THE PAST AND THE PRESENT OF DEAF THEATRES AROUND THE WORLD

BERNARD BRAGG (Based on a presentation at the first deaf theatre companies in the world. annual conference of National and We were impressed by each other's An accomplished actor, director, Worldwide DeafTheatres, Connecticut, high performance standards, distinct playwright and lecturer, Bernard August 2-12, 1995) styles, and by our respective innova­ Brag was born deaf into a deaffam­ tive adaptations of sign language for iJy_ He grew up in the world of the­ Thirty years ago, in 1966, at the time the stage. We began to envision the atre and has performed aU his life for deaf and hearing audiences David Hays and I were discussing the possibility ofestablishing an exchange around the globe. He attended the possibility of a National Theatre of the program for the actors. Many Deaf New York School for the Deaf; is a Deaf (NTD), he brought up the idea of people from different parts of the world Gallaudet graduate and holds a taking our yet-to-be-founded theatre to attending that conference were master's degree in special educa­ Europe to partIcIpate in the inspired by the Russian and American tion with a minor in drama from International Theatre Festival to be groups to establish their own theatre San Francisco State University. He held in Warsaw in 1967. This took companies when they returned home taught at the California School for place many months before the National to their respective countries. The 1969 the Deaf in Berkeley for a number Theatre of the Deaf was established, CISS-sponsored games in Belgrade of years. even before we knew whether or not proved to be a catalyst for the estab­ After studying with world­ we would be successful in obtaining a lishment of deaf theatres around the renowned mime, Marcel Marceau, grant from the U.S. government. "Why world. in Paris, Bragg went on to help es­ Europe?" I asked. David replied, "We tablish the National Theatre of the can get reviews and some renown to Today, three decades later, we can say Deaf (NTD), and then for ten years bring back here." But that idea was put with pride that the NTD has undoubt­ was their leading actor, administra­ aside the moment we received an offer edly played a vital role in inspiring a tor and sign master. He was an Artist-in-Residence at the Moscow from NBC around the same time to number of Deaf people to establish Theatre of Sign and Mime and at tape an hour-long TV show, which we Deaf theatre companies in their own Gallaudet University. hoped would be a more immediate way countries, including a number of the­ to gain some recognition with the atre companies in the United States. Bragg co-wrote and directed the American public. That was in early Some of them have turned professional play, ''Tales from a Clubroom." He holds an honorary doctorate in hu­ March, 1966, two months before we and some semi-professional, although mane letters (LHD) from Gallaudet were awarded the grant from the U.S. there are still a number of Deaf the­ University. Among the highest hon­ government. atres around the world that maintain a ors ever awarded to Bragg was the non-professional status. Most of them International Medal Award pre­ Later, in 1969, we were able to make survive, in spite of lack of financial sented by the World Federation of our European debut in Belgrade, support and training or inadequate the Deaf in 1975. Yugoslavia, at the World Games for the public interest. His autobiography, Lessons in Deaf (WGD) with our, by now, solidly Laughter, was published in 1989 funded NTD company. The Moscow Let me now take you on a tour to a and his newest book, Meeting Theatre of Mimicry and Gesture number of countries to see a bit of his­ Halfway in American Sign Lan­ appeared there, too, with its colorful tory behind some ofthe Deaf theatres. I guage, co-authored with Jack R. repertoire. Their company was four will mention only the ones I am most Olson, was published in 1993. years older than ours, and both of us familiar with, having worked with them were the first and only professional over the years as a guest actor, teacher,

A Deaf American Monograph, 1996 17 workshop leader, or consultant. In addition to those men­ Sweden Thanks to government and public support, as tioned, numerous other active theatre groups exist. well as interest on the part of Deaf people, the touring the­ atre company, "Tyst Teater" (Silent Theatre), initially Moscow The Soviet Deaf Theatre Company, both resident launched under the strong leadership of Gunilla and touring, was subsidized by the government for many Wagstrom-Lindquist, has thrived over twenty-five years years beginning in 1964 and it had its own school, theatre, with a cast of four actors. In 1993, I was invited to teach designers, stagehands and carpenters. It employed and four deaf Swedish student actors at the Stockholm trained over fifty professional actors on a full-time basis. Academy of Dramatic Arts while we were doing a script Most of the plays they produced were adaptations of clas­ reading of Strindberg's Miss Julie. After three and a half sics, contemporary dramas and comedies. So what hap­ years of study and internship, two of those students are pened to this theatre after the fall of communism? Sadly, now performing in hearing theatre companies. Gunilla the theatre has been reduced to a smaller one and has had Wagstrom-Lindquist now produces a monthly TV show, to become self-supporting, which is a constant struggle. currently in its fifth year which is still very popular not The commitment of the Deaf Russian actors is commend­ only with Deaf viewers but also with hearing people all able. The