Deaf Side Story: Deaf Sharks, Hearing Jets, and a Classic American Musical

Epilogue

distracting, how to present herself. Her tendency to look not at the action onstage, but at the ground, might never have been caught and quashed without Phil’s intervention. The process has been a revelation, a vocabulary builder, a lesson in pedagogy, and culture shock—all in all, exactly what she wants out of her future interpreting career. It is a career that already threatens to lead her back to theater; at Diane’s behest, Phil and Andi already have plans to reunite for Mac’s fall production of Antigone. This gives Andi six months to devise and exact on Phil a suitably Sophoclean revenge. The next morning, at Centenary Methodist Church, a friend approaches Terri Benz, and before Terri can say so much as, “Good morning,” the friend exclaims, “I have not stopped thinking about West Side Story all night. Now I understand why you couldn’t describe it!” Sunday, April 9 The one and only matinee. Daylight leaks in around the doors, also through the grille of a return duct from the cooling system. The lobby area around the natatorium is appallingly loud. Somehow , everyone summons the energy to overcome the new schedule . Dane, who never made it to bed since leaving work, stumbles through the performance, but avoids accidentally singing, as he did one night during rehearsals when the lines of “Officer Krupke ” escaped him, about his sister’s gross anatomy. Hollie Lovell, the student in charge of props, turns away a woman who shows up just after the house has closed. Diane has assigned a house manager for every show to guard against late entrants or other disturbances, and at this performance, Hollie has drawn the shortest straw. The woman, who has two small children with her, one barely a toddler, is not the first to show up late and be denied both her ticket and a seat, but she is the first to become angry. Her complaints can easily be heard by those sit200 Deaf Side Story ting nearest the door—at least, by those with hearing—and she refuses, for some time, to take no for an answer. Hollie, who looks as sweet as apple pie, doesn’t give an inch, and eventually the woman retreats, towing her five-year-old daughter along by her wrist. Her parting shot: “My daughter is deaf and she has a right to see this show!” Wednesday, April 12 The most remarkable show of all. ISD’s deaf high schoolers and a number of ISD faculty and dorm parents comprise virtually the entire audience. The Sharks respond with by far their best—and raunchiest—performance. All the original lines remain intact, but tonight they are peppered with secret signs, epithets, sexual innuendo, and flagrant swearing sign-style. The in-the-know audience can’t believe they’re seeing their own local cant, in all its crude and blatant glory, displayed in public. By the time the show is over, the audience has taken to actively booing the Jets and cheering the Sharks. Richard Fee maintains that this was the night the ISD actors finally came alive, that this was the first time they became full partners and found themselves on equal footing with their hearing compatriots. In general, he feels that the Sharks were handcuffed by the script, in particular in Schrank’s presence, since their chief response in the face of adult authority is nonresponse. Finally, with a deaf audience capable of interpreting their every gesture, the deaf actors could respond. And respond they did. More than one adult audience member—aware of the local dialects through contact with or proximity to ISD— leaves the theater both moved and appalled. “I can’t believe they did that,” one (hearing) woman says. She does not specify a scene or a sign, but she leaves us with the power of imagination: “That was disgusting!” Paula Chance corners Christopher after the show and peppers him with questions, compliments, and a few wistful Finale 201 complaints. She loves the set—“Nice props!”—but wishes the music had been louder, preferably amplified. Why didn’t Diane use drums? She wanted to feel the beat in the same way that she felt the soundtrack from the movie, a score that she describes as “more rock and roll,” but then shrugs whimsically and says, “Of course, I don’t have any idea of what that really means.” Because she couldn’t feel...