But What Happened to Live Deaf Performance?
Live theatre experiments have also found a place in the community in this COVID world. In my position as a director and principal lecturer for the Performing Arts department at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), I directed Dial M for Murder in spring 2020, NTID’s last live performance before going completely online with classes and events. During this production, new stage technology in digital imaging was used to create the setting, which was projected on a video wall. With it, the old concept of a static backdrop advanced to one where the sun could rise and fall, rain and thunder appeared real, and fireplaces had the appearance of actual flames. Another technological enhancement included cutting-edge closed-captioning technology using smartglasses developed by Vuzix Corp. Little did we know that those innovations would help expand the opportunities for doing performance when COVID restrictions were in full swing.
Last fall, NTID switched our chosen season and moved to a creative approach to a production of Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters, which seemed ideal for physical distancing since it is made up of monologues. We began with the goal of performing parts of the show live, on stage, with projected video images, but by opening night, due to evolving COVID guidelines, it was clear we would be fully online. In this production, all of the characters were played by two actors, one performing in ASL and one performing in spoken word: the Deaf actors portrayed their characters as if they were from 1918 and living through the Spanish Flu epidemic, while the hearing actor portrayed their characters as modern and influenced by our current situation. Finding acting partners from both cultures that could match the timing and subtext of each monologue caused us to broaden our talent pool to nationwide. Wanting both actors to appear on stage together led to us using green-screen technology and a broadening of the digital imagery we had toyed with in Dial M. We may have started with the basic Zoom technology of altering backgrounds, but by the time we were into production Deaf team members had lifted technology from basic Photoshop uses into backgrounds that were interactive.
So we continued. Not in a typical structured, mainstream, hearing approach but in a Deaf-structured format, being innovative and improvising with the technology.
Because we had to shift the production to being fully online, all of the actors needed to work in video format. This had the potential to be rather daunting, as the Deaf actor might physically be in Rochester, New York while their hearing partner might be in Hawaii. Combining these two video performances into a single video clip, which showed the signing 1918 character at the same time as the modern-day speaking actor, was challenging. Since we began by hoping to have some live component to the production, half the cast was on the RIT campus. The Deaf actors who were not on campus used some of the more creative technologies, including video clips with homemade green screens (painted walls or plastic green table cloths from party stores), shot on iPhones, Androids, or proper video cameras, and the use of multiple sharing platforms.
With Spoon River, we learned how to work with the technology on the fly, as we created the show. When we questioned if we should continue (a refrain echoed by my hearing professional friends as they were making their own pandemic theatre productions), the Deaf artists always pushed for trying a different way, saying, “Whatever this turns into will be something worth seeing.” So we continued. Not in a typical structured, mainstream, hearing approach but in a Deaf-structured format, being innovative and improvising with the technology.
Adjusting Live Performance to a Physically Distanced Platform
Deaf theatre companies are adapting and trying new things similar to how many other theatre companies are trying new things in a bid to adapt to the pandemic’s realities. One example is New York Deaf Theatre, which has moved its improvisational performances, fundraising events, and cabaret-style performances to video, YouTube, and TikTok. IRT, also a small New York City–based company that often produces Deaf/hearing theatre projects, debuted its recent avant-garde performance Yovo, performed in Spanish and ASL, and allowed the public access to the videotaped document of the live performance; the video presentation added a livestreamed Zoom panel of the actors and creators discussing the process. IRT also created a production called, Please UNtranslate Me, written by Deaf playwright Monique Holt, which was developed, rehearsed, and presented via Zoom and Vimeo. This production stood out for its expression of direct communication from Deaf artists using the technological benefits of captioning without needing hearing interpreters to assist with access.
A third very notable Deaf company adapting to online performance is Deaf Broadway, started by Garrett Zuercher, which uses the editing technology, meant for TV, that adds in the small image of an ASL interpreter in a frame within a frame during the news (as many people have seen in New York State Governor Cuomo’s COVID reports). Deaf Broadway shows videotaped Broadway productions side by side with Deaf actors signing the roles in real time.
Malik C. Paris, a professional stage and film actor who worked on Spoon River and with Deaf Broadway, feels each project offered something different: Spoon River being a hybrid of Deaf and hearing artists, as well as a mix of live stage work edited with green screen, structured and designed as live theatre, while Deaf Broadway was a purely virtual theatrical project and a fully Deaf experience. Paris finds the process of creating a recorded performance comfortable: “In all of the projects I have done, I see the Deaf actors often jump in with our own backgrounds, costumes, and improvisation,” he says. “Either way, artistically, the focus can be on the work itself in the way that Deaf storytelling and theatre seemed to have the freedom to grow in the days of Deaf social clubs, without the worry of physical logistics like housing and travel.”
For fresh ideas on how we can all connect and create theatre in this newly isolating world, let’s turn to the Deaf theatrical community. Their approach to the work, style of leadership, and ability to create using ASL foundational structures are the hallmarks of a community that has always risen above and found community against all odds. As we approach the next level of theatrical innovation with perhaps more theatres opening or new ideas for live performance developing, let’s keep an awareness and an eye on what the Deaf theatrical community is bringing to the table.
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I loved reading this. Thank you, Luane. Wonderful.