leader of this group, Michael Slipchenko, was over the country. This goes to prove that public interest once invited to the NTD as an exchange actor assuming plays an indispensable role in helping to keep any theatre, my role as the father in Dybbuk. The best thing about the hearing or deaf, alive and strong. exchange program co-sponsored by both the Russian and American theatres was that it brought theatre people Australia The NTD toured twice in Australia. The first together even in the days of Cold War. Art conquers! time was in 1975. On that tour, we conducted a number of drama workshops and met several inspired Deaf Great Britain This country once had its own profes- , Australians who expressed interest in turning their theatre sional theatre company called the British Theatre of the club into a professional theatre company. Happily, they Deaf, thanks to its founder, Pat Keysell, who had previ­ succeeded in doing so after intermittently attending the ously observed the NTD summer school and toured one NTD's professional theatre school. The Australian whole season with the company. Inspired by what she had Theatre of the Deaf (ATOD) is now thriving, thanks to the learned from her association with NTD, Pat moved on to financial backing of their government and to the strong secure financial support from her government and emu­ leadership of the native American, Mike Canfield. He lated NTD's performance style of integrating speaking attended the NTD's professional summer school in 1986 actors with signing actors on stage. Although she is and then joined the ATOD as an actor in 1989 and after­ hearing, she has a deep understanding of the theatrical use ward became the present artistic director of the company. of British Sign Language. Unfortunately, her theatre One ofthe former NTD actors, Carol-lee Aquiline, was the lasted only three years and folded when she left. She was first Deaf artistic director of the ATOD from 1988 to 1992. simply exhausted. Shortly afterwards, another theatre Worthy of note is that the Board of the World Federation company was established by a Deaf actor who studied of the Deaf has recently appointed Ms. Aquiline as under our NTD professional school, but again his com­ General Secretary of the Federation. pany was disbanded after a couple of years, due to insuf­ ficient public interest and a lack ofDeaf actors who would France Three DeafAmerican actors, former members of be willing to commit themselves to full-time involvement the NTD (Alfredo Corrado, Julianna Fjeld and Joe in theatre. It is obvious that professional theatre compa­ Castronovo) were involved in establishing what they nies cannot survive without dedicated leaders. However, hoped would become an international theatre, but it ended in 1992, a unique project called DeafForum Theatre was up as a solely French theatre retaining the misnomer which established by John Wilson, profoundly Deaf from birth, reflected the original concept-International Visual who has been active in the dramatic arts, with a number of Theatre (IVT). This theatre has enjoyed nearly two credits both as actor and director. This theatre is unusual decades of existence under the stewardship of Alfredo in that it encourages audiences to participate in the evolu­ Corrado and has been continuously subsidized by the tion of the drama presented to them, by helping to resolve French government. The IVT has produced a number of the problems faced by characters in the performance. Itis original works related to Deaf culture and is quite creative interesting to note that the late Dorothy Miles, a former and ambitious. Most recently, several Deaf members of NTD member, was involved in teaching a series of creative the IVT appeared in a full-length movie called In the Land signing workshops which focused on the art of using BSL ofthe Deaf, which has been widely acclaimed both in this in performance. It was her last contribution to the public country and abroad. Incidentally, there is a popular TV awareness of the potential of BSL as a medium of artistic talk show in France, produced by Marie-Theresa Abbou. expression. The first Deaf artistic director of the IVT, Chandal Liennel

18 Deafness: Historical Perspectives and three of her actors attended the 1995 National and Last April I was invited to Germany as a consulting Worldwide Deaf Theatres Conference, observing how new director to the Berlin theatre and I shared with that group American works were being developed. various ideas of how to move on stage more naturally while keeping their lips (as well as their hands) completely Spain Interestingly, Madrid seems to be the only city that visible to Deaf audience members. Itis interesting to note I know of that has five nearby Deaf community theatres. that the Berlin theatre specializes in adapted classics, They compete every other year for representation in whereas the Hamburg theatre does plays related to Deaf European Deaf theatre festivals, which are quite popular culture. The Berlin group has decided, however, to pro­ among Deaf people on this continent. In 1984, I conducted duce a new work entitled "On the Eve of the Golden a week-long workshop attended by two or three actors Wedding Anniversary," and I collaborated with them on from each of the five community theatres. This workshop developing this one-act play. It includes German Deaf cul­ focused on development of children's theatre for the pur­ ture, humor, language and their unique history living under pose of exposing oral deaf children to the power and beauty the Nazis (sterilization, persecution of Deaf people, col­ of sign language. lective guilt, etc.)

