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The National Theatre of the Deaf Artistic Freedom & Cultural Responsibility in the Use of American Sign Language shannon bradford The simultaneous presentation of theatrical works in English and American Sign Language (ASL), known as sign language theater or theater of the deaf, has been evolving in the United States since d/Deaf theatrical activity began at Gallaudet College in the late 1800s (Tadie 153). The Connecticut -based National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD), logging over seven thousand performances in national and international tours since its formation in 1967, not only stands as the world’s most recognized theater of the deaf, but also retains the credit for popularizing this bilingual form, especially among hearing theatergoers who make up an overwhelming 90 percent of NTD’s audiences (NTD News 1997–98; Tadie 107). This appeal is likely due to NTD’s unusual performance style and choice of mainstream material (producing adaptations of works such as Treasure Island, Through the Looking Glass, Hamlet, Under Milkwood, and more recently An Italian Straw Hat and Peer Gynt). Since NTD plays primarily for hearing nonsigners, what do the company ’s performance conventions communicate to the hearing about sign language and about d/Deaf people? While NTD promotes d/Deaf awareness through its educational programming (known as Little Theatre of the 86 Deaf), the company’s touring fare of mainstream plays and literary adaptations is not designed to educate the public about the medical condition of deafness (de‹ned as having no functional hearing) or about Deaf culture (de‹ned as the group that chooses to be bound together by a particular sign language, social customs, and worldview). Instead, NTD strives to produce theater that “passes, without condescension the most exacting tests of the commercial theatre world” (Hays 590). NTD eschews labels like Deaf theater or disabled company, preferring to identify itself as a “visually stunning ” language theater (An Italian Straw Hat program). I will argue that despite NTD’s intent, its style inadvertently encourages the con›ation of ASL and English, sometimes resulting in a belief that English subsumes ASL altogether. Further, I contend that the vast majority of NTD’s mainstage works present nonhearing people as neither medically deaf nor culturally Deaf. Such abstinence from treating d/Deaf identity has potentially profound implications for d/Deaf individuals and for the Deaf culture as a whole. Although the d/Deaf are frequently de‹ned from the outside as lacking or “handicapped,” they reject the sense of lack implied by the medical notion of deafness, instead seeing Deafness as social and political (Davis xiv). They believe “that their culture, language, and community constitute them as a totally adequate, self-enclosed, and self-de‹ning subnationality within the larger structure of the audist state” (Davis xiv). “Audist” is employed here as racist or sexist would be, and denotes a bias toward auditory communication. If ASL is not understood to be an independent language, then it remains positioned as a subcategory of English, a sort of Braille for the deaf. And by extension, such a misperception invalidates the fundamental tenet of Deaf culture—its language, the hub around which Deaf culture operates, develops , and thrives. My purpose is not to denounce sign language theater or this particular company, whose work has bene‹ted both the d/Deaf and the hearing in several ways, including increasing the mainstream’s exposure to d/Deaf people, generating rare professional opportunities for d/Deaf artists, making classic literature accessible to d/Deaf communities through performance , and encouraging theatrical activity in numerous d/Deaf cultures around the globe. Rather, as a hearing signer with ten years of experience as a researcher and an occasional practitioner of sign language theater, I believe that the conventions that have made NTD successful have potential resonances that have not been examined fully. I will outline these resonances , drawing examples from two of the company’s mainstage offerings: An Italian Straw Hat, performed for the 1995–96 and 1996–97 seasons; and NTD’s thirtieth-anniversary tour of Peer Gynt in 1997–98. When attending an NTD production, hearing spectators can expect to The National Theatre of the Deaf 87 see d/Deaf performers enact the main roles of the play in American Sign Language, while hearing actors, costumed as minor characters and frequently located on the periphery of the action, voice the lines for the main characters with timing and emotionality that seems to match the signing. A hearing, voicing actor faces the unusual demand of playing...

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