
are looking for each other," he said.
If that's not the case, the next step
for the adopted person is to petition
the court. "That would have been
my next step."
__He
called his mother, and talked
to her for several hours, and she
gave him the phone number of
his father. It turned out his parents
were high school students when his
mother became pregnant with
Christopher. His father had sug-
gested they marry and move to
West Virginia, where he had plenty
of extended family.
__But
his mother didn't want to get
married, and chose to give the baby
up for adoption.
__They
each went on to marry other
people. Today, he has three half-
sisters, two by his mother and one
by his father. He spent a day with
each of his birth parents recently.
__He
also learned that his birth
mother had been adopted.
Her mother had also become
pregnant as a teen-ager.
"It's a cycle that often gets per-
petuated," Mr. Eaves said.
__The
name Christopher was
given to him by his adoptive
parents; when he arrived, he
was called Louie Singer.
The name's origin is a mystery,
probably a product a foster family
stay, he said.
__He
has no memory of his early
life. "My first memory is when
Steven was adopted," he said.
"I ran back to get all the toys
out. I was so happy to have a
brother." That was when he was 4.
__He
doesn’t feel cut off from
his adoptive parents. In fact,
he said the meeting with his
birth parents has made him closer
to his adoptive parents. "I'm glad
I grew up where I did," he said.
"Mom and Dad are Mom and Dad."
He refers to his birth parents by
their first names.
__It
wasn't until he found his
natural parents, however, that
he began dreaming of having
children of his own.