Finland There are a number of community theatres in the Hong Kong One of the NTD's former students from country whose work has finally been brought to the atten­ Hong Kong, Samuel Chen, has long been involved in per­ tion of their Ministry of Culture, resulting in the establish­ forming amateur theatre for Deaf audiences. He is now ment of a grant subsidy for a full-year theatre program very interested in obtaining assistance in gaining profes­ designed for adult Deaf people interested in pursuing sional status for his newly established group which would careers in theatre. perform for both Deaf and hearing audiences. The World Federation of the Deaf contacted me recently about the Italy Thanks to the financial support by the best known possibility of having me work with the Hong Kong Theatre hearing professional theatre school in Palermo, Sicily, the of the Deaf in the near future, depending on what happens semi-professional theatre of the Deaf has been able to stay when China takes over the British colony in 1997. alive and active for about ten years. Although it has not yet reached a fully professional status, this small group, under Japan NTD' s influence on Japanese Deaf theatre is indis­ the stewardship of its artistic director, Rosaria Giuranna, putable. A number of Japanese students have attended the has continued to participate in numerous Deaf theatre fes­ NTD professional theatre school in the past fifteen years. tivals in different parts of Europe and recently toured in David Hays and Linda Bove appeared on nationwide TV Japan. in Japan in 1978. The Japanese Theatre ofthe Deaf estab­ lished in Tokyo in mid-'80s is struggling to develop the Germany There are two equally popular professional the­ concept of professional theatre as a career choice for Deaf atre companies in this country whose respective artistic people. Amateur Deaf theatre groups already exist in a directors are both Deaf. One of the theatres is based in number ofJapanese cities and my May 1996 performances Hamburg and is under the direction ofPeter Schick, and the in these cities followed by autograph sessions for my auto­ other, under the direction of Thomas Zander, is located in biography Lessons in Laughter (which has recently been Berlin. The Berlin theatre follows the German language translated into Japanese) will hopefully influence more rather closely, whereas the Hamburg theatre follows the young Japanese to see a career in theatre as a viable option. syntax and grammar of the natural sign language of Deaf Germans. The actors of both companies always include China A hearing advocate of Deaf theatre and two of his silent mouthing while signing. (My term for this kind of student actors attended the NTD's professional theatre expression is "lipsynching"). This stems from the fact that school about five years ago. Their progress in estab­ nearly all of Europe is very oral and that deaf people are lishing a theatre in their country was halted by the still primarily taught orally in the classroom. When they untimely death of its founder, Wang Zhen-Tai. However, later learn sign language by socializing with adult Deaf the founder's son, Wang Ling, himself hearing, has people, the language which results is a combination of recently taken the responsibility of carrying on his signs and lip movements. Signing accompanied by lip­ father's aspiration. synching is thus the standard in most Deaf German com­ munities and has therefore become the language of the After this brief overview of the status of Deaf theatre com­ stage used by both German Deaf theatre groups. In the panies in a number ofcountries, let me now mention a few United States, we have a similar phenomenon. A lot ofdeaf salient things that we Deaf actors have learned from inter­ Americans mouth words or lipsynch them while signing in acting with each other through exchange programs, exper­ ASL, although not as much when performing onstage. imental workshops, and theatre festivals (Belgrade in

A DeafAmerican Monograph, 1996 19 1969, WFD in Washington, D.C. in 1975, and DeafWay in • There is a signed art form, termed Visual Vernacular Washington, D.C. in 1985, to mention a few): (VV) which has universal appeal to Deaf performers and audiences alike for its use of cinematic tech­ • Special approaches have to be found which address niques. VV does not involve words and signs but the adaptation of standard theatrical techniques to rather makes use ofclose-up views, the long shot, the the requirement ofbelievability in signed theatre: An panoramic view, zooming, slow motion, fast motion example of this occurred when I was invited to cross-cuts and cutaway views -all natural move­ Moscow as an artist-in-residence playing the role of ments ofthe human body. Itis close to our hearts, and Hermes in Prometheus Bound with the complete Deaf actors with whom I have shared these tech­ Russian cast. During one of the rehearsals of the niques in my workshops are creative at expressing play, I found it difficult to interact with the Russian themselves in vv. actor who played the title role because he kept In closing, where do we go from here? The almost three looking steadily in the direction of the audience, decades since the first rendezvous between the NTD and instead of looking at me when I confronted him. the Moscow Theatre in Belgrade quite a short span of time After a couple ofattempts to convince him how nec­ when viewed within the context of the history of civiliza­ essary it was to keep eye contact, I nearly gave up. tion. A number of Deaf theatres around the world have Finally, our director persuaded him to try to look grown slowly and steadily toward full maturity, struggling directly at me, instead oflooking away from me as if to overcome amateurism. By exposing their work to he were a hearing person, i.e., as ifhe were listening others as well as being exposed to others' work, theatre to my signing with his ears. The Russian actor agreed people of the Deaf world are thus able to see where they to give it a try, and facing me for the first time, we stand and how they can improve their theatres. They both became even more ferocious and our altercation zigzag between original and adapted works, at times inter­ was terrifically heated. When we finished that scene, polating Deaf culture into classics or contemporary plays. we were emotionally drained and all of the actors Most Deaf theatres perform exclusively for Deaf audi­ and crew in the audience gave us a standing ovation, ences, but in a few countries, they promote their theatres much to our delight. to the hearing public as well. That is not to say that the • Sign languages of the world are as disparate as Deaf theatres in these countries aim to bring about social spoken languages, yet there are a large number of change. Presenting Deaf theatre as an art form is their pri­ common universals in sign languages, which mary intent, although it may playa secondary critical part explains why we Deaf people of the world are in helping to enhance the image of Deaf people. Through quickly able to communicate thoughts and ideas their dedication, Deaf theatre groups around the world with Deaf people from other countries. In my exper­ have made significant and impressive contributions not imental workshopattheDeafWay '89, we made this only to their own Deaf communities but also to the general discovery by analyzing how five pairs ofDeaf actors cultural life of the societies in which they live. from different parts ofthe world expressed the same story to their partners in their own respective sign Information for Readers languages. We found that a certain number of uni­ versals are an integral part of all sign languages. You may be interested in knowing that a book is now being co-written by myself and Dr. Pat Scherer, director • A variety of approaches to the complex task of of the Center on Deafness in Chicago. It is a handbook for translating spoken dialogue for Deaf theatre or sign those who are interested in Deaf theatre or sign language language theatre needs to be found. Translation from theatre, and it includes such aspects as written texts into artistic or theatrical signing is an important component of the work ofevery Deaf the­ 1) the use of interpreters, readers or speaking actors; atre. To do this successfully, each theatre company has to develop skills at using "sign play" and "sign­ 2) the integration ofdeaf, hard of hearing and hearing actors, directors and producers; smithing," learning to express clearly the meaning of written texts in its national sign language. At the 3) various performance styles; same time, each theatre group has to determine 4) discussion ofthe merits ofusing an infrared system or cap­ when it is appropriate for artistic purposes to take tioning; poetic license in transforming the imagery ofwritten 5) language for the stage. There are plans to translate the words into a medium which captures the mind and book into foreign languages for those involved in this soul through the eye. kind of theatre around the world.

20 Deafness: Historical Perspectives