Theatre by and for the Deaf

Abstract

At the Tenth Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf in Helsinki in July I987, I8 performance companies composed primarily of amateur deaf actors from Europe and Japan demonstrated a wide range of performance methods. The performances were part of a week of activities. Two thousand delegates from around the world participated in lectures and discussions on scientific, sociological, and cultural issues of deafness. The performances took place in the evenings, three or four a night, after a full day of scholarly sessions. Groups experimented with mime, formalized gesture, and sign language in performing everything from classical Japanese comedy Monty Python-like satire Euripides' Electra. With one exception, there was no accompanying spoken text; the focus was entirely on visual performance. Although some groups performed within fairly conventional constraints-translating a word-based narrative into sign or using traditional mime gestures-others experimented with narrative, sequence, and multiple images. The performances differed in a number of ways from the more familiar type of deaf theatre practiced in the United States. The most widely known technique for making performances accessible the deaf in the U.S. is sign language interpretation of spoken texts. Through the placement of interpreters either at the side of the stage or within the performance space, deaf audience members are presented with a simultaneous signed/visual translation of the words of speaking actors. In this method, hearing actors and hearing interpreters include deaf spectators in performances that are largely created for the hearing. A second set of techniques creates performance opportunities for deaf actors. Best exemplified by the National Theatre of the Deaf, a federally funded touring company based at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Connecticut, these performances feature deaf actors who communicate through American Sign Language and signing, that is, alteration or expansion of conventional signs for dramatic effect. The goal of theatrical signing is create a more dynamic sign or one that incorporates miming of the concept behind the sign. The sign may be extended in a number of ways. Signs made with one hand may be made with two hands, and the path of the movement exaggerated. For example the sign to view is a V made with the index and middle fingers moving out slightly from the right eye. In theatricalizing the sign, one could use both hands make Vs coming from both eyes and move the Vs